Countless professional developments I’ve sat in over the past ten years, and after hundreds of hours of learning, not one educational consultant, presenter, principal, or peer has explained to me what the heck rigor is. No, I had to learn through the experience of teaching my middle schoolers. I had to learn what rigor in the ELA classroom was as I witnessed every ah ha moment and listened to every, “Ms. Carter, did you know…?” And although there are a million ways to skin a cat (…sorry feline lovers), there are certain aspects that every lesson must have in order to be considered rigorous. But one thing is for certain… rigor does not equal more.

Rigor is NOT more, Rigor is DIFFERENT

When I first began my journey as a teacher, I didn’t have guidance as I was thrown into teaching high performing students. So naturally, I just gave them more work. Instead of writing three body paragraphs, my students would write four. Instead of comparing and contrasting two characters, they would compare and contrast three. Not only were these low level expectations, they were far from what anyone would consider rigorous. But I simply did not know what the heck I was doing.

My students were overworked, overcommitted, and quite frankly, they were bored.

Oftentimes, I would catch them sneak reading under their desks, or they would get fixated on one aspect of what we were learning and begin to research about whatever it was—literally as I was teaching. I got tired of redirecting them for being curious, and finally… I stopped. I let them wander. And as they did, I noticed that they began to expand on what we were learning because they were gaining new perspectives. Perspectives that I did not teach them. Perspectives they discovered on their own. I learned that rigor means different, not more. Seeing topics, themes, concepts in different, new ways, which resulted in a broadening of perspectives for my students.

So what does that look like?

1. Essential Questions are a must. Pose three to five essential questions at the beginning of every unit of study that students will have to answer as they learn, building upon their knowledge and gaining new perspectives as they go. The goal is that at the end of every unit, students will have discovered the answers to all questions. And no, there is no right or wrong answer to any conclusions students reach.
2. Synthesize with more than just texts. Why is it that ELA classrooms only focus on reading texts as an avenue to learning? Students should synthesize, making connections and finding common ground, text-to-text, but also through different forms of media. This includes paintings, sculptures, documentaries, commercials, music, and so much more. Every form of media has a story, not just stories themselves. When students begin to make connections with what they read, what they see, and what they think, that is rigor.
3. Rigor is answering the why. Many times, teachers want to help students come to conclusions when really, it is their job as students to find the why—to find their why. As your students are learning, they should simultaneously be questioning. Why does this matter to me? Why might this matter to someone else? Why should this matter to the world? Rigor in the ELA classroom, or any classroom for that matter, is full of speculating with research in mind. As students are learning, and discovering, and growing as readers, writers, and thinkers, they must get comfortable with questioning not only the texts they read and visuals they see, but also questioning themselves. Answering the why leads to purpose in learning for our students. The quest itself is the rigor component.  

Moving Forward and Next Steps

So now what? My challenge to you is to build a series of lessons from the ground up, starting with essential questions. Figure out what questions you want your students to answer by the end of the unit. Then, create a synthesis roadmap of how they might get there:

• What texts will they read?
• What artwork will they study?
• What videos will they watch?
• What research components will be included?

And throughout this learning process, remember that students should be working towards answering the essential questions through reading, writing and peer discussions. And they should get into the practice of questioning themselves and each other through the power of, “Why?”

I hope this helps you on your teaching journey as you work towards rigor in the ELA classroom. Be sure to check back for more tips, tricks, and advice on how to make sure every lesson is a rigorous one.

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