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Session 3. Task Design and the Level of Challenge
Objective. Classify the thinking a task demands, judge whether its challenge suits a class using simple evidence, and redesign it as a support-core-stretch ladder with support that can be removed.
Pupils spend most of their school life doing tasks, so the tasks we set shape what they learn more than our explanations do. A task can be busy and quiet without making anyone think about the idea. It can also be so hard that pupils stop trying. This lesson gives you ways to read a task from the pupil's seat, check its challenge with simple evidence and design versions that keep the same goal for everyone while changing only the support.
Key ideas
The task is what pupils learn
- Pupils learn from what they have to think about while doing a task. Colouring a map and explaining why a sea shrank are on the same topic but ask for very different thinking.
- Before you set a task, ask: what will a pupil have to think about to finish it? If the answer is 'copy' or 'colour', the task is busywork for the learning goal.
- Use a simple scale: recall, explain, apply, analyse or judge. Most units need all of them, in a planned order.
The right level of challenge
- A task that is too easy teaches little; one that is too hard teaches the pupil that they cannot learn. Aim for work most pupils can finish with effort. Rosenshine suggested around 80 percent success in guided practice.
- Measure it, don't guess: after a task, count how many pupils got the key step right (an exit ticket or a quick look at work). Very high means you can move up; very low means you need more support or a smaller step.
- Productive struggle is thinking hard about the right thing. Struggle with unclear instructions or missing background knowledge is not productive; fix those first.
Support that can be removed
- Scaffolds, such as sentence starters, a worked example, a partly filled table or a hint card, help novices reach the same goal. Plan from the start how and when each will be taken away.
- Support that stays too long hurts. What helps a novice can slow a pupil who already knows the method; reduce guidance as skill grows.
- Keep the goal the same for everyone. Differentiate the support, not the thinking you expect (see course 5.6 Differentiated Instruction).
Common design mistakes
- Making a task harder by adding more of the same (20 problems instead of 10) or more steps, instead of asking for deeper thinking.
- Confusing 'hard to understand' with 'challenging': a vaguely worded task makes pupils guess what you want, not think about the topic.
- Giving the early finisher 'extra work' as a reward. Prepare a stretch task that deepens the same idea, so finishing early is not punished.
One goal, three versions
Support
Same thinking, more help
- Sentence starter
- Worked model
- Hint card
Core
Same thinking, light help
- Word bank
- Clear criteria
Stretch
Same idea, deeper
- Compare two causes
- Defend a choice
Reading a task from the pupil's seat
Do the task yourself, with a timer, on a blank page. Note what you had to think about at each moment. If you only copied, coloured or searched the textbook for a sentence, pupils will do the same, and those thoughts are what they will learn. Then ask what would help a pupil who knows less than you: a worked example, a word bank, a smaller first step. Finally ask what would stretch a pupil who finishes in five minutes, such as 'which of your two reasons matters more, and why?'.
This takes ten minutes per important task, so do it for the two or three tasks in each unit that carry the main learning goal rather than for every worksheet.
Challenge without cutting the goal
The same goal can be reached through different amounts of support. Keep the question and the thinking the same and vary the help: a pupil using the Support version gets a sentence starter and a worked model; the Core version has a word bank only; the Stretch version asks for a judgement. All three pupils explain, argue or apply, so no group is quietly given an easier goal.
Plan when support is removed. A common approach is to offer Support as a card on the desk that pupils may take and then to remove the card from the next task. Rosenshine suggested aiming for a high success rate during guided practice; check this with a quick count of correct key steps, and adjust. Beware of the early finisher who gets only 'more of the same'.
Examples from the classroom
From dates to reasons
Scene. Jasur teaches Grade 7 history in Samarkand. His task on a trade route said 'Copy the dates of the caravan stops'. Doing it himself, he sees it takes five minutes of copying and no thinking about why cities grew along the route. He rewrites it: 'Using the map, explain why one city on the route grew larger than another.' Support pupils get a table of resources; stretch pupils compare two cities.
Insight. Doing the task yourself reveals whether it asks for copying or for thinking.
Counting the success rate
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 3 mathematics in Namangan. After a task on two-digit addition with carrying, she checks the exit slips: 14 of 32 pupils have the carry right. She does not set more of the same. She shows two more worked examples, then gives a task with the first carry already filled in. At the next check 26 of 32 are correct.
Insight. A quick count of the key step shows whether to add support or to move on.
Taking sentence starters away
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 8 Uzbek language in Fergana. For an opinion paragraph, pupils first get starters ('I think ... because ...'). In the second paragraph the starters appear only on a card at the front. In the third, no starters. She notes which pupils still go to the card and keeps a short conversation with them rather than adding a new rule.
Insight. Support should shrink on a plan, otherwise it becomes part of the task.
Common pitfalls
- Making a task harder by giving more of the same, so strong pupils feel punished.
- Changing the goal for weaker pupils instead of the support, so they never reach the same idea.
- Leaving scaffolds in place for the whole year because pupils 'like them'.
- Mistaking an unclear instruction for productive struggle.
Task Surgery
- Trios (10 min): read the six SAMPLE tasks on the Aral Sea (Grade 6 geography). Label the thinking each one demands (recall, explain, apply, analyse, judge). Which one is busywork for the goal?
- Trios (15 min): the learning goal is 'explain how human activity changed the Aral Sea region'. Choose Task 3 and redesign it as a ladder: Support (with a worked example or sentence starters), Core, Stretch. The thinking demanded must be the same at all three; only the support changes.
- Second activity, whole group (10 min): read the exit-ticket results for five tasks (30 pupils). For each, decide: move up, keep, or add support, and name the first thing you would change.
- Pairs (15 min): bring one real task from your own textbook or worksheet. Name the thinking it demands, estimate the success rate you expect, and redesign it into support-core-stretch. Swap with another pair for a check.
- Alone (10 min): write your school-based task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which of your usual tasks asks only for recall or copying? What do pupils miss?
- How will you know the success rate of a task before you change it?
- Which scaffold in your classroom has stayed too long? How would you remove it?
Reflect
- Think of a lesson where pupils were busy but you doubt they learned. What was the task?
- What do you do now with pupils who finish first?
- How do pupils react when a task is hard? What do you say?
Try it tomorrow
- Do one important task yourself in the time pupils will have and write what you had to think about.
- Write a Support, Core and Stretch version of that task with the same question.
- After the task, count how many pupils got the key step right and decide whether to add support, keep or stretch.
Further reading and links
Ask what a task makes pupils think about, measure the success rate, and plan support you can remove while keeping the thinking the same.