Lesson Study Cycle 2

The Lesson including three preparatory lessons designed to facilitate student success to understand content goals. All lessons were led by Kelsey Seale, Ed. Specialist at HTMNC.

Lesson Study Plan

Lesson Goal: Making Inferences Part 3: Story Creation

Task: After engaging in a weekend and fist to five check in, students will close their eyes to visualize as the teacher reads aloud the first paragraph (beginning) of a story. After, students will be given some time to read the story on their own before making inferences about what they know. Then, using sticky notes, students will come up with at least 3 ideas for how the story will end. Using the butcher paper, students will discuss their possible endings and sort them as realistic or unrealistic. Once all endings have been sorted, students will choose one possible realistic ending to be the ending they create and begin drafting.

Materials Needed: sticky notes, beginning of a story (have students annotate or highlight on sheet), butcher paper.

Lesson Study Launch

Led by Kelsey Seale and supported with data tracking by the rest of the team.

Our Lesson Study was conducted in a middle school classroom with team member, Carrie Geremia, and course instructor, Curtis Taylor, present in the room. Team members Vie Acosta, Melina Aguirre, and Becky Snowden collected data and watched the lesson via zoom video teleconferencing. Zoom was planned for these team members to keep the adult: student ration balanced. Our Lesson Study was conducted as planned. All students were present and participated. Research we used to support this lesson proved successful. Research and data section to follow below.

Research

Our research informed the design of our lesson as we used materials and strategies specifically researched to support our equity theme and small group, middle school reading instruction (Annotated Bibliography and Literature Synthesis above). The materials and strategies included a story read aloud, sticky notes, graphic organizers, highlighters, and technology (Brain Pop introductory lesson video and Jeopardy game during the Lesson Study).

All focal students participated by annotating the text with highlighters, writing responses on sticky notes, placing them in designated places marked "realistic" or "unrealistic fiction", and sharing their thinking by verbally responding to prompted questions. (See images in Data section below).

Data

Student Thinking and Participation:

Focal Student 1: FS1 shared their thinking aloud 61 times; participated in all activities (initial check in using hand signal of numerical self rating, annotating text using a highlighter; writing thoughts on sticky notes, placing sticky notes on designated places, sharing their thinking verbally and nonverbally). FS1 was eager to share their thinking related to the lesson on inferences. They also displayed multitasking abilities by creating a fidget while working on the lesson.

Focal Student 2: FS2 shared their thinking aloud 25 times; participated in all activities (see above). This data reflects FS2's general nature as a more quiet student who is thoughtful when responding before sharing verbally. FS2 gave a rating of 2 out of 5 with the group's initial check in, which may be a factor of being less participatory, as well as having additional grown ups in the room observing (Carrie and Curtis, and knowing the lesson was being recorded).

Focal Student 3: FS3 shared their thinking aloud 55 times; participated in all activities (see above). FS3 was absent during the two of the pre-lessons. Despite these absences, FS3 was able to participate and share their thinking related to inferences. FS3 tended to look at FS1 from time to time during the lesson while answers were being thought about related to specific questions. FS3 seemed to care about FS1's thinking or actions when looking at FS1 as they spoke.

Observational notes of focus students during the lesson study and lesson data are provided below.

Debrief

While all students participated in the lesson study, our group discussed the significance in the number of times the male students (FS1 and FS3) shared their thinking versus our female student (FS2). We are curious about this and wonder if including a purposely paired friend to join the reading group would increase participation. We discussed other curiosities and wonderings about FS2 in general being a more quiet student and that they are also an EML, which may reflect in processing time to respond verbally to questions or prompts asked. We also suggested other strategies to engage all learners such as using mini white boards as a nonverbal participation tool, as well as conducting empathy interviews with the students to learn more about how they felt during the lesson and how they can best be supported as readers and writers.

Reflection

This lesson study provided many rich opportunities to synthesize research findings and create classroom routines after using change ideas with sticky notes and highlighters. I am working on creating a schedule to meet with all of my readers rather than only my LLI (Leveled Literacy Intervention) readers, which has been a goal of mine. Sticky notes provide a way for students to engage in content understanding, comprehension, and other literacy features, such as identifying nonfiction text features and providing thoughts and feelings related to culturally relevant stories. I felt connected to my lesson study team throughout our journey and have learned so much from each of my team mates. I was inspired by the mercurial quality Kelsey held with all of the suggestions, revisions, and changing of aspects of our lesson study the night before. Our KO provided ideas, our team asked questions, and Kelsey adjusted, switched gears, and graciously moved forward. Each team member brought forth assets from doc creating, pushing our thinking, finding quick resources, and ultimately, this team collaborated incredibly well. I feel grateful for the unity, creativity, brilliance, and openness to change. Kelsey's students were clearly well prepared for our lesson study and the relationship she had built with her students was excellent. All students were quick to look for her visual check in as a routine, and each of them participated with this and the rest of the lesson. Students looked comfortable being in the space as they were generously offered fidgets as a welcome from Kelsey, and they responded to each of her cues for any redirection or prompting to participate with direct questions related to inferences and the lesson at hand. I appreciated our hybrid model to support students with smaller adult:student ratio. Vie, Melina, and I zoomed from a conference room below while Carrie (FS1's former teacher) and Curtis observed in the lesson study room with Kelsey and students. I learned that research truly guides change, especially when a specific topic is explored. Adding our change ideas into my classroom routines has proved to be an excellent way to fulfill 100% engagement. Sticky notes and highlighters prevail! All of my students, from dyslexic to well above grade level reading, are able to share their thinking or feelings related to a story or specific text. Vie shared a dyslexic resource to change text to a visually pleasing format for dyslexics. I'm excited to see how this works for my dyslexic students and look forward to sharing it with other colleagues as well. Literacy is a passion of mine and I look forward to improving my practice with the research, time, and shared knowledge of this lesson study cycle. A lingering question I have is related to quiet, introverted students and how as an American culture, we tend to hold extraverts at a higher level of regard than introverts. I wonder how we can shift this to engage students in nonverbal participation as well and hold it as an equitable practice to reach all learners. I find that using mini whiteboards is an excellent way to have students share their learning by jotting a quick literacy or math related answer and holding it up for a quick view for accuracy. This serves as an informal assessment to see where students are. I find more students are quick to share their thinking and are more comfortable making mistakes than a verbal share out. I recommend the book, Quiet, for those of you interested in shifting this paradigm in your practice and life.