Guide to Tripod's 7Cs Framework - Challenge -Tripod Education Partners

Guide to Tripod’s 7Cs™ Framework

Challenge

Teachers who challenge students insist that they persevere and do their best work.
They hold students to high academic standards, encourage persistence, and monitor student effort.

Message to Students:

“I insist upon real understanding, not just memorization, and I will not let you give up, even when the work becomes difficult.”

Download 7Cs™ Guide

Sample Student Survey Items

(for different grade levels)

My teacher makes sure that I try to do my best.

My teacher makes us explain our answers–why we think what we think.

My teacher doesn’t let people give up when the work gets hard.

Indicators of an Exemplary Classroom

Teachers effectively challenge students through practices like these:

Pressing for rigorous thinking

The teacher sets high standards for thinking and reasoning.

The teacher asks probing questions that require students to think deeply.
The teacher requires students to explain their thinking.
The teacher encourages students to generate original, creative ideas.

Pressing for quality work

The teacher sets high standards for student performance.

The teacher requires all students to strive for high quality work and clearly conveys a belief in their capability.
The teacher requires students to revise work based on feedback.
The teacher differentiates instruction to provide appropriate levels of challenge for students at different skill levels.

Pressing for persistence

The teacher requires students to work hard and persist in their learning.

The teacher consistently requires all students to try hard, especially those who may tend to be disengaged.
The teacher communicates that when work is difficult, effort and persistence lead to personal growth and ultimate success.

Reflection Questions

Consider these questions as you reflect on your classroom practice:

How do you set challenges that are at the appropriate level for each student’s growth?
How do you scaffold instruction to support students in rising to the challenges facing them?
How do you engage students in thinking deeply about key ideas?
What do you do when students respond superficially or incompletely?

How do you model the persistence and rigor that you expect from students?
How do you respond when students express doubts about their own abilities or begin to give up?
How do you recognize and provide positive reinforcement for students who succeed beyond their expectations?

Sample Strategies

Try implementing teaching strategies like these in your classroom:

Regularly communicate the expectation that all students can achieve challenging learning goals and you will support them in doing so.
Ask open-ended, higher-order questions and use thinking routines such as Think/Pair/Share to engage students in deepening and explaining their ideas.

Probe student responses with additional questions that invite them to expand their thinking.
Ask students to refine their work in light of feedback until it meets criteria for success.

TEACHING RESOURCES

We’ve curated a set of teaching resources for Challenge. As you set goals and pursue professional learning opportunities, use these resource collections to access additional strategies, tools, and examples of effective practices in action.

Challenge: Pressing for Persistence

Teachers who challenge students insist that they persevere and do their best work. They hold students to high academic standards, encourage persistence, and monitor student effort. Find resources offering classroom strategies that support the practice of requiring students to work hard and persist in their learning.

Using Gaming Principles to Engage Students

www.edutopia.org/blog/using-gaming-principles-engage-students-douglas-kiang This article discusses strategies used by game designers for engaging learners that can be effectively applied in the design of classroom instruction. It distills what makes game-based learning fun and how to transfer those design principles to a variety of classroom learning experiences. For example, building in opportunities for …
Read More

Mindset Kit – Praising the process: See it in action, Praise the Process, Not the Person

www.mindsetkit.org/topics/praise-process-not-person/praising-process-see-action This video features a teacher who explains how she encourages a growth mindset by inviting students to set their own specific improvement goals and encouraging them in their efforts to develop the skills they have identified. It’s full of illustrative examples of how she gives specific, personalized feedback on …
Read More

Encouraging Students to Persist Through Challenges

www.mindsetkit.org/topics/celebrate-mistakes/give-work-encourages-mistakes-see-action The teacher in this video discusses and demonstrates how she reinforces students’ efforts to solve challenging problems, including practices such as inviting them to justify their thinking and encouraging them to try different approaches. She models strategies and language that help her young students tackle challenges, expect difficulties, develop …
Read More

Mindset Works Resources

www.mindsetworks.com/Free-Resources These resources provide helpful support for cultivating a growth mindset among students. Tools such as the “Growth Mindset Framing Tool” and “Growth Mindset Feedback Tool” offer examples of the types of messages that convey a belief in students\’ capabilities and encourage them to persist and persevere in the face …
Read More

Embracing Failure: Building a Growth Mindset Through the Arts

www.edutopia.org/practice/embracing-failure-building-growth-mindset-through-arts The teachers and students in this video explain the importance of failure as a necessary part of developing a growth mindset and striving for high-quality work. The video and accompanying article include recommendations for how to foster a culture of continuous improvement by embracing mistakes as learning opportunities, encouraging …
Read More

How to help every child fulfil their potential – RSA

www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-animate/2015/how-to-help-every-child-fulfil-their-potential This animated speech by Carol Dweck explains the difference between a “fixed mindset” and a “growth mindset” and the implications for teaching and learning. Dweck describes her research indicating that praising students\’ process rather than intelligence helps them take risks, meet challenges, and grow from those learning experiences. She …
Read More

The Biggest Lie Students Tell Me (and How to Turn It Around)

www.edutopia.org/blog/students-biggest-lie-resolving-it-jose-vilson This blog post explains how one teacher responds to students who say, “I can\’t.” He shares insights about why students may be resistant to making effort on learning tasks as well as strategies for engaging them, helping them believe in their own capacity, and pressing them to persist in …
Read More

Building a Classroom Culture of Trust and Collaboration

eleducation.org/resources/building-a-classroom-culture-of-trust-and-collaboration This book excerpt identifies strategies for establishing a classroom culture where students feel intellectually and emotionally safe and view challenges and mistakes as opportunities for learning. It explains how building a safe learning environment is key to cultivating a growth mindset, which helps students persevere to meet learning challenges, …
Read More

Austin’s Butterfly

eleducation.org/resources/austins-butterfly This video offers a beautiful example of using models to define criteria and guide student work, engaging students in closely examining each other’s work, and coaching them in providing constructive feedback on progress. It illustrates the power of this strategy to help students raise their standards for high-quality work …
Read More

The Perils and Promises of Praise

www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct07/vol65/num02/The-Perils-and-Promises-of-Praise.aspx This article offers an excellent overview of the concept of growth mindset, the compelling research behind it, and why it is so valuable to cultivate among students to help them develop successful lifelong learning habits. It explains how praising students\u2019 intelligence can cause them to avoid challenge, while praising …
Read More

UDL Guideline 8: Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence

www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle3#principle3_g8 This well-organized guide to implementing principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) explains why it’s important to help students learn to sustain attention and effort in the face of learning challenges and offers a variety of practical strategies, examples, and resources. For instance, reinforcing goals, differentiating instruction, fostering collaboration, …
Read More

Challenge at the Heart of Deeper Learning: Teaching Channel Deeper Learning Series

vimeo.com/100358675 This video shows a variety of strategies in action for challenging students to learn and do more than they think they can. Featured teachers encourage students to persist in the face of challenge, embrace learning struggles, explain their thinking, and push themselves and each other toward deeper learning. Educators …
Read More

Implementing the Writing Process – ReadWriteThink

www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/implementing-writing-process-30386.html This article describes how to use the writing process to help students engage in meaningful writing tasks, deepen their thinking, persist in their efforts, and produce quality work. It explains the value of clarifying expectations and structuring opportunities for students to check their own work, engage in peer review, …
Read More

Challenge: Pressing for Quality Work

Strategies to enhance peer feedback

www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au/professional_learning/peer_feedback/peer_strategies_enhance.html This article provides several strategies to guide students in providing feedback on each other’s work, including use of rubrics and exemplars. Simple feedback protocols offer a variety of ways to support students in framing comments on each other’s work, highlighting both strengths and suggestions for improvement …
Read More

Educational Leadership: Looking at Student Work: The Secret of Effective Feedback

www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr16/vol73/num07/The-Secret-of-Effective-Feedback.aspx This article offers insightful and practical approaches to providing students with feedback on their work that is meaningful and actionable. The writer explains that the only worthwhile feedback is that which improves performance. He describes how to design tasks that illuminate student thinking to inform teaching and employ strategies …
Read More

Using Gaming Principles to Engage Students

Encouraging Students to Own Their Work

www.edutopia.org/article/encouraging-students-own-their-work-joshua-block This teacher blog post articulates strategies for personalizing learning, building student ownership, and engaging students in meaningful work. The author argues that students produce higher quality work when they are able to make choices and incorporate their interests, and he offers several examples from his own classroom …
Read More

Solving Real-World Issues Through Problem-Based Learning

www.edutopia.org/practice/solving-real-world-issues-through-problem-based-learning This video and accompanying article describe and demonstrate how teachers design and facilitate learning experiences that capture students’ interest and engage them in thinking deeply through projects and investigations that address complex, real-world problems. They offer tips for incorporating problem-based learning into teaching, such as inviting students to contribute …
Read More

Creating High-Quality Work in EL Education Schools: Multiple Levels of Support | EL Education

eleducation.org/resources/creating-high-quality-work-multiple-levels-of-support This article offers concrete strategies to support students’ pursuit of high quality work by clarifying criteria for success, analyzing models, focusing instruction, and providing opportunities for feedback on work in progress. These strategies help to ensure that students have the needed instructional support for developing new skills and concepts …
Read More

The Who, What, and Why of Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback | EL Education

eleducation.org/resources/the-who-what-and-why-of-models-critique-and-descriptive-feedback This summary of linked strategies can help teachers build a classroom learning culture in which useful feedback based on clear criteria is viewed by all as a critical part of the learning process. A brief chart outlines a useful process and rationale for clarifying learning targets, establishing success criteria, …
Read More

Using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor

www.edutopia.org/blog/webbs-depth-knowledge-increase-rigor-gerald-aungst This article articulates techniques for designing learning tasks that provide varying levels of challenge. It offers helpful guidance about characteristics of tasks that require different levels of cognitive demand and suggestions for how to transform low-challenge questions into probing questions that require students to think deeply …
Read More

Attributes of High-Quality Work | EL Education

eleducation.org/resources/el-attributes-of-high-quality-work This brief article offers guidance to teachers interested in planning worthwhile student projects that culminate in high-quality work products and result in deep understanding. Specifically, it describes considerations for designing projects that engage students in producing work that shows complexity, craftsmanship, and authenticity …
Read More

Making Sure They Are Learning

www.edutopia.org/stw-assessment-authentic-reading-skills-teacher-video The teacher featured in this video describes how reflection on her own learning process prompted her to create formative assessments that break down specific skills, which she assesses on a continuum for each student. She regularly assesses students’ work and checks for understanding to inform her teaching. She groups …
Read More

RubiStar Home

rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php This online tool helps teachers create customized rubrics to clarify expectations, guide teaching and learning, support peer review and self-assessment, and focus constructive feedback to help students produce high quality work. The tool allows teachers to create, save, and modify rubrics using starter templates, and it offers a variety …
Read More

Seven Keys to Effective Feedback

www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept12/vol70/num01/Seven-Keys-to-Effective-Feedback.aspx This well-written article clearly articulates core principles to guide teachers in providing helpful feedback on student work that builds student ownership of performance goals and results in noticeable improvements. It explains the importance of clarity about expectations and offers illustrative examples of the kind of feedback that promotes learning …
Read More

Adapting Curriculum to Learners’ Needs

eleducation.org/resources/adapting-curriculum-to-learners-needs The teacher featured in this video demonstrates how she differentiates instruction based on individual students’ learning needs so that everyone can engage in the lesson with confidence, feel supported and challenged, and achieve success. She models and explains how she personalizes instruction during a close reading lesson in ways …
Read More

What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important?

www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important%C2%A2.aspx This introductory book chapter explains what rubrics are and when, why, and how to use them to guide learning and provide feedback on student work based on established criteria. It provides a helpful overview of different types of rubrics and how they can be used to clarify learning goals …
Read More

Mindset Works Resources

Embracing Failure: Building a Growth Mindset Through the Arts

The Biggest Lie Students Tell Me (and How to Turn It Around)

Austin’s Butterfly

UDL Guideline 8: Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence

Challenge at the Heart of Deeper Learning: Teaching Channel Deeper Learning Series

The Big Ideas of Understanding by Design

www.ascd.org/publications/books/109107/chapters/Module-A.-The-Big-Ideas-of-UbD.aspx This book chapter describes an approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessments in which teachers plan backwards from what they want students to understand and be able to do and engage students actively in meaningful learning experiences involving inquiry and application of skills and knowledge in authentic contexts. This …
Read More

Student Choice Leads to Student Voice

www.edutopia.org/blog/student-choice-leads-to-voice-joshua-block This teacher’s blog post offers a variety of examples of how he and his colleagues have incorporated student choice into the curriculum. They describe a range of projects, including parameters set by each teacher as well as opportunities for students to have a voice in what they learn and …
Read More

Thinking Big About Engagement

www.edutopia.org/stw-assessment-authentic-student-engagement-video The teacher featured in this video illustrates how he sparks and maintains interest and cultivates curiosity and inquiry through designing a project that engages students actively, creatively, and collaboratively in learning. He clarifies key concepts by highlighting their relevance and their connections to students’ experiences. He invites students to …
Read More

ICT Literacy Maps – P21

www.p21.org/component/content/article/31-ict-literacy-maps These maps offer many illustrative examples of learning tasks that address 21st century skills along with other curriculum standards, providing a variety of ideas for using technology to engage students in learning. The maps suggest a multitude of ways to incorporate digital tools and resources into instruction that help …
Read More

Instruction | Teaching Tolerance – Diversity, Equity and Justice

www.tolerance.org/publication/instruction This resource describes instructional practices and strategies that foster engaging and challenging learning experiences for all students. These practices include promoting discussion, collaboration, and higher order thinking, as well as clarifying expectations and highlighting relevance. Recommendations address the value of incorporating student perspectives and the importance of considering classroom …
Read More

Personalized Learning: Enabling Student Voice and Choice Through Projects

www.edutopia.org/practice/personalized-learning-enabling-student-voice-and-choice-through-projects In this video, several teachers describe and demonstrate how they personalize learning and facilitate active engagement in their classrooms. The video and accompanying article offer useful strategies for designing engaging projects that cultivate curiosity and inquiry, promote interaction, provide choice as well as helpful structure and guidance, and offer …
Read More

Implementing the Writing Process – ReadWriteThink

It Takes a Village: Teenagers Use Community Resources to Pen a Guidebook

www.edutopia.org/it-takes-village This article provides examples of projects that engage students with their communities in meaningful ways.The students featured drive their own learning and are invested in creating quality products. The projects described demonstrate the benefits of designing student learning experiences that result in applications of skills and concepts to solve …
Read More

Kindergarteners as Experts

eleducation.org/resources/kindergarteners-as-experts This video features a kindergarten learning expedition about birds that captivates students’ interest, sparks their curiosity, links their inquiries directly to the world outside of school, and actively engages them in producing quality work that they share with the community. Students act as citizen scientists, researchers, and artists, and …
Read More

Challenge: Pressing for Rigorous Thinking

How to Increase Higher Order Thinking

www.readingrockets.org/article/how-increase-higher-order-thinking This article explains how to respond to students’ questions in ways that foster higher order thinking, and offers a variety of teaching strategies that can help to develop thinking skills. It describes techniques for explaining clearly, promoting discussion, connecting ideas, and otherwise deepen and expand students’ thinking …
Read More

Solving Real-World Issues Through Problem-Based Learning

Using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor

Attributes of High-Quality Work | EL Education

What Makes You Say That

www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/WhatMakes/WhatMakes_Routine.html This simple, accessible thinking routine consists of two simple questions that challenge students to think deeply and explain their understanding during any part of a learning experience. It can help to develop a regular practice among students of justifying their ideas, theories, or interpretations with evidence. Whether used in …
Read More

Making Sure They Are Learning

What Makes a Question Essential?

www.ascd.org/publications/books/109004/chapters/What-Makes-a-Question-Essential%A2.aspx This book chapter explains how teaching with essential questions can challenge students to think deeply about big ideas that are core to the disciplines and captivate their interest by making learning meaningful. This informative introduction assists teachers in crafting questions to guide inquiry and learning that help students make …
Read More

3-2-1 Bridge

www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/321Bridge/321Bridge_Routine.html This thinking routine invites students to activate prior knowledge, ask and investigate their own questions, and make connections to deepen and consolidate their learning. It helps students build bridges between their thinking before and after a learning experience and can help teachers plan and facilitate instruction that is responsive …
Read More

Encouraging Students to Persist Through Challenges

Building a Classroom Culture of Trust and Collaboration

Challenge at the Heart of Deeper Learning: Teaching Channel Deeper Learning Series

Keeping It Relevant and “Authentic”

www.edutopia.org/stw-assessment-authentic-relevant-lessons-video The teacher featured in this video highlights the relevance of what he is teaching, connects ideas, and engages students actively in learning. He designs tasks that invite students to synthesize and apply their understanding in real-world contexts. He anticipates challenges, monitors student work to check for understanding, and identifies …
Read More

The Big Ideas of Understanding by Design

The Doing What Works Library

dwwlibrary.wested.org/resources/618 This video includes a helpful overview of higher order questions, why they are important, and how to use them effectively in a variety of contexts. It describes a variety of teaching strategies that focus on using higher-order questions to help students deepen their thinking, develop their understanding, and make …
Read More

Thinking Big About Engagement

Science Talk: Management in the Active Classroom

vimeo.com/76178452 In this video, a teacher illustrates how she prepares students for participation in small-group discussions, helping them to document their ideas and supporting evidence in advance. She asks questions that highlight the relevance of important concepts, encourages students to ask and investigate their own questions, and requires them to …
Read More

Reciprocal Teaching | Reading Rockets

www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching This article and video explain how to use designated group roles in order to promote interaction through student-led peer group discussion about a text. Reciprocal teaching is a technique that engages students in reading comprehension strategies including questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting. Accompanying resources support classroom implementation in a …
Read More

ICT Literacy Maps – P21

Enliven Class Discussions With Gallery Walks

www.edutopia.org/blog/enliven-class-discussion-with-gallery-walks-rebecca-alber This teaching strategy, which can be used in a variety of instructional contexts, sparks interest in learning by creating interactive learning experiences for students. The article suggests various ways of challenging students to silently engage with ideas, student work, and other materials around the classroom in order to cultivate …
Read More

Big Paper – Building a Silent Conversation

www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/big-paper-silent-conversation This classroom routine, which can be used in a variety of instructional contexts, promotes discussion by inviting students to engage deeply with a topic through silently writing responses to a stimulus and then reading and responding to their peers’ comments. At the end of the routine, students are invited …
Read More

Fishbowl

www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/fishbowl This article articulates several instructional uses for a versatile discussion strategy that facilitates interaction and promotes thinking by providing structured opportunities for students both to speak and to listen to each other as they engage with ideas and materials. It outlines steps for setting up a fishbowl, including establishing …
Read More

Instruction | Teaching Tolerance – Diversity, Equity and Justice

Collaborative Culture: Academic Talk | EL Education

eleducation.org/resources/collaborative-culture-academic-talk This article with embedded videos offers guidance in facilitating student discussions that promote learning. The article explains the value of norms and protocols in ensuring that academic discussions are respectful and productive. The videos illustrate a variety of examples of teaching strategies that help students effectively engage in academic …
Read More

Barometer – Taking a Stand on Controversial Issues

www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/barometer-taking-stand-controversial-issues This classroom activity, which can be used in a variety of instructional contexts, engages students in broadening and deepening their perspectives by inviting them to literally and figuratively take a stand on a debatable issue, explain their positions, and consider other viewpoints. The routine describes several steps to ensure …
Read More

Analyzing Perspectives through Primary Sources, Part 1 in Core Practices in Action: Laying the Foundation for Deeper Learning with Literacy

vimeo.com/channels/deeperliteracy/131805947 In this two-part video, a teacher describes and demonstrates how her students explore and analyze differing perspectives using a variety of primary sources. The video aptly illustrates how the teacher probes student thinking and students ground their statements in evidence from complex texts as they engage in turn and …
Read More

Personalized Learning: Enabling Student Voice and Choice Through Projects

5 Ways to Help Your Students Become Better Questioners

www.edutopia.org/blog/help-students-become-better-questioners-warren-berger This blog post offers suggestions for building a classroom culture in which students are encouraged to ask questions that stimulate thinking and promote learning. The author recommends establishing conditions that make it both safe and rewarding for students to ask questions, and he recommends a variety of activities to …
Read More

Oracy in the Classroom: Strategies for Effective Talk

www.edutopia.org/practice/oracy-classroom-strategies-effective-talk In this video and accompanying article, educators discuss the importance of speaking in students’ lives and demonstrate how they provide regular opportunities for students to talk about their ideas as part of the learning process in a variety of contexts. They share helpful strategies for engaging students in communication …
Read More

Implementing the Writing Process – ReadWriteThink

Think Pair Share

www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/ThinkPairShare/ThinkPairShare_Routine.html This thinking routine invites students to confer with each other about an open-ended, higher-order question to clarify and consolidate their ideas. The teacher poses a question and asks students to think about their responses individually, then explain their thinking to their partners, and finally share with the whole class …
Read More

Chalk Talk

nsrfharmony.org/system/files/protocols/chalk_talk_0.pdf This protocol invites students to silently share their thoughts and ideas about an open-ended prompt with each other through public writing. This powerful classroom routine engages students in sharing their thoughts, making connections, building on each others ideas, and deepening and extending their thinking, all without a sound …
Read More

Circle of Viewpoints

visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03e_FairnessRoutines/CircleViewpoints/CircleViewpoints_Routine.html This classroom routine, which can be used in a variety of instructional contexts, supports students in exploring and discussing different viewpoints on a given topic. It invites students to take on different personas and engages them in thinking deeply to understand different perspectives and their implications …
Read More

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/blooms-digital-taxonomy This video explains how Bloom’s taxonomy can be used as a framework for considering how digital tools can support thinking at various levels, promote 21st century skills, and actively engage students in learning. The Common Sense Media website also includes digital citizenship curriculum materials as well as reviews of …
Read More