SDTR Year 2
This section is dedicated to the work I did to complete my Masters Degree. There are three cycles and each focuses on a different lesson study.
Lesson Study
My Lesson Study: Cycle 1
Students engaged with students from another 9th grade Humanities class in a different school via postcards. They toured the school and selected something to draw a picture of to ask a question about. The students receiving postcards will then offer a reply of their own. We are working on discovering whether we can derive meaning from an "old school" method of communicating.
Lesson Goal: Be able to include an introduction and a question in a meaningful way on the limited space of a postcard.
Equity Goal: To create a lesson that has many access points for writers of all levels to find a way to feel motivated to write and find meaning in it.
Slides
Student Work
These were some of the drawings on the postcards students produced.
Data
These were our 3 focal students and their work.
Reflection
After moving through the first cycle of lesson study, I found that I went on a journey of feeling like my group and I overthought our lesson, then us not thinking enough about the nuances in it, and finally landing on any extra time you put in a lesson will elevate that lesson. Our initial planning of a topic we wanted to explore was relatively easy. We all want our students to focus on becoming stronger readers and writer. Upon that exploration we all thought about what makes us motivated to read and write and we came to the conclusion that it was because we found meaning in it. This lead us to our question of How do we make writing more meaningful for our students? Chet was already doing a project that revolved around value in doing things "the old fashioned way" and we planed our lesson between Chet's classroom at High Tech High and Felicia's classroom at High Tech High Media Arts. Both classes writing to each other through postcards.
After the lesson was taught my main takeaway was that with collaboration, both in the classroom and in our group, we could see that our work paid off. Through the amount of thinking, ironing out details, and questioning our practice we found that our lesson had meaning and to many students their writing had meaning as well. Students found meaning in the close proximity of the two schools so there was effort in wanting to do well with an authentic audience. Some found it in not wanting to be judged/wanting to do well in their writing so they drafted the letter before hand writing the final. Other students relied on the writing template but came up with a good question to ask their penpal so we could see the thought and intention was there. The final element I will touch on was that a lot of Chet's students knew Felicia's students and this was more of a wild card than we originally thought! The desire to write to someone they knew vs a stranger added another layer of meaning that some students derived from writing. Eventhough those students were probably communicating through text they still found joy in sending a letter.
My Lesson Study: Cycle 2
Students were given a college essay writing assignment and were tasked with filling out a portion of the rubric that would focus on an area of growth from them as young writers. If we employ a rubric before students are taught the skill of lesson combining (with an empty box at the end for students to pick a writing goal) while students are making sense of sentence combining (content understanding goal), then students will be graded equitably, by meeting them where they are at and encouraging academic risk (equity-based research theme). We’ll see if it’s working by looking at student writing samples and their self-evaluation matched with teacher evaluation.data collection).
Lesson Goal: Understand the college essay assignments and exactly what they would be graded on giving them autonomy on their own personal growth as writers.
Equity Goal: To grade with an equity mindset for our diverse group of students, meeting students where they are at and encouraging academic risk.
Slides
Student Work and Data
Here are 3 2nd draft essays produced by our 3 focal students.
Focus Student 1
Student has ADHD and has trouble focusing. Often is unclear on assignments and stresses out when there is work to do.
Focus Student 2
Student self identifies as a bad writer. He is charismatic and likable, has high energy and has a challenge focusing.
Focus Student 3
Is an EML student who works hard and puts a lot of effort in academics.
Reflection
After moving through the second cycle of lesson study, I found I understood the process a little better and with the scaffolds removed and us on our own a lot more it put more of a lift on us to be organized. I found this cycle both with hosting and the time of the school year to be more difficult to keep up with all that was required. This was not only because of time constraints with my own classroom and home needs, but I was very invested in the lesson study to understand how I could better serve my students. Resulting in my desire to spend a lot of time on the research slowed me down, but in a good way. I truly think about grading all the time and how I can be more effective and efficient. This lesson study provided me to take a lesson that I knew was not in the best form and find a way to make it more effective learning and speed up my grading process.
After the lesson was taught my main takeaway was that having clear simple rubrics allow students to know what they will be assessed on and they turned out better work than when I did a similar lesson before. By introducing the change in having a space for student personal growth I was able to focus my feedback on what the student felt they had the biggest growth opportunity in. Adjustments I may make in the future would giving a clearer list of areas that students could select and have them pick that focus after they have started writing so their challenges are front of mind or to reevaluate what that personal growth pick would be before the first draft is due.
My Lesson Study: Cycle 3
Lesson Goal: Students will understand that no single type of curiosity is superior to another while identifying their own strengths and cultivating a growth mindset.
Social Justice Goal: How can a lesson focused on harnessing joy and physical activity affect students' academic mindset?
Slacklining
Data
Focus Student 1
Student has ADHD and has trouble focusing. Is self critical and has a negative idea of themselves as a student.
Focus Student 2
Student is quiet and intelligent. She is an EML student and has bursts of bravery but usually academic focused.
Focus Student 3
They have a lot of social status in the classroom in many groups of people.
Student Work
Before the lesson study we worked to gather information about our students to see what brought them joy. These images are students' work in creating a slide of things that bring them joy and a journal entry of what sparks curiosity for them.
Reflection
To wrap up my graduate work I partnered with two others of my cohort that wanted to focus on bringing in fun and curiosity into the classroom. We started with that and what resulted was a organic natural teacher pivots navigating around immovable restraints and student interest. We implemented a social justice lens that would focus on uplifting students in this lesson that aren't typically highlighted in an academic setting. Bringing the classroom outdoors was a pivot we needed to make to our original plan because the slackline needed maintenance to approve and they were occupied. We choose to focus on physical curiosity to be able to tie back to the classroom in ways to emphasize productive struggle. The lesson itself, simplified, led to getting so much out of it. Over 50 percent of students were motivated by peers, seeing others do it, and the fun of it. Students who didn’t do it had legitimate reasons (feet insecurities, fear of injury for soccer, etc). Lesson was really engaging and intriguing (different from what they usually do) that sparked curiosity. Seeing students who didn’t always step up step up felt really good in the moment for me as a teacher and I could tell by their body language and facial expressions for them too. The lesson elevated students in ways to see those that struggle academically were fearless on the slackline, and those who don't usually struggle academically were apprehensive. Since Felicia’s students were out there too, 9th graders stepped up to try first and a few feerless students made more want to try even though someone fell initially. This lesson helped to show students that there are other strengths beyond academics. Students who took small adjustments were better. Crowd of full engagement for most of the lesson and we had students keep coming back. Afterwards we had them fill out an exit ticket to get their reflection of the activity and why or why not they participated.