Rigor in the Classroom

I recently just finish my paper for my ELE 505 class on rigor in the classroom and wanted to share a portion of it here:

Before I dive into how rigor is used within the classroom and in assignments, first we need to understand what rigor is and how should it look in the classroom. It is hard to look at a word like “rigor” which has such a negative connotation and associate it with a classroom and expect it to have enthusiasm.  Eleanor Dougherty uses two words that constitute rigor, demands and qualities.  “Demands constitute the “do it this way” element “ and “qualities are those characteristics that distinguish student work that is poorly or marginally executed”(Dougherty, 2012, p. 29).   Both of these expectations are setup in the rubric with levels ranging from proficient to advanced.  Teachers use rigor to describe the instruction, learning experiences, and expectations that are put into the assignments.  These demands and qualities are setup within the rubric that comes from the basic standards.  Demands set the level of difficulty and set conditions within a task.  Quality should be demonstrated within the students work.  In education, rigor is not perceived as negative at all.  In fact, it is used to describe the academic expectations that are challenging intellectually and personally. 

“Rigor is the confluence of demands and qualities often informed

by curriculum standards or other learning goals.  High rigor is

characterized by grade-level academic challenge that includes complex

demands and qualities.  Low rigor is characterized by simplistic

demands and tends to align to standards below a grade level”

(Dougherty, 2012, p. 174).

I felt like this was the most important thing, to understand rigor and how I can and how I can apply it in my own classroom.