Planning for Rigor

Description

Are your lessons rigorous? The point of education is to help cultivate deep critical thinkers, not just to teach students how to ace a test. If we’re not careful, we can create lessons and activities that some students breeze through. We have to make sure that our instruction is rigorous for each student and that they are challenged every day. Many educators already have plans in place to help students who fall behind, but we also need to make sure to plan for students who speed ahead.

Educators Leanna Ferreira and Jenny Pennell say that the key to creating academically rigorous lessons lies in identifying and implementing characteristics of rigor. In the course “Planning for Rigor,” educators will discover how to promote thinking that goes beyond recalling information and helps students make meaning for themselves.

In this course you will learn:

• To Identify the characteristics of rigor
• To Determine levels of rigor
• The stages of rigorous thinking

Presenter Bio

Jenny Pennell is the Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center. She also serves as the Region 6 Gifted Coordinator Representative for the Ohio Association for Gifted Children. In addition, Jenny serves as a Children’s Theater Foundation board member. She holds a Master’s Degree in Talent Development Education as well as a Gifted Endorsement from Ashland University.  

Leanna Ferreira, Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Mid-Ohio ESC, also serves as the Region 6 Board Member for the Ohio Association of Gifted Children and serves as the secretary for the Coordinator Division. She holds a Gifted Endorsement from the University of Cincinnati, as well as a bachelor’s degree in secondary math education and a master’s degree in library & information science from Kent State University.