Lesson Study Cycle 3

The four teachers in this lesson study cycle taught across Elementary, Middle, and High School. We all had an emphasis on humanities, a combination of English and Social Sciences. Despite the vast age differences, we each felt passionate about bridging academic content with students' lived experiences, interests, and communities. We saw that students loved engaging with topics that they knew personally, which meant deeply but didn't demonstrate that same engagement with academic content. If their funds of knowledge, their lived experiences, their interests, and their cultural backgrounds were at the center of learning, they'd be more invested in the learning environment. In the content buckets we were offered, our interests aligned closest to critical pedagogy.

The focus for this third cycle was on critical pedagogy and dialogue. Critical pedagogy is students’ awareness of the world and the ability to think critically. The concept is an offshoot of the Critical Theory movement that started in the midst of twentieth-century totalitarianism in Europe. Critical theorists sought to understand the roots of excessive governmental power, widespread oppression, and fascism. Critical pedagogy is an alternative to what Paulo Freire calls the banking model of education which is teacher-centered and dependent on rote memorization. Critical pedagogy emphasizes learning through learner-centered activities like dialogue, problem-posing, voice, and choice. The aim is for all students to develop and utilize their voices so when they are off in the world, they are able to advocate for themselves and for justice.

Research and Goals

Our research created three notions for us that felt imperative in shaping our lesson study cycle:

1. Social justice education emphasizes the importance of students' existing funds of knowledge and cultural resources.

2. Dialogical teaching places significance on engaging students in dialogue where they share their ideas, build a shared academic vocabulary, consider alternate perspectives, and build on each other's contributions.

3. Culturally responsible pedagogy explores the development of global citizenship through literacy, empathy, and sociopolitical consciousness.

For more information on the sources we used to shape our thinking, here is my Annotated Bibliography.

Problem of Practice: How can we connect academic content to students’ lived experiences to develop their socio-political consciousness?

Research Theme: We will design collaborative experiences for students to employ skills regarding empathy, seeing themselves in historical figures, and being inspired to make an impact in the world.

Equity Theme: Grounded in the Social Justice standards:

1. I want to know more about other people's lives and lived experiences, and I know how to ask questions respectfully and listen carefully and non-judgementally.

2. I have accurate, respectful words to describe how I am similar to and different from people who share my identities and those who have different identities.

Theory of Action: If we as teachers implement think-pair-share and whole-group discussion, students will connect academic content to their lived experiences and develop their socio-political consciousness by learning about other people’s lives and experiences in order to ask questions about, listening to, and describing identities that are similar to and different from their own. Through researching a historical figure, writing a speech, and sharing personal anecdotes, students will find connections between themselves and their historical figures, resulting in empathy building and discovery beyond their own lived experiences that will foster a sense of empowerment to make an impact in their communities.

PDSA Cycles

Change Idea

We asked students what they would bring with them to the time and place of the projects were were doing. Abby asked students what they'd bring to space, Katie asked what students would bring back in time, and I asked students what they'd bring if they had to flee their home country.

PDSA Cycle 1

In the first PDSA cycle we asked students to reflect on how they relate or don't relate to a given topic. Then they were asked to reflect on what they understood from that connection and how it felt.

PDSA Cycle 2

In the second cycle we asked stduents to interview each other about their similarities and differences broadly and related to the project topics. We then asked students how it felt to communicate and connect with their peers.

Lesson Study Overview

The projects we were each doing guided our interests, our research, and ultimately the research lesson. The change ideas, student data produced from the PDSA cycles, and research did not inform how we went about the research lesson but rather is a reflection of our exploration of critical pedagogy. The ways we melded critical pedagogy and our PDSA cycles allowed for a deeper exploration of the content through the projects we were each teaching at the time. We understood we needed to have elements of dialogue, space for students to connect their "why" to the learning, and for there to be a written correlation between the research they did on a particular person and their broader impact as the students understood it.

Content Understanding Goal:

Students will research a historical figure/role model who has made an impact in their community, then write a script and deliver a speech from the first-person perspective of this figure. Students will share stories with peers about their own lived experiences, draw connections and empathize with one another’s personal stories while deepening their understanding of the similarities and differences from one another. Then students will find the connections between them and their historical figure of choice while developing their critical consciousness for making an impact in the world.

Research Lesson Rationale:

We will use dialogical strategies to strengthen students’ critical thinking skills in order to understand and transfer the real-world implications of academic content.

Read more about the flow of our lesson and the lessons leading up to the Research Lesson on our Memorialization Document

You can watch the lesson here.

How it Went and Wonderings

Glows:

The mix-and-mingle pair shares worked because of the incorporation of movement and the opportunity to share in a low-stakes format.
Students were able to articulate nascent connections to their historical figures.

Grows:

There were disparate levels of engagement throughout- some students felt confident giving clues about their partner's headbandz figure while others didn't know the figure or how to describe them to their partner.
A significant amount of students didn't have their research finished or a strong foundation of historical context or personal connection.
Because of the structure of the school (part homeschool, part face-to-face instruction) a large gap in student understanding and ability to engage in the discussions.
The question about connection and impact was not developmentally appropriate because the historical context of each figure was not something the students' dove into.

One of my biggest wonderings did not come from the lesson itself but from the school, we were in. The classroom we were in was a hybrid learning environment. They'd be in school 2 days a week and virtual the other three. One aspect that was very clear was that the highest-status students were the most prepared and knowledgeable. When we asked for more information about why that disparity existed, Abby told us it was because those parents are highly invested and present in their child's education. The focal student I observed had been diagnosed with an intellectual disability and is still learning English as a second language. If their parents are notably absent from their education for whatever potentially legitimate reason, I'm not sure the educational setting is appropriate for this child's needs. This is not a commentary on the lesson or the preparation but about the school and how the school's inherent design perpetuates differences in status and also existing differences in status. This was one of the first schools outside of a High Tech school I'd been in, and seeing the stark differences made the learning we did earlier in SDTR about systemic inequalities in education much more tangible and present of mind. I can better understand how systemic design contributes to systemic oppression because I saw it. The school we were in was a school of choice, and I believe they have an obligation to recommend that this particular student be serviced elsewhere with the appropriate means they deserve to access learning given that the school isn't going to fund the appropriate means to give this child access to learning.

Observation and Student Data

Focal Student 1

This student is new to the school, they are sweet, sociable, and love music. They are an EL student, and is two grades below grade level, but is very attentive, diligent, and a hard worker.

Disability: One of the most significant factors contributing to this student's academic engagement is their intellectual disability diagnosis.

Observing them

The student did not know who their partner's assigned person was during the headbandz activity, causing frustration for their partner.
FS1 took out their notes on their historical figure, accessing relevant information to contribute to the discussion.
The student exhibited distracting behaviors such as plugging their nose and rolling on the floor.
FS1 didn't fully grasp the reasons their person of history was important. They were very fixated on the telescope and Galileo being jailed.
Despite challenges and distractions, FS2 displayed enthusiasm and positive energy during the share-outs.

Reflection

For the first time in the entire lesson study process, I did the PDSA cycles and I did them very intentionally. I wove them into my project in a meaningful way. The research and equity themes I believe were met in my classroom with the ways I implemented the PDSA cycles. I am proud of myself for finding a way to mold the PDSA cycles into my project because I didn't have the intellectual bandwidth in the previous cycles to do so. But I wish I had more space to analyze how the research and equity themes of our lesson study broadly were met in my classroom without the research lesson. I have found the research lesson to be the least engaging part of the process and would have much rather focused on my own classroom to implement our goals and more of the pedagogical practices we learned in the research.

One aspect of lesson study I think my groups failed to do was use the research to guide our practices and goals. And I found so many useful tools I didn't get to implement so I'm going to try and do that this upcoming year. I want to try the close reading journals from an article about teaching for social justice, discussion webs, and dialogue practices.

Here is a link to the folders with student work!