In my classroom, alot of times, I find that my lessons are situated more in the realm of A, B, and C; I have gotten into a few very cool Quad D lessons during my first year as a teacher, but (unfortunately) those aren't as common as I'd like for them to be. However, I have been consistently working to make more of my lessons Quads B & C-- trying to move away from the simple input-output of Quad A.
In 9th grade English, we are reading Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. While a certain amount of knowledge and comprehension is required, I have been trying to incorporate more B/C kind of thinking by asking the students analyze the characters' actions, predict what might have been different if the same situation occurred today, and to consider the motivations of the characters we are reading. I would say that in terms of the Rigor/Relevance Framework that my highest level of achievement with this unit has been a C/D combination, but I think that I could still bump it up to a solid D by asking students to consider how the use of modern technology could have impacted the outcome of the play, explain what could have been different, and then create their own alternate ending using modern day technology, setting, characters, etc..
I wish I was in your English class.
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