Instructional Playbook

Teaching for Rigor - Canyons Observation Rubric (TR-COR)

Observed Evidence

Element of Rigor

Depth of Knowledge: To what extent are students actively explaining concepts, making arguments, and building upon referenced ideas of others? Highly Evident Somewhat Evident Not at All Evident Teacher asks probing questions to allow students opportunities to explain their ideas and Students have a chance to explain some of their thinking, but student ideas are not explored or build upon Teacher initiates conversations. Students’ speech turns are short (one sentence or less)

reasoning. Students respond to and build upon each other’s ideas

and constrained by what the teacher says or does.

Application: To what extent are students provided with opportunities to analyze and evaluate multiple sources of evidence and synthesize that information? Highly Evident Somewhat Evident Not at All Evident

Students use academic language, connecting concepts, analyzing multiple sources, and applying their understanding in a novel way that requires them to provide justification or argument

Students categorize or compare information, distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, but do not apply this knowledge in novel ways

Student response to teacher-directed questions and learning activities reflect simple procedural explanations or “canned answers”

Assessment: To what extent is thinking made apparent and responded to with feedback? Highly Evident Somewhat Evident Not at All Evident Teacher monitors

Teacher refers to student thinking, perhaps even to common mistakes but specific students’ ideas are not built upon or used to address challenges

Student reasoning is not present or not made visible or teacher actions are limited to corrective and positive feedback

student understanding and adjusts questions to advance student thinking; subsequent instruction responds to those ideas by building on productive beginnings, providing counterpoints, or addressing misunderstandings

Adapted from Schoenfeld & Floden (2014), Teaching for Robust Understanding.