Students are given deadlines when they are to have activities completed. I normally don't do that - if this weren't an AP class, I would let this be much more student-directed in terms of pacing. However, since AP classes are slaves to the test deadline (and APES is the first test on the first day of AP testing), I have to give them firm deadlines, unfortunately. I get a little riled up about this, because I think it assumes that increased rigor equals "more stuff faster," which, in my opinion, isn't what true rigor is at all.
I believe a part of true rigor is challenging students with respectful choices-hence the Choice Board above. If you'd like to access this as a Google Doc, you can click here. If you have any comments to help me make this better, please fire away in the comments below.