What is Rigor? FREEBIE DOK Posters!

Everyone is talking about RIGOR.  The Common Core Standards call for a more rigorous curriculum, instructon and assessment.  Rigor is the kind and level of thinking required of students to successfully engage with and solve a task.  Rigor is not about difficulty, it's about complexity of understanding. 

What does rigor look like in a classroom?  Two widely accepted measures of cognitive rigor are Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge Levels.  Bloom's Taxonomy focuses on the verbs and indicate the level of performance or the level of higher-level questions.   Depth of Knowledge focuses of complexity of content standards to successfully complete an assessment or a task.  When you unpack the standards, first look at the verb and align it with Bloom's levels for the level of performance.  Then look beyond the verb to determine the level of understanding required to meet the standard.  

Karen Hess created a Cognitive Rigor Matrix that integrates Bloom's Taxonomy with Webb's Depth of Knowledge for analyzing teacher lesson planning and assessments.  In my district, we have been "mapping" out the learning events in our UbD units to ensure a balance of lessons and assessments across all levels from simple to complex.  Teachers are seeing that they can "tweak" some of their lessons and assessments to make them more rigorous.  For example, 

DOK 1 Describe three characteristics of metamorphic rocks.

DOK 2 Describe the difference between metamorphic and igneous rocks.

DOK 3 Describe a model you might use to represent the relationships that exist in the rock cycle  

All three tasks begin with the word describe but each task is at a different depth of knowledge.  Check out what comes after the verb!  What comes after the verb is more important than the verb itself.  

Karen Hess has a Cognitive Rigor Matrix for ELA, Math/Science, Social Studies and the Arts. and they can easily be found on the internet.  You can also find beautiful Bloom's Taxonomy posters for the elementary grades from Wake County Public School System.  

Grab my free Depth of Knowledge DOK flipchart on TPT:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/DOK-Depth-of-Knowledge-in-the-Content-Areas-455359

I am also attaching Depth of Knowledge DOK posters that I created today.

Enjoy!

Let's Talk Math! - FREEBIE Math Talk Posters

As we all begin to implement the Common Core Standards, it is important to explore the role of discourse in these standards and in our classrooms.  The Common Core Math Standards for mathematics are based on five processes: communication, reasoning and proof, problem solving, representation and connections. 

Students demonstrate their understanding by being able to explain, justify and apply.  Math talk actually helps students become problem solvers by focusing on getting students to talk and communicate in groups.  

Rich math discussions are key elements in mathematical development.  The two pathways for creating and using new knowledge are when students talk about mathematical concepts and strategies or when students listen to other people's ideas during discourse. 

In order to build a community of mathematical thinkers, we need to teach the following skills to our students:

1. How to explain your thinking

2. How to be an active listener

3. How to have a conversation

4. How to be supportive of your fellow mathematicians

GRAB THESE MATH TALK POSTERS

Making Thinking Visible: SEE-THINK-WONDER

Ponder this quote from Ron Ritchart and David Perkins and Project Zero at Harvard ...

"For classrooms to be cultures of thinking for students, 

schools must be cultures of thinking for teachers."

With that in mind, I am going to start a Culture of Thinking project in the district where I coach.  I plan to introduce one routine at each grade level at each school and have the teachers pass it forward to their grade level colleagues.  I also plan to post videos of the lessons that I model on the district website along with resources for all the teachers.  With the introduction of each new routine, I will choose different teachers at each grade level.  

Visible Thinking routines are instructional strategies developed to help teachers provide opportunities for students to generate deeper thinking and understanding throughout their learning.  Each time a routine is completed, teachers should look at the thinking of their students with these three ideas in mind:

What do you notice?

What surprises you?

Where will you go next?  

A tool for looking closely at student work and reflect on thinking is to search 

for evidence of thinking moves.  

Click here for a Thinking Moves poster.  

I also plan to create Thinking Moves posters for display in each classroom.  As teachers making students thinking visible, I also want students to have a common language for their thinking moves.  

The first routine I'm going to introduce is SEE-THINK-WONDER.

What do you SEE?

What does it make you THINK?

What do you WONDER?

This a very easy tool for students of all ages and is most useful for looking at and reflecting on a variety of visual artifacts such as YouTube and other clips, cartoons or an individual or series of images.  It encourages students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations.  It helps stimulate curiosity and sets the stage for inquiry.  

FREEBIE! Daily 5 Posters

On a recent school improvement day, I was working with a group of kindergarten teachers on centers.  I suggested using the Daily 5 for the ELA centers.  We created a number of centers for each element of the Daily 5.  All of the centers aligned beautifully with the Common Core Standards for kindergarten.  

I loved the I Spy Bags, the Sand Writing and the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 

story mat at mrsriccakindergarten.blogspot.com  

I also fell in love with the amazing Retelling Prop ideas at 

www.kindergartenworks.com/filing-cabinet/never-ending-story/

FREEBIE! I created Daily 5 Posters in Spanish or English using clipart 

from Scrappin Doodles.

Click on the version you want - Spanish or English.

Daily 5 Posters in Spanish or English

FREEBIE Daily Planner!

             How do you like this Daily Planner?   

     This Daily Planner is FREE to anyone who becomes a follower!

I decided to design my own planner for the upcoming school year 2013-14 from August to July.  On the left is a NOTES page and on the right is the CALENDAR for the month.  If you'd like your own copy, become a follower by email and I will customize the cover with your name and email it to you.  

Take a look at the daybed we made out of a king-size headboard and footboard.  You would think I have nothing else to do!

Strengthening Bridges Between Languages

I recently facilitated a School Improvement Day for a friend that’s a principal of a K-6 building with gen ed, dual language and gifted classes.  I presented on the CCSS shifts for ELA.  When we were planning for the SIP day, my friend suggested that I use some of the research from Karen Beeman and Cheryl Urow’s book titled, Teaching for Biliteracy Strengthening Bridges between Languages.  Of course I needed another book!  This is a very comprehensive and practical guide with strategies for building bridges to biliteracy and the bridge from theory to practice.  This would be an excellent text to read and discuss because of the diversity in our classrooms. 

In my research I found this                                  

amazing site of the week!

http://www.mentormob.com/learn/i/spanish-english-cognates/

12-spanish-cognates-rules

    

The mentor mob from the UK listed the 12 rules for Spanish cognates along with examples.   Spanish cognates are words from two languages that are the same or similar. What intrigued me was this quote, “As English borrows many words from Latin there are many Spanish-English cognates. By learning a few set rules you will have an instant Spanish vocabulary of thousands of words.”  I just created a powerpoint using their material.  This presentation includes each of the rules by themselves followed by the second slide that includes the rule and the examples that I found on the Mentor Mob’s site.  I thought the ‘rule’ slides could be posted and the powerpoint could be used for instruction. It would make a great ongoing activity for students to add new words that they find onto the charts.  You can get the Spanish Cognate powerpoint here.  

QAR for the Primary Grades

We all know that the easiest way to increase student achievement is to improve instruction and questioning is the most powerful tool in our teaching repertoire.  The CCSS rely heavily on text-based evidence and higher-level thinking.  Questioning really builds the bridge between literal and inferential understanding and content knowledge.  

Recently, I read something about questioning that is based on Costa' work:

Well-structured questions include three parts: an invitation to think, a cognitive process and a specific topic.  “The order of the three parts may vary, but all three are necessary to formulate an effective question to promote thinking.”  This strategy is based on the work of Costa and the “Three Story Intellect.”  It is a very simple yet profound strategy for questioning.  How simple is that!

1. an invitation to think       "Penny, 

2. a cognitive process         can you explain in your own words

3. a specific topic               how you solved this problem?"

Here's a photo of a product I just posted on Teachers Pay Teachers on QAR for the Primary Grades.  

Right There Questions are in your hand questions - Students look closely with a magnifying glass for Think and Search Questions - Author and Me require thinking and On My Own come from the heart