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Ambitious Instruction
Teaching With Rigor in the Secondary Classroom
In Ambitious Instruction, author Brad Cawn offers a blueprint for how to make rigor visible, accessible, and actionable in grade 6–12 classrooms. Educators can improve students’ cognitive function and ensure college and career readiness through problem-based learning examples and rich content.
A resource guide for increasing rigor in the classroom and complex problem-solving
Ensure all learners have opportunities to engage deeply in meaningful intellectual work. In Ambitious Instruction, author Brad Cawn offers a blueprint for how to make rigor visible, accessible, and actionable in grade 6–12 classrooms. The resource guides readers toward using the twin tenets of problem-based learning and synthesis to significantly strengthen students’ ability to read, write, and think within and across disciplines.
- Develop a working understanding of rigor that will serve as the basis for rigorous, instructional excellence.
- Discover how to integrate inquiry and dialogue into your instruction to help learners engage in meaningful exploration of complex problems.
- Become familiar with actionable strategies that can be utilized to develop and increase rigor in the classroom.
- Learn how to create and organize tasks, texts, and processes in order to improve teaching and learning.
Related Topics
21st Century SkillsAssessmentInstruction
Additional Information
“In an era when teaching is often reduced to preparation for a standardized test with the focus on instructional delivery, Brad Cawn provides a compelling alternative. Starting with a crystal-clear definition of rigor, he guides the reader through a process that focuses on challenging problems, deep engagement, and meaningful performance assessments. Ambitious instruction is difficult and risky. The rewards, however, are enormous: engaged learners and deeply satisfying teaching.”
“Ambitious Instruction is a logical, well-thought-out look at structures and ideas to promote rigor in the classroom. It provides meaningful examples and thought-provoking ideas that will challenge educators to consider practices that will support student growth and inspire rigorous consideration and reflection of content.”
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