Rigor is Not a Four Letter Word: Chapter 6: Open Your Focus

This chapter stresses the importance of opening our focus by creating a variety of learning experiences to enhance rigor in the classroom.

5 INSTRUCTIONAL WAYS TO OPEN FOCUS

1. Open-Ended Questioning
2. Open-Ended Vocabulary Instruction
3. Open Ended Projects
4. Open-Ended Choices for Students
5. Open-Ended from the Beginning

• Open-Ended Questioning: Promotes analytical thinking and teaches students to reflect on their own thinking.  Barbara R. Blackburn, author, provides a Questions Matrix which addresses all levels of questioning (see page 96).  This tool can help students learn content information; learn about their own learning abilities; and create their own questions.  Using this instructional tool can provide an opportunity to shift ownership of learning to the student, and students will learn how to craft their own high-level questions.
• Open-Ended Vocabulary Instruction:  Using poetry to challenge students to condense information and then use their own creativity to present it in a diferent format.  For example, Haikus, Fibonacci Sequence
• Open-Ended Projects:  The author discussed an activity that required students to take different perspectives and/or sides of an issue or situation.  Students can then discuss the different points of view and/or create sample comments from different perspectives. B.R. Blackburn provides a Sample Points of View grid for 6 topics (see pages 103, 104)
• Open-Ended Choices:

            -Let students choose how they demonstrate understanding of content

           - Provide a list of activities and encourage students to make a choice based on their preference

            -Design activities using a contract or Tic-Tac-Toe grid offering learning experiences targeting
              the multiple intelligences. (see page 108).

Open-Ended from the Beginning:  Start instruction by engaging students in problem solving principles, instead of presenting information followed by application.  Students will be more engaged and will experience a greater depth of understanding.