Rigor
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Many educators insist that academic rigor means strict adherence to learning standards, like those established in the Common Core. They all expect students to master high learning standards.
Real academic rigor, however, occurs when teachers create challenging lessons that help their students meet those high expectations. Rigor requires active engagement and critical thinking at deep levels.
Teachers must challenge students to question assumptions and make connections beyond the assignment and the classroom.
Academic rigor requires students to take critical thinking to new levels
Access: Academic Rigor – You’re Doing It Wrong and Here’s Why
Access: Cybrary Man's Page on Rigor
Dr. Karin Hess has over 40 years of deep experience in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Karin is a recognized international leader in developing practical approaches for using cognitive rigor and learning progressions as the foundation for formative, interim, and performance learning and assessment.
Access: Dr. Karin Hess
This matrix integrates Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) with Bloom's Cognitive Process Dimensions.
Access: Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix - Career and Technical Education CRM
This matrix integrates Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) with Bloom's Cognitive Process Dimensions.
This matrix integrates Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) with Bloom's Cognitive Process Dimensions.
Access: Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix - Health and Physical Education (CRM)
This matrix integrates Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) with Bloom's Cognitive Process Dimensions
Access: Hess - Cognitive Rigor Matrix - Math and Science CRM
This matrix integrates Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) with Bloom's Cognitive Process Dimensions.
This matrix integrates Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) with Bloom's Cognitive Process Dimensions.
Access: Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix - Social Studies and Humanities CRM
This matrix integrates Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) with Bloom's Cognitive Process Dimensions.
This matrix integrates Depth of Knowledge with Bloom's Cognitive Process Dimensions.
Access: Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix - Writing and Speaking CRM
This site features interviews by Barbara Blackburn with educators on rigor.
Visit Iowa ASCD's webpage on Dr. Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK).
Access: Iowa ASCD - Depth of Knowledsge
Visit Iowa ASCD's webpage on Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT)
This webinar was featured in September, 2021, featuring Dr. Karin Hess and sponsored by Mentoring Minds.
Rigor is complicated unless you talk to students. Students don’t view rigor as lower-order or higher-order thinking, knowledge, and skills. Often they see rigor as a process—a process of learning ideas, combining ideas to form bigger ideas, and applying those ideas.
Access: Rigor Redefined by Tony Wagner
The Rigor/Relevance Framework is a tool developed by the International Center to examine curriculum, instruction, and assessment along the two dimensions of higher standards and student achievement. It can be used in the development of both instruction and assessment. In addition, teachers can use it to monitor their own progress as they add rigor and relevance to their instruction, and to as they select appropriate instructional strategies for differentiating instruction and facilitating higher achievement goals.
Access: Rigor Relevance Framework
To help your students reach their full potential, you have to challenge them continually. When the activity or challenge forces them to work hard to complete it, then true learning can occur. Are you a teacher looking for opportunities to boost the rigor in your classroom?
Dr. Barbara R. Blackburn is the author of 14 books, including the bestsellers Rigor is NOT a Four-Letter Word and Rigor in Your School: A Toolkit for Leaders. She regularly presents professional development to schools and districts across the nation.
Access: Three Myths about Rigor: What It Is, What It Is Not, What It Looks Like in a Classroom