From Robert:
Whenever colleagues question the “rigor” of your class and try to say that TPRS/CI is “too easy”, discuss with them the concept of academic rigor. I really like what the Department of State has to say about rigor: An academic program is rigorous when there is:
depth and integrity of inquiry sustained focus suspension of premature conclusions continuous testing of hypotheses
In a classroom setting, teachers can assist students in sustaining focus in a number of different ways:
Vary the pacing, grouping and the activities of an instructional period. Develop a personal code system with your students for monitoring in-class or social behaviors. Ask mediative questions at increasingly high levels to pique student interest. For fuller descriptions, go to the following website:
http://www.state.gov/m/a/os/44875.htm
In addition, the Department of State agrees with Alfie Kohn:
Teachers must also ensure that the program is intellectually rigorous, or academically challenging for each student at his or her individual level. Academic rigor does not imply harshness or severity. In a recent interview, Alfie Kohn (in O’Neill & Tell, 1999) states, “A lot of horrible practices are justified in the name of ‘rigor’ or ‘challenge.’ People talk about ‘rigorous’ but often what they mean is ‘onerous,’ with schools turned into fact factories. This doesn’t help kids become critical, creative thinkers or lifelong learners (p. 20).”
If colleagues think sustained focus in the classroom isn’t rigorous, have them observe adult behavior at the next faculty meeting, seminar, professional development training or workshop. Adults cannot sustain focus for an hour; you will see side conversations, “homework” (grading papers, planning lessons), texting, doodling, and various other forms of disengagement – in other words all of the behaviors that they get upset with students about. Yet we expect students to sustain focus hour after hour with only short breaks between classes, in which they are expected to go to lockers, use the bathroom, get a drink of water and get to the other side of the campus without having time for social interaction. At my school we don’t even have a nutrition break, so some students do this from 7:00 am to 12:22 pm. And we wonder why there are behavioral issues and students don’t like school? Oh, and many of the adults won’t even arrive to the meeting on time but will suffer no consequences; but they will be the first to write up a detention for being tardy to their class. O mores! O tempores! Can we say “hypocrisy”?