Relevance is not a teacher’s explanation, “You will need this when you balance your check book when you are older…”

Relevance is the student connecting today’s content to some other part of her world.  That could be other content concepts, other courses, or outside of school.

Now, why is this important.  Forget all the edu-triva and mumbo-jumbo, relevance is important for one reason. Retention. The more a student connects today’s content to other parts of her World, the stickier today’s content becomes. Relevance is glue.

The easiest ways to increase student connection of today’s content to other parts of her World are to embed more of the following in your daily lessons.

1. More multi-step process questions. 

2. More purposeful student talk, with the appropriate prompt.

3. More critical writing, with the appropriate prompt.

In summary, have your students engage in more complex tasks, talk more, and write more, and you will effectively increase relevance in your classroom.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…

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