Lesson Study Cycle 3
How can we empower students to advocate for a more sustainable future?
In this lesson study cycle, our group dived into studying Critical Pedagogy, an educational philosophy that centers social justice in the classroom. It was a perfect framework for designing a lesson for Miss Vie’s class during her Environmental Impact Study Project. The purpose of this project is to: 1.) have students study the environmental impacts of projects at High Tech High, 2). design a project tuning protocol aimed at reducing environmental impact of projects at High Tech High, and 3.) have students conduct the project tuning with their teachers. Within this project flow, students learn about sustainability, practice crafting meaningful questions, and sharpen their critical thinking skills. I’ve been by Miss Vie’s side while she’s been designing this project over the last two years, and it was a pleasure getting to play a part in it during this lesson study cycle.
Goals |
Equity Goal:
We want students to lead an environmental impact project tuning their teacher’s projects with authority. They are confident to interrogate, question, indict, and call out the areas of growth of their teachers' projects. Content Goal: Students will use their background knowledge about the environmental impact of various HTH projects in order to conduct a mock project tuning with their peers. They will demonstrate understanding by asking meaningful questions aimed at promoting sustainability in their community. Social Justice Goal: Action 20- I will work with friends, family and community members to make our world fairer for everyone, and we will plan and coordinate our actions in order to achieve our goals. |
Research Base |
We read literature, interviewed professionals, and conducted our own research through PDSA cycles to inform our understanding of how to ground our research lesson in the principles of Critical Pedagogy.
Synthesizing our learning from the research, we designed our lesson with principles of Critical Pedagogy at the center. Specifically:
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You can read more about how the research informed my thinking in my Literature Synthesis and Annotated Bibliography
Lesson Flow
- Warm up/icebreaker: Sustainable Sorting. Students and lesson study teachers silently line up in order of who has had their clothing the longest. Then, each person shares their name and their oldest article of clothing out loud in the group.
- Review group roles: Teacher goes through roles, asking each person who has the role to raise their hand. Then, teacher asks students to describe the responsibilities of each role.
- Teacher gives instructions for the day's activities and solicits questions.
- Students break out into groups and practice their project tuning protocol.
- Students complete exit ticket.
- Students share out about what went well and what could've gone better.
Click here to see a more detailed lesson plan!
Check out our slide deck that we used for our lesson:
Focal Students
Focal Student 1:
Goals:
Lesson Observations:
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Focal Student 2:
Goals:
Lesson Observations:
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Focal Student 3:
Goals:
Lesson Observations:
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Zooming in on FS3:
During the lesson, I observed a wonderful student who I will refer to as FS3.
Although FS3 did not participate verbally in the group, they were actively engaged in their notetaking role. As their group was deep in discussion, FS3 listened intently and took notes diligently. You can see their notes below:
Although FS3 did not participate verbally in the group, they were actively engaged in their notetaking role. As their group was deep in discussion, FS3 listened intently and took notes diligently. You can see their notes below:
Looking at this evidence, it is clear that FS3 was engaged in the activity through active listening and written expression. I think that their role as a notetaker really allowed them to plug into the lesson in a way that felt doable and meaningful.
Reflection |
I learned a lot from this lesson study cycle. In the planning phase, I was extremely inspired by all of the readings about Critical Pedagogy. Teaching students to be critical of systems and empowering them to work towards a better future will forever be foundational to my teaching practice. I feel lucky to have worked with Vie, who is already putting this idea into action. Seeing her students work together to question the environmental impacts of HTH projects was inspiring, and I look forward to hearing about how their project tunings go with teachers.
An unexpected ah-ha moment I've had in this lesson study cycle is the value of group roles. Seeing that FS3 is generally very reserved in class, but was super active in her notetaking role made me realize the importance of intentionally creating group roles for specific students to thrive, which is what Vie did. Overall, I feel grateful to have worked with an amazing team and to have had the opportunity to dive into the powerful tenets of Critical Pedagogy. |