Rigor in the 6–12 ELA and Social Studies Classroom

A Teacher Toolkit

Barbara R. Blackburn, Melissa Miles

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351062046
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Learn how to incorporate rigorous activities in your English language arts or social studies classroom and help students reach higher levels of learning. Expert educators and consultants Barbara R. Blackburn and Melissa Miles offer a practical framework for understanding rigor and provide specialized examples for middle and high school ELA and social studies teachers. Topics covered include:

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• Creating a rigorous environment

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• High expectations

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• Support and scaffolding

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• Demonstration of learning

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• Assessing student progress

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• Collaborating with colleagues

The book comes with classroom-ready tools, offered in the book and as free eResources on our website at www.routledge.com/9781138480773.

1
Introduction

Rigor has been an area of increasing focus in education. However, when you talk with teachers and leaders, everyone seems to have a different understanding of what rigor means, especially what it looks like in the classroom. In this chapter, we’ll look at why rigor is important, the misconceptions related to rigor and a clear definition of rigor.

The Call for Rigor

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released its landmark report A Nation at Risk. It painted a clear picture: test scores were declining, lower standards resulted in American schools that were not competitive with schools from other countries and students were leaving high school ill-prepared for the demands of the workforce. “Our nation is at risk … The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.” More than 30 years later, similar criticisms are leveled at today’s schools.

New Calls for Rigor

Since A Nation at Risk was released, the call for more rigor has only increased. The Condition of College and Career Readiness (2011), a thorough report from the ACT, has reinforced the lack of preparedness by high school graduates for college and for the workforce. In 2010, the Common Core State Standards (www.corestandards.org) were created to increase the level of rigor in schools. Other recently revised state standards similarly reinforced the need. Rigor is at the center of these standards, and much of the push for new standards came from a concern about the lack of rigor in many schools today, as well as the need to prepare students for college and careers.

Despite these efforts, results indicate a further decline in the progress of American students compared to that of other nations. Rankings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study were released in December 2017. This assessment is given to fourth graders across the globe every five years. Our country’s ranking dropped from fifth in the world in 2011 to thirteenth in 2016—being surpassed by five countries, including one of the lowest socioeconomic countries in the European Union. Similarly, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an exam administered every three years to 15-year-old students in seventy-two countries. The 2015 results ranked American students twenty-fourth in reading, having made no statistically significant progress since the previous testing in 2012 (www.oecd.org/pisa/). According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the NAEP Reading Report Card from 2017 (released in April 2018), only 37% of our fourth graders are at or above a proficiency level in reading, which is very similar to eighth grade, where only 36% of students in public and private schools across the country are performing at a proficient level (www.nationsreportcard).

International/National Reading Results
Assessment	Ranking	Score Compared to Highest Score
PISA 2015	24 out of 72	497 compared to 535
PIRLS	15 out of 50	549 compared to 581
NAEP	37% of fourth-grade students scored at or above Proficient 36% of eighth-grade students scored at or above Proficient

Sources: www.oecd.org/pisa/; www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2017; https://nicspaull.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/p16-pirls-international-results-in-reading.pdf

It has become apparent that American educators must continue to improve the status of our educational system and the performance of our students. Critical, deliberate research and work on redesigning standards has taken place over the course of the last decade. This, in part, has caused a shift in the way standards are designed to include a concerted focus on rigor in each strand and task. In its Research Foundations: Empirical Foundations for College and Career Readiness publication (2014), the College Board acknowledges that “students who take more rigorous course work in high school are more likely to be ready for college and career … than students who take less rigorous course work.” Moreover, their research has shown that this rigorous instruction must allow students to gain deep understanding of well-chosen topics rather than a surface-level knowledge of numerous topics (https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/research-foundations-college-career-readiness.pdf). In response to research, our educational standards have become centered on essentials and contain focus and clarity for teachers and students. Most recently, the development of the College and Career Readiness standards (CCRs), raises our expectations of the skills American students should be able to master in order to thrive in postsecondary education and/or the workforce.

Key Shifts in the Standards

The Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) wanted to create a stronger link between adult education, postsecondary education and work. To do so, they evaluated the Common Core State Standards, which had been created based on a broad range of research and with wide input from stakeholders. Then they determined which of those essential skills were most relevant for post–high school plans. Finally, they shared the results in Promoting College and Career Ready Standards in Adult Basic Education. Let's look at three critical shifts that need to occur in schools in the areas of English/language arts and content literacy across the curriculum.

English/Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects
Texts Students Read and Questions for Writing and Speaking
Shift	Explanation
Complexity: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language	♦ Complexity of text that students are able to read is the greatest predictor of success in college and careers (ACT 2006). ♦ Current gap in complexity between secondary texts and college/career texts is roughly four grade levels (Williamson 2006).
Evidence: Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational	♦ National assessment data and input from college faculty indicate that command of evidence is a key college and career readiness skills. ♦ Focus is on students’ ability to read carefully and grasp information, arguments, ideas and details based on evidence in the text.
Knowledge: building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction	♦ Informational text makes up the vast majority of required reading in college and the workplace. ♦ Students need to be immersed in information about the world around them if they are to develop the strong general knowledge and vocabulary they need to become successful readers and be prepared for college, career, and life.

These shifts are critical for all students. A teacher Barbara spoke with said, “My students can’t even answer the questions. How am I supposed to ask them for evidence?” Requiring students to provide evidence for opinions and responses is a necessary skill that should start at the kindergarten level. It’s simple at any age; just ask, “How do you know?” Rather than accepting a surface-level response, challenge your students to “prove it.” If your sixth graders claim that Max Kane from Freak the Mighty is insecure, ask them what parts of the text led them to believe that. Similarly, when asking high school students to justify Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb, require them to cite evidence to solidify their opinion. The extra step requires students to think about motives, characterization, author’s craft, etc., which involves a much higher-level thought process occurring.

In the sample standards that follow, notice the shift from identification and knowledge of a concept to complex analysis and evaluation.

Sample from College Career Readiness Standards in English Language Arts

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9–10.3

Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9–10.4

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

Sample from NCTE/IRA Standards for the English Language Arts

1. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.
2. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

College, Career, and Civic Life

Social studies professionals were also concerned about the lack of rigor, so they developed the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. They used five guiding principles to ensure high-quality standards. Once again, you will notice the emphasis on high-level thinking, or rigor.

Guiding Principles

1. Social studies prepares the nation’s young people for college, careers and civic life.
2. Inquiry is at t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• eResources
• Meet the Authors
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Creating a Rigorous Environment
• 3 Expectations
• 4 Support and Scaffolding
• 5 Demonstration of Learning
• 6 Assessment
• 7 Collaborating to Improve Rigor
• Bibliography