Lesson Study Cycle 1
As a lesson study group, we wanted to dive into exploring how we could increase student's confidence. Specifically, we wanted to explore how we could help students feel more confident participating in class discussions. Of course, there are many ways of leading a discussion in a classroom. We decided to zoom in on the Socratic Seminar method because it turns the traditional teacher-centered discussion on its head, and instead lets the students take the lead.
Part 1: Planning
Goals |
Equity Goal:
How do we prepare all students to be confident participants in a Socratic Seminar? We will focus on the preparation process and how students use a variety of scaffolds. Content Goal: Students will be able to propel a dialogue forward by asking questions, inviting others into the conversation, and building off of peer responses. Through dialogue, students will gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. |
Research Base |
Throughout our lesson study planning phase, we did research on: the purpose of lesson study, how to facilitate a Socratic Seminar, how to scaffold the close reading of a text, and the benefits that Socratic Seminars offer students. As a lesson study group, we unpacked each reading, and used the main ideas to inform the planning of our lesson.
For example, in my research, we learned about the Double-Entry Journal as a note-taking method. I loved the idea, so we incorporated it into our Seminar Prep packet. Check out some student thinking in the completed double-entry journals below: |
You can read more about how the research informed my thinking in my Literature Synthesis and Annotated Bibliography
Lesson Flow |
Focal Student's Assets & Needs |
- Freewrite
- Defining debate vs. dialogue through a sorting activity
- Watching a video that illustrates the characteristics of dialogue
- Debrief the video and co-create norms for our seminar
- Socratic Seminar round #1 (half the class engages in the discussion while half the class observes)
- Socratic Seminar round #2 (students switch)
- Individual Reflection
- Whole-class reflection
Click here to see a more detailed lesson plan!
Check out our slide deck that we used for our lesson:
Part 2: How It Went
Overall, our lesson went really well! 23/24 students spoke in the Socratic Seminar.
Below, you can see the Harkness Model, a visual representation, of who spoke in the seminar:
Below, you can see the Harkness Model, a visual representation, of who spoke in the seminar:
Our focal student, who has never participated in class discussion before, spoke in the Seminar. Since the seminar, this student has been participating in group discussions often. I consider this as a HUGE celebration.
We collected data on student confidence by including an individual reflection question asking students to rank their confidence level going into the seminar on a scale from 1-10. You can find the results below:
We collected data on student confidence by including an individual reflection question asking students to rank their confidence level going into the seminar on a scale from 1-10. You can find the results below:
Reflection
I learned a lot about the lesson study process throughout this cycle. Though it is interesting to look at student's self-reported confidence levels, I wish that we had collected data on their confidence levels before offering the scaffolds that we designed, so that we could draw a conclusion about whether our preparation process helped students feel more confident.
Next time I do a lesson study, I want to make sure that we think through our data collection strategy thoroughly so that we can draw meaningful conclusions from the data.
A big takeaway for me is that teaching AND learning are social processes. Students learn best when they collaborate with each other, push each other's thinking, and help each other. So do teachers. Sometimes I forget that, but getting the opportunity to work with 3 incredible educators reminded me that I have a lot to gain from co-designing instruction with colleagues.
Next time I do a lesson study, I want to make sure that we think through our data collection strategy thoroughly so that we can draw meaningful conclusions from the data.
A big takeaway for me is that teaching AND learning are social processes. Students learn best when they collaborate with each other, push each other's thinking, and help each other. So do teachers. Sometimes I forget that, but getting the opportunity to work with 3 incredible educators reminded me that I have a lot to gain from co-designing instruction with colleagues.