Joshua Forsythe Blogs

  In Chapter Two of Rigor by Design, Not Chance, Karin Hess focuses on the importance of student development and asking questions that drive student curiosity, engagement, and discussion in the classroom. Often, these questions can optimize learning skills and use metacognition to advance learning for students to use in different areas of life. “Rather than search for that one perfect question to guide your lesson, consider how a series of questions will create a learning pathway to deeper understanding” (Hess, 2023, p.33).  Hess discusses three different strategies to engage students to ask questions for a deeper level of thinking and understanding such as: Question Sequencing: The idea of creating a series of questions that build upon each other, integrating DOK (Depth of Knowledge). Asking students for their perspective on the context and how it relates to the text, students will start the sequence of developing deeper thinking, even at home!  Socratic Questioning: Mod...

  Week 1:  Rigor By Design: Laying the Foundation for Deeper Learning October 18, 2023 Rigor by Design, Not Chance’s chapter one,  Laying the Foundation for Deeper Learning, describes the essence of setting students up to utilize their academic skills to prosper in their lives. Deeper learning can only be obtained through students “actively immersed in challenging tasks that require them to seek out and acquire new knowledge, apply what they have learned, and build on that learning to construct new knowledge” (Hess, 2023). Six different levels demonstrate a more profound understanding, such as: Mastering core academic content  Thinking critically and Solving complex problems Working collaboratively on complex tasks Communicating effectively Learning how to learn  Developing an academic mindset All of these characteristics establish a new expectation for students to build and demonstrate their learning processes through content knowledge and skill sets. “Some stu...