Supporting+Underprepared+Students+with+Rigor

Dr. Robyn Jackson (mindstepsinc.com) gave a session on Supporting Underprepared Students with rigor. She provided a model that I thought was clear / concise and easy to apply as a teacher. First she defined "underprepared" as students missing prerequisite skills or knowledge to promote understanding. She also defined "rigor" as the promotion of understanding (application of knowledge and skills to multiple contexts / unpredictable situations). She then explained a four stage model for promoting rigor in the classroom as defined below.

1- Acquisition The explicit acquisition of skills to promote learning like note taking, studying, doing homework, and reading a textbook.

2- Application Individual thinking skills like cause/effect, compare/contrast, deduction, induction, abstraction, error analysis, and evaluation.

3- Assimilation Utilization of thinking skills across multiple contexts - decision making, problem solving, investigation, invention, experimentation

4- Adaptation Making these skills your own and automatic without prompting, ability to adapt to real world situations to deeper understanding of concepts.

The bumper sticker for the session would have read - It's not what they do but how they think!

Her full presentation is attached below. - SGB 8/5/2010