Lesson Overview |
During this lesson, our research group aimed to use discussion as a way to push 10th grade students to develop socio-political consciousness, engage in meaningful learning, and construct knowledge collaboratively.
The research group included Micah Wullschleger, Rachel Davey, Connor Tait, Lauryn Stephenson and was hosted in the 10th grade Humanities class of Alden Walters. |
Research Question
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Question
How do we support tenth-grade students to participate in discussion in order to develop socio-political consciousness? Theory If we as teachers have students develop their own equitable discussion “norms,” implement a “panel discussion” in which 10th graders are framed as experts, provide discussion questions in advance to allow students adequate think/ prep time then the students will develop their socio-political consciousness, resulting in their ability to evaluate the “justness” of our societal rules and laws. |
Lesson Goals |
Content Goals
Equity Goal
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Learn more about my
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Lesson Slides |
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Focus Student 1
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Focus Student 2
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Focus Student 3
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About Me
(Motivations , Strengths and Areas of Support) Through empathy interviews, we learned that "J" loves her family and friends. She reported that her mom is her best friend and she thinks teachers/school help people go further in life. She cares about school and making the best of the situation is important to her. She is very connected to the HTH community since she has been attending HTH schools since 4th grade. She told us that "school is another community outside of your family." Additionally, she sees the positive side of having a challenge. Guiding Questions How might we push "J" to develop more into sociopolitical consciousness? |
About Me
(Motivations , Strengths and Areas of Support) Through empathy interviews, we learned that "R" loves his family and is motivated to make people proud, including his family, his peers and his teachers. He is highly involved in HTHNC community through the basketball team and clubs. He considers himself to be very social. He is a black student in a majority white school and is very interested in activism. Guiding Questions How might we support "R" to engage with the class content and work collaboratively with his peers? |
About Me
(Motivations , Strengths and Areas of Support) Through empathy interviews, we learned that "K" wants to be a doctor. He also loves tools and working with his hands. "A" loves his family. He enjoys helping people and he describes himself as playful. From classroom observations we learned that "A" tends to be quiet in class. He was an ELL last year but has recently been reclassified. He is much more comfortable at home, and is more comfortable speaking in Spanish than English. Guiding Questions How can we get "K" to bring his passions into the school? How can we encourage him to speak up and participate in class discussion? |
Student Thinking
Collaborative Norm Building
Post-Seminar Reflections
Focus Student 1
"J"
Observations during the Seminar:
This student did not turn video on at any point during the course of the class. They participated by speaking once. They stated (responding to a question posed by a ninth grader toward the end of the discussion): “I agree with Abby. There are alot of people who judge culture or race off of one bad example and that shouldn't be the case.” |
Focus Student 2
"R"
Observations during the Seminar:
This student had their camera on for the entirety of the lesson. They demonstrated active listening and responding with words as well as non-verbal facial expressions and other body language. "R" was one of the first to contribute a specific/thoughtful norm: “Sharing our thoughts freely without getting interrupted, not interrupting others” During the seminar, "R" participated verbally 5 times:
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Focus Student 3
Debrief and Discussion
This debrief involved all research participants plus Dr. Curtis Taylor and Dr. Michelle Pledger
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Some lingering questions:
1. How can we promote discussion and building understanding together? Students seemed so focused on having a civil discussion and avoiding debate that they largely avoided any disagreement. One of our goals in the initial planning stages was to make students who help non-dominant views to be able to share those without fear of retribution. Without bringing in any alternative and marginalized perspectives, there was very little to "push" students to consider new ideas. 2. How can we bring new voices in and increase engagement, especially on Zoom? Nine of 14 students ended up sharing ideas during the discussion but four of the students seemed to dominate the conversation. One of our ideas was that this would not be a "one off" practice and that students would have opportunities to reflect on the number of voices that were heard throughout the socratic seminar. One idea that we had considered in the initial planning phases was having specific student roles, one of which being an "Equity Mapper." This student(s) would have recorded how many times people spoke, who was speaking (male/ female, white/ non white, etc). Another idea was to have short breakout rooms before the official beginning of the Socratic Seminar to practice a discussion and gather more information before coming into the whole group seminar. This would lower students affective filter and increase student's confidence in speaking in front of the entire group. These breakout rooms could also involve partnerships, with purposeful pairings. These partners/buddies/co-pilots—potentially use a shared doc so “pass notes” during the seminar. Another way we might encourage increased participation and disrupt patterns of participation during the lesson would be to start with a warm up or a human check in geared toward lowering students affective filter. Maybe using levity, such as music or a game, would increase students comfortability and thus participation. |
Reflective Practice |
My major takeaways from this lesson cycle include:
1) This lesson served as a reminder of how important it is for students to have agency and power over their learning. When teachers indicate through their words and their actions that the students are responsible and have a say in what occurs in their classrooms, students will experience more meaningful learning. By largely taking the teacher's voice out of this discussion, students were able to grapple with the content, hear each other's ideas, and productively struggle with what makes conversations successful and unsuccessful. 2) It is easy to assume that students are disengaged when you can't see them and they are not verbally participating in class. This has been one of the biggest adjustments and greatest frustrations I have experienced as a teacher during distance learning. Despite several of the students in our lesson not turning on their cameras or verbally participating in the discussion, it became clear from looking over their reflection notes that they were in fact attentive and engaged throughout the lesson. Many students participated in the norm building activity prior to the discussion and added insightful expectations. Many also were able to cite specific comments that were stated by their peers during the discussion that challenged their previously held views and pushed them to consider a different perspective. This shows that it is incredibly important to offer multiple ways for students to express their learning and thinking. Also, it is another poignant reminder not to make assumptions about students and their level of engagement, especially in our current learning environment. 3) At moments collaborating with four other educators, all with their own beliefs and ways of operating was difficult. I am an individual who tends to become attached to my ideas and their efficacy. In this lesson cycle, I had to step back and compromise in order for us all to have the opportunity to design a lesson that we believed in. Despite moments of frustration, I am extremely proud of the lesson we created an executed together. It was entirely different than what I had initially envisioned and this is a great thing. As a new teacher, I have often felt like I am on an island with no-one to bounce ideas off of and it can be incredibly lonely and disheartening. Having the time and space to collaborate, especially with educators in different positions, working with students or different ages, and in diverse disciplines was an incredible opportunity that I wish we had on an ongoing basis. It also felt incredibly advantageous to find relevant research that was applicable to the topic we were exploring. I rarely have time to do this for my own class but it is definitely something that stands out as a worthwhile practice that I would like to incorporate into my normal long-term routine. |