RED Hot Teaching Tips

Reflect, Empower, & Do it! Teach on Purpose!

September 19, 2010

Linda the Math Coach

Author, Consultant, Speaker & Coach

Rigor, Enga gement, and

Dif fer entiation
RED on RED
In one short week I’ll be traveling to my favorite part of the world, Florida!! Beach
front Condo? Fun in the Sun? Disneyworld? Yes, but the main objective is to
meet up with all my Florida colleagues at the FCTM Annual Conference in
Orlando. (Shout out to all you Florida Math Teachers and Principals!!)

I’ll be presenting, “RED Hot Teaching How to Include Rigor, Engagement, and
Differentiation In Every Lesson.”
So I thought I’d spend a couple of weeks sharing just a few ideas of how to use
the RED Hot Teaching approach to beef up math lessons with Rigor,
Engagement and Differentiation. How’s that for some R-E-D?

REFLECT
Right now, stop everything and state your purpose for teaching out loud. Do you
know what it is? If you’ve been following the last few newsletters, do you
remember your purpose statement? Do you repeat your purpose statement
every day before and after school? This is so powerful. Try it!!

Next, write the answers to these questions.

1. What is my purpose?
2. What do I understand about rigor?
3. How is my purpose related to rigor?
4. What do I understand about engagement?
5. How is my purpose related to engagement?
6. What do I understand about differentiation?
7. How is my purpose related to differentiation?
________________________________________________________________
*RED Hot Tip
Devote a journal or spiral notebook for reflections and notes you take this school
year from your weekly RED Hot Teaching Tips Newsletter.
OR
Print out the newsletters and keep them in a three ring binder.
Here is space to record your reflections for this week.
1. What is my purpose?

2. What do I understand about rigor?

3. How is my purpose related to rigor?

4. What do I understand about engagement?

5. How is my purpose related to engagement?

6. What do I understand about differentiation?

7. How is my purpose related to differentiation?

After you answer these questions, it is time to empower your purpose around
learning more about rigor, engagement, and differentiation, especially how to
include them as the driving force of every lesson every day. Make every minute
of every day count! Achieving your purpose is not about extending the day and
pouring more money into more programs. It’s about doing more with everything
you already have at your disposal! Your most effective resource is within your
own reach and control. Your most effective resource is what you do with you!

EMPOWER
First of all, get familiar with what is meant by rigor, engagement, and
differentiation. I am giving you a really brief reminder of what I mean by each of
those three big terms. Then, I’ll recommend some resources that will give you
more in depth explanations. Here goes:

Rigor = complexity of what is taught, how it is taught, and how it is assessed.

Remember, rigor is not how difficult a task is (like long division). It has more to
do with how a student is interacting intellectually with concepts and skills. How
are they applying concepts and knowledge to solve problems in new and creative
ways versus repeating a memorized series of steps? Solving routine word
problems in Algebra I is not rigorous. Creating word problems or recognizing
scenarios that are applications of an algebraic concept is rigorous.

Engagement = self motivated intellectual involvement with the intended learning

outcome. A purposeful teacher discovers what makes each student “tick” and
then “works it” to get all students engaged.

Differentiation = variance of the content, process, product, and environment with

the purposeful intent to meet the specific needs of each and every student.

Resources
Here are some places where you can go get more information.
About a year ago I wrote a series of articles on this very topic.
You can find them at the following links.

“Engagement What is it and How Do I Get It?”

http://www.scribd.com/full/19475154?access_key=key-1c3f0bzx5dhsk3nuq0d0

“Rigor + Engagement + Differentiation” http://www.scribd.com/full/19972087?

access_key=key-wduufoe44832ruq16vt

“Focus on Rigor and Engagement with Quality Questioning”

http://www.scribd.com/full/20599414?access_key=key-ahik3r7aabijlw3tn2c

“Focus on Rigor and Engagement with Quality Questioning Part II”

http://www.scribd.com/full/20923880?access_key=key-g9oeuvhu694t7qeq9cr
“Focus on Rigor and Engagement with Quality Questioning Part III”
http://www.scribd.com/full/21239632?access_key=key-1b6z9odqigrym4bzvbim

Now here are some really great books I have read, used and highly recommend
to you.

Rigor is Not a Four-Letter Word by Barbara R. Blackburn

The Differentiated Classroom by Carol Ann Tomlinson

Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom by Carol Ann Tomlinson

Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom How to Reach and Teach All
Learners, Grade 3-12 by Diane Heacox,Ed.D.

After you have checked out some resources, start a plan of how to start
including rigor, engagement, and differentiation into your daily lesson plan.
Next week, we’ll delve into what such a plan might look like! But for now here
are some things you can do this week!

DO
I recommend you do three things to use rigor, engagement, and differentiation to
fire up your red hot purpose.

1. Go check out the resources listed above or any others. Try to read at
least one article on each big term.
2. Call in to the RED Hot Huddle on Monday. We’ll be talking about how to
get rigor, engagement, and differentiation into every lesson. Get your
questions answered and get suggestions.
3. Try at least one strategy you read or hear about this week. Try it on
Monday and let us know about it on the call!

Ok, that’s all for now. Talk to you at the Huddle!

Have a RED Hot week!!

Your Coach, Subscribe to this newsletter HERE

Linda RED Hot Huddle

Every Monday 8:00 EST
Call (641) 715 – 3300
Access Code 916760
Meet with Linda the Math Coach
And other RED Hotties like you!