As teachers, we have the privilege and responsibility to create meaningful learning experiences for our students. One major way of achieving this is by bridging the gap between the content of our lessons and the everyday lives of our students. By connecting to students' prior knowledge,  interests, and personal backgrounds, we create a more relevant and relatable learning environment where students can collaborate with each other to make meaning. In turn, student engagement, motivation, and comprehension can take center stage.

In this lesson study cycle, my team wanted to explore the benefits and strategies of connecting to students' lived experiences. Through this, we aimed to examine how this approach can foster connections between students, their research, and the world around them.

Something my lesson study team chose to focus on while centering real-world connections was to have students do this in an authentic way that tended to connection and community. We chose to focus on dialogical teaching strategies to do this. To guide our lesson study, we focused on the following guiding questions:

• How can we activate students' lived experiences in relation to the content?

• How do you get students to dive deeper into their thoughts and feelings?

• What tools can we use to make students feel comfortable sharing their lived experiences?

To make these questions and concepts more concrete, we grounded them in research. These common themes came up as we navigated scholarly research:

• Social justice education and equity

• Dialogic Teaching and student engagement

• Culturally responsive pedagogy and global citizenship

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.

Link to PDSA Cycle Data

Equity Theme

Grounded in the following standards:

• I want to know more about other people's lives and experiences, and I know how to ask questions respectfully and listen carefully and non-judgmentally

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

Lesson Hypothesis

If we as teachers implement think-pair-share and whole-group discussions, 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, listen to, and describe identities that are similar to and different from their own.

Through 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.

Content Goal

Through sharing the research of their chosen historical figure, students will find the connections between themselves and their historical figure of choice while developing their critical consciousness for making an impact in the world.

Grounding in Research

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

2. Dialogic teaching places significance on teaching that engages students in dialogue where they share their ideas, consider alternate perspectives, and build on each other's contributions.

3. Culturally responsive pedagogy explores the development of global citizenship through literacy skills, empathy, and awareness of different cultures and perspectives.

The Lesson Plan: 

Launch:

Mix and Mingle Headbandz:

Spotlight figures on foreheads, moving around and asking questions to discover who is on their head. Start in partners, once a partner figures out their person, they have a "team" to follow them around to help other pairs.

Guiding questions for students:

• Am I a male or female?

• Am I still alive?

• What country am I from?

• What area did I make an impact in? (music, science, art, astronomy, etc.)

Explore:

Students will bring their research of their historical figures and their rough draft of the speech.

Pair-share:

General shareout of research and personal connections to the impact they made.

Group discussion:

"Who is your figure and what impact did they make?"

Question to build empathy: "Who may be impacted by a partner's figure's story? What makes you say that?"

Pair share:

Think of a follow-up question to think about how it inspires them to make an impact in their community/world.

Group discussion:

Share out of pair-share

Drop your anchor:

Summary and connections of discussion in a quick write (collected to see if students met learning goal)

"From the stories I've heard today, how have they inspired me to make an impact?"

'I will make an impact in my world by ___.'

Observations of Focal Students:

FS1: 

• FS1 did not know the person on their sticky note (Jane Goodall) and mentioned being absent when the class learned about her.

• The student did not get a chance to share during the pair-share.

• When discussing Elvis, FS1 stated they did not know who he is but associated him with Lilo and Stitch.

• During partner talk, the student repeated what their partner shared about Gandhi inspiring MLK Jr. through nonviolence.

• The student seemed uninterested during the first whole-group share, saying "I don't really want to go." and did not share at all in the second whole-group share.

FS2: 

• The student did not know who their partner's assigned person was during the headbandz activity, causing frustration for their partner.

• FS2 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.

• Despite challenges and distractions, FS2 displayed enthusiasm and positive energy during the share-outs.

FS3: 

• FS3 and their partner found the prompting questions helpful for their conversation.

• Struggled with reading a question and chose to let their partner go first because of their reading ability.

• Doodling on paper during the pair-share discussion

• The student responded with "I don't know" when asked questions by their partner.

• FS3 was one of the last students to complete the headbandz activity

• They left the activity to go to the bathroom,  then later came back and grabbed their backpack, and left the class for the day.

General Observations of Lesson:

Glows:

• The mix-and-mingle pair shares worked really well because of the incorporation of movement and the opportunity to share in a low-stakes format.

• Some students had a very strong connection to their historical figures.

• During the whole-group shareout, some students had a lot to say about their figures and the impact they made in the world.

Grows:

• Different levels of engagement throughout- some students felt confident giving clues about the figures on their partner's foreheads for the headbandz activity, 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.

• Students did not get to the quick write activity, or the "Drop your anchor" part of the lesson.

Personal Reflection:

This lesson study served as a good demonstration of the varying abilities of students and the importance of intentional lesson design. Some of the students were able to draw upon their personal connections to their historical figures, while others were not. Because the lesson took place in a hybrid setting, questions of status come into play. Students whose parents take an active role in their child's education came to the lesson much more prepared than those whose parents might not have had the capacity to make sure their student finished their research. 

Moreover, I think our lesson study had so many moving parts to the content goals and learning outcomes that not all students were unable to meet all of them. For example, students finding connections and/or differences to their historical figures is somewhat bite-sized and was something that we saw happen with some of the students. When it came to our goal for students to feel empowered to make a difference in the world, the lesson didn't allow enough time for students to reflect on that impact. However, I want to specifically highlight the energy that was in the classroom. My teaching team member's routines and community-building were extremely present in her classroom and fostered a collaborative environment where students who were prepared were able to engage in the activity.

When it comes to my own practice, I hope to take away a few things from this cycle. When it comes to meeting lesson goals, I think it is vital to provide opportunities for students to catch up on missed content or clarify any misconceptions to enhance their understanding of previous lessons before moving into new goals like building empathy and personal connections. I also hope to create a supportive environment where students feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings about specific content, even if they aren't entirely prepared with previous content. It is important to create opportunities for all students to share their thoughts and contribute to discussions. It is also a common occurrence for students to express uncertainty or a disconnect with content. During these times, I realize the importance of asking for further explanations or providing additional guidance. Through this, I hope to develop a culture of asking questions and seeking clarification when needed.