Ep 123: Creating Rigorous Lessons That Don’t Stress Your Students Out - EB Academics

Ep 123: Creating Rigorous Lessons That Don’t Stress Your Students Out

Most of us teachers, at one time or another, have found ourselves thinking, “My students couldn’t handle that,” as we considered a lesson we wanted to teach. How can we improve our confidence and our students’ skills? The answer is in combining rigor with engagement!  

In this episode, Caitlin and Jessica talk about how you can add rigor to your lessons without making your students feel overwhelmed or lost. It all starts with the belief that your students will succeed! Then the planning starts from there, as you scaffold lessons and build your students’ confidence (along with your own!). 

In addition to their advice, Caitlin and Jessica will offer an awesome example of a rigorous, engaging lesson they taught. Can you believe 5th and even 4th graders can succeed in a Shakespeare lesson? It’s true! Take a listen to see how your mindset can dramatically change the planning and outcome of your lessons.

Tune in now to hear:

  • [01:30] Shifting our mindset: When we expect more, students will rise to the occasion!
  • [03:00] Caitlin discusses her success reading Othello with her eighth graders 
  • [03:30] The magic that happens when teachers think of their students’ success as inevitable
  • [05:20] Jessica discusses how her high expectations positively affected her son’s homeschooling success 
  • [08:10] An example of an engaging, rigorous lesson with Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”
  • [11:00] Challenging ourselves to raise our expectations and add engagement as we plan our lessons for next year!
  • [12:10] How The Empowered ELA Teacher can help you to be the teacher you want to be, do great work, and thrive. Included in the book: lessons to help you include rigor and engagement! 
  • [13:45] Preview of next episode: How to organize your curriculum for maximum learning 

Click here to listen now!

Subscribe & Review in iTunes

Are you subscribed to our podcast? If you’re not, we want to encourage you to do that today. We don’t want you to miss a single episode. We add a brand-new episode every week, and if you’re not subscribed, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on those. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

Now if you’re feeling extra awesome today, we would be super grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find our podcast, and they’re also so much fun for us to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let us know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE RESOURCE

Then, pick the date you’re going to teach it in your classroom, and sit back while you watch as your students show up to your classroom pumped about what the day holds…and gush about your class to their parents on the car ride home!

Search Our Site

You Might Also Enjoy