Lesson Study Cycle 3
Lesson Overview |
At the onset of this lesson study cycle, our team decided to focus on the social justice standard related to empathy and respecting diversity. The fifth grade class where we conducted the lesson were in the midst of a memoir project in which they were writing about their experiences within their school. The lesson study team saw an opportunity for students to reflect on their own and others’ identities and understand how our experiences are related to our various intersecting identities. Furthermore, we wanted to support students in using this understanding of difference to build connection, develop empathy and recognize power and privilege associated with some identity markers.
Dialogic learning, oral storytelling, and interactive read alouds are three practical ways that teachers can promote empathy within students. Through these collaborative and language filled tasks, students are able to use discourse to share their perspective, and active listening to gain understanding to build a sense of empathy for others (Boutte et. al., 2018; Cho, 2017; Hibbin, 2016; Nagba et. al., 2007). Ideally, students will take these differing perspectives and empathy with them outside of the classroom.
In our research, our group’s Theory of Action examined the Learning Hypothesis: “If we employ dialogical learning while students are learning about the experiences of others, then students will develop increased empathy as evidenced by individual written reflections and increased scores on an empathy self assessment.” Through our lesson study, students listened to an oral speaker share a story, were given opportunities to ask clarifying and probing questions to empathize and gain understanding from the speaker, and then retold those stories to another group of peers. As evidenced by increased scores on the empathy self assessment, asking questions, and retelling a story with details and emotion, students were able to show an increased understanding and application of empathy. |
Research QuestionHow will we engage students in dialogical learning that allows students to grow their empathy skills while learning about and connecting with the experiences of others?
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Theory of ActionIf we employ dialogical learning while students are learning about the experiences of others, then students will develop increased empathy as evidenced by individual written reflections and increased scores on an empathy self-assessment.
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Learn more about my
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Focus Student 1Areas of Strength:
Academically ‘gifted' Reading comprehension Inferential comprehension Introspective Thoughtful Areas of Growth: Confidence Independence Sharing her ideas |
Focus Student 2Areas of Strength:
Able to name feelings Traditional academic skills Creative Crafty Wise Areas of Growth: Being able to generate ideas Motivation to engage in work |
Focus Student 3Areas of Strength:
Confidence is “blooming” Emergent bilingual Areas of Growth: Needs support understanding academic language |
Student Thinking
Text to Self Connections
During the lesson, I observed students demonstrating empathy through the organic text-to-self connections that arose. The students seemed genuinely excited to connect with the teacher and each other about their experiences. Some of the connections I observed included: “People always spell my name wrong” - Focus Student 1 “I had that rug in my classroom too!” - Focus Student 2 |
Asking Questions
Students demonstrated empathy during the lesson by asking questions to gain a deeper understanding of the storyteller’s experiences. Some of the questioning I observed included: "What were you feeling?" "Who were your friends?" "What did you look like when you were in kindergarten?" |
Focus Student #1
In order to assess if Focus Student #1 had met the content understanding and equity goals, I collected data on whether they were utilizing sequencing words and retelling the stories with pertinent details. The student used several sequencing words in their retelling, including "then," "first," "after," and "when." Also noteworthy was the way in which they were retelling the story. Focus student one mirrored the inflection that the original storyteller had used and emphasized specific parts that they original storyteller had. They also agreed with the storyteller and added on about how they would have felt and reacted in a similar situation. This indicates that they were using empathy to better understand the story, the storyteller, and their experiences.
Observation Notes: Focus Student #1
Observation Notes: Focus Student #2
Reflective Practice
Takeaways1. The Value of Exploratory Talk in the Classroom
What I learned from this lesson study cycle was the power of exploratory talk. In this lesson, I observed conversations between students that felt really organic. They were not a highly structured conversations, and they had very little intervention from the teacher. Students were given guiding questions, but then left to discuss them for several minutes at a time. This is where I really saw students co-constructing meaning of the stories, and of the world, which is one of the major values of dialogic learning. As Freire wrote, we are all constantly engaged in a cyclical process of reading the word to read the world and vice versa. This is so important for developing connections across diverse groups of students. During this lesson, I observed students clearly grappling with their own experiences and how they differ from others’ experiences. This lesson taught me that we have to not only “let” kids work collaboratively and construct meaning together, but ensure that we are creating opportunities for them to do so. 2. The Value of Collaboration I am typically someone who prefers to work independently. Sometimes collaborating can be frustrating to me because it requires that you slow down and let go of attachment to your own ideas. Throughout this process it has been amazing to see how much I have gotten out of collaborating with other’s and having opportunities to observe my peers' teaching practices. This collaboration is something that I am sure to hold onto as I move forward in my teaching career. 3. The Importance of Utilizing the Expertise of Others Both through collaboration with other teachers and through research, lesson study has given me the opportunity to use what other teaching practitioners have learned. It is really easy for teachers to fall back into the teaching practices that they grew up with. The thought process is “this is what I grew up with, so that must be the right way,” when in actuality, many of the traditional teaching practices that we grew up with in fact weren’t effective and reproduced inequity. Lesson study has allowed me to research effective teaching practices that are rooted in data. 4. Focus on specific problems or goals in mind “this is what I want this lesson to do, how am I going to accomplish that?” Instead of choosing a strategy or activity and making the goal fit. Engaging with research- grounded in theory and knowing why you are implementing certain strategies and activities. Focusing on data to analyze whether the strategy accomplished what you wanted it to. |
Final Reflection
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