Category: Rigor

How to Boost Learning in the Non-Core Subjects

Every student deserves to be challenged in all areas of learning. Teaching coach Barbara Blackburn shows how rigor can enhance learning beyond the core content areas with examples from health, physical education, computer science, the performance arts and career technology.

Staying on Task with Meaningful Student Talk

To move beyond traditional classroom discussion focused on answering a few teacher questions, Dr. Barbara Blackburn advocates student-driven discourse that emphasizes “on-task” talk and academic vocabulary. The result: purposeful dialogue leading to deeper understanding.

Six Ways to Add Rigor by Deepening Thinking

What does it look like when your students are doing rigorous work and thinking deeply? Dr. Karin Hess discusses how content complexity, cognitive engagement, and the intended scope and depth of a learning activity can work together to scaffold and support deeper thinking.

Rigor Helps Kids with Special Needs Succeed

We may believe our students who are struggling – whether they have special needs, are English learners or are otherwise challenged – simply cannot learn at high levels. By exploring the meaning of educational “rigor,” Barbara Blackburn and Bradley Witzel show how they can.

How We Can Assure Rigor in Our Lessons

What does instructional rigor look like in the middle school classroom? Teaching consultant and bestselling author Barbara Blackburn offers examples of lessons that reach for the top of Bloom’s and DoK – in social studies, math, electives, the arts, English/ELA, and science.

Four Myths about Rigor in the Classroom

Rigor is more than what you teach. It’s how you teach and how students show you they understand. After dispelling widely held myths about rigor in the classroom, author Barbara Blackburn describes a standards-friendly environment that supports rigorous learning and student success.

Rigor Made Easy: 3 Ways to Go Deeper

Raising the level of rigor in your classroom does not have to be difficult or require a separate lesson, says author and learning consultant Barbara Blackburn. She lays out three engaging teaching strategies that can push students to higher levels of thinking.