Principlescs-coaching-knowledge-base.md

Coaching for Rigor and Joy

Front: When we work to bring students to the intersection of rigor and joy, we match our highest appropriate expectations for our students with our most engaging, interactive, motivating pedagogy. This is as much about balancing cognitive load as creating a vibrant lesson. The fact that we have students from groups historically excluded from tech in our CS classrooms does not mean we should reduce our expectations for their enjoyment or achievement.

Back: Coaches should approach co-planning with explicit questions about rigor and joy. Have we met our own standard for the level of difficulty? Have we aligned the lesson to CSTA or our state standards? Will our students be engaged and excited by this lesson? During reflection and feedback, revisit this balance. Were students appropriately challenged? Was the lesson too hard, or too easy? Did we have enough opportunity for differentiation? Did students seem excited by the work?

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