Assignments matter. Task predicts performance. The rigor of a task sets students up for engagement with texts and with their peers.
Based on the cognitive demands of college-and-career-readiness standards, LDC "task templates"—a set of fill-in-the-blank assignment shells that support cognitive demands such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, and evaluation—help teachers, coaches, and curriculum designers create well aligned tasks.
These templates are used to design assignments that ask students to write in response to reading—assignments that teachers use to center and frame the type of work they do in class.