Our Lesson
This second cycle of lesson study I was reminded of the importance of doing things twice. As the team and I gathered to start this work, we committed to (1) setting clear expectations and roles, (2) remaining positive and providing feedback that seeks to solve problems, (3) getting SPECIFIC, and (4) being compassionate about each others' mental health throughout the process. It's striking to look back on those goals and realize that from the beginning we were trying to give ourselves the grace and support we would later work on extending to our students.
Our lesson for this cycle took place on the other side of the country (virtually) in a 10th grade Modern World History classroom in New York. The class was on the tail end of their work studying the Russian Revolution, Joseph Stalin, and the worldwide Great Depression. Our job was to design a lesson the helped students build a working definition of 'fascism' as a bridge between this and their next unit on the rise of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Germany and Italy.
This lesson was about more than just vocabulary, though. Our research and planning focused largely on the ways in which Universal Design for Learning and standards can be used in tandem to support students' learning. To that end, we strove to design work that recognized students as diverse learners and people and gave them agency in their own learning—even as they worked towards a standardized goal.
Our lesson for this cycle took place on the other side of the country (virtually) in a 10th grade Modern World History classroom in New York. The class was on the tail end of their work studying the Russian Revolution, Joseph Stalin, and the worldwide Great Depression. Our job was to design a lesson the helped students build a working definition of 'fascism' as a bridge between this and their next unit on the rise of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Germany and Italy.
This lesson was about more than just vocabulary, though. Our research and planning focused largely on the ways in which Universal Design for Learning and standards can be used in tandem to support students' learning. To that end, we strove to design work that recognized students as diverse learners and people and gave them agency in their own learning—even as they worked towards a standardized goal.
Our Goals
As we planned this lesson, the following goals served as our team's "North Stars"
Equity Goal:
Content Goals:
Standards: Common Core State Standards CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4
New York State Social Studies Standard 10.5d
Our StudentsFocus Student 1
Empathy Interview Highlights: What do you like about Global 2?
When was the last time you felt proud?
Classroom Teacher Notes: FS1 is a student who is certainly capable of doing AP level work in an environment that is faster paced than their current classes. While FS1’s abilities and work ethic are strong, they can often get bored or lose interest if the pace of a lesson is too slow and giving their leadership opportunities and/or targeted feedback on how to improve their work from good to great can go a long way in keeping them invested in the course. Focus Student 2
Empathy Interview Highlights What do you like about Global 2?
When was the last time you felt proud?
Classroom Teacher Notes: Incredibly warm, insightful, and consistently hard-working. FS2 thrives in opportunities where they can voice their ideas and opinions. Giving them the options to record their longer responses instead of typing them from time to time gives FS2 an opportunity to go into greater detail and make connections with the content. FS2 is also a strong group member that succeeds when paired with students who have strong work ethics regardless of ability levels. Focus Student 3
Empathy Interview Highlights: What do you like about Global 2?
When was the last time you felt proud?
Classroom Teacher Notes: While incredibly shy, FS3 is a student who succeeds when they have had the opportunity to develop relationships with their teachers and is also held accountable with positive framing. FS3 can sometimes be distracted in the virtual setting, but has benefited tremendously with intentional grouping with other students. |
Our ResearchThis lesson was also informed by our team's research on the following
Research Question:
Theory of Action:
|
Our Lesson Plan
|
|
The Breakout Rooms
Students' participation in breakout rooms was particularly difficult to track because of the "private message" function. Below, you will find a participation tracker completed in one of the students' breakout rooms, as well as the Google Jamboards from each room. The participation tracker was recorded in the Breakout Room studying Brazil's Integralist Movement.
"Brazil's Integralist Movement" Breakout Room Conversation Tracker
Individual Student Thinking
At the end of the lesson, students filled out an "exit ticket" with 3 questions:
Our focus students' exit ticket responses are found below.
- Explain how the image shown represents one of the five elements of fascism. Challenge option: Explain how it represents multiple elements!
- Do you feel like your ideas were valued today? Why or why not?
- On a scale from 1-5, how comfortable are you using the word fascism?
Our focus students' exit ticket responses are found below.
Focus Student 1: "This element represents a cult element of fascism. This is because there's one main leader and a bunch of people beneath him, it could appear they value everything he says. I think my ideas were valued today. On a scale of 1-5, it would be a 3. I don't understand the idea completely, but I learned a lot more today." Focus Student 2: "The image represents one of the five elements of fascism, which are nationalism and cult like behavior in the picture cause if you look at it its showing this guy like a big figure way, which shows that he is superior and they mention the word related to nationalism is a different language. I that feel like my idea was valued today that Fascism is wrong cause it showed that it bad and toxic. On Scale of 1-5 how comfortable are you using the word fascism: 1/2" Focus Student 3: "the image represents an element of fascism i believe is cult like tendencies. in the image it feels as if it is promoting the person to show that they are an all mighty lord." |
Final Thoughts
As I reflect on this lesson, I am reminded of the same thing I came away with when I left the Zoom call that day: these students are smart. While the lesson used UDL strategies to provide access for all students, the opportunities for collaborative analysis and deeper learning allowed students to show off their skills as historians. They sifted through evidence and came away with predictions of what would be the most important indicators when defining fascism—and they did it all without much background knowledge on World War II or the rise of Hitler and Mussolini.
That said, I still left the debrief with our equity commentator thinking about ways in which this lesson could actively support deeper learning for students, rather than simply giving them the opportunity to engage in that learning. One takeaway was around the overall design and scope of the lesson. While co-creating a working definition allowed students to focus on one country and become "experts" who contributed to the class discussion, the fact that all of the research was done in one class period meant that these students also had to rely on quick reactions without much background knowledge. It also meant that they didn't have the time to revisit these definitions, revise them, and reapply them in light of a deeper understanding of the history of fascism. This spiral curriculum approach—especially if paired with more explicit research modeling and instruction—would offer all students the opportunity to reinforce their learning and explore the nuances of fascism more fully.
In addition to the content of this lesson, I immediately went back into my own classroom with ideas about how to foster productivity in Zoom breakout rooms. In our debrief conversation, we discussed the merits of moving forward with scripted protocols for students to follow, opening breakout rooms with non-content conversations, and restructuring choice to encourage more heterogeneous groupings. But perhaps the most helpful reframing of breakout room silence for me was an idea posed by our equity commentator, Sarah Fine: what if breakout rooms were only for talking? In other words, what if we did any reading, watching, listening, or other independent work together in the main room, silently, before going to the breakout rooms? Would that perhaps cut down on awkward silence and lower the barriers for some reluctant conversationalists? Maybe!
I'm particularly excited about this moving forward because I believe reframing breakout rooms has the possibility of making the conversations that happen there more robust. Plus, it provides instant accountability for students; if they aren't talking when you come into the breakout room, something isn't right. And hopefully, by focusing on speaking and removing some of the silence in those spaces, future breakout rooms can become places where more voices are heard, more ideas are considered, and more learning is happening.
That said, I still left the debrief with our equity commentator thinking about ways in which this lesson could actively support deeper learning for students, rather than simply giving them the opportunity to engage in that learning. One takeaway was around the overall design and scope of the lesson. While co-creating a working definition allowed students to focus on one country and become "experts" who contributed to the class discussion, the fact that all of the research was done in one class period meant that these students also had to rely on quick reactions without much background knowledge. It also meant that they didn't have the time to revisit these definitions, revise them, and reapply them in light of a deeper understanding of the history of fascism. This spiral curriculum approach—especially if paired with more explicit research modeling and instruction—would offer all students the opportunity to reinforce their learning and explore the nuances of fascism more fully.
In addition to the content of this lesson, I immediately went back into my own classroom with ideas about how to foster productivity in Zoom breakout rooms. In our debrief conversation, we discussed the merits of moving forward with scripted protocols for students to follow, opening breakout rooms with non-content conversations, and restructuring choice to encourage more heterogeneous groupings. But perhaps the most helpful reframing of breakout room silence for me was an idea posed by our equity commentator, Sarah Fine: what if breakout rooms were only for talking? In other words, what if we did any reading, watching, listening, or other independent work together in the main room, silently, before going to the breakout rooms? Would that perhaps cut down on awkward silence and lower the barriers for some reluctant conversationalists? Maybe!
I'm particularly excited about this moving forward because I believe reframing breakout rooms has the possibility of making the conversations that happen there more robust. Plus, it provides instant accountability for students; if they aren't talking when you come into the breakout room, something isn't right. And hopefully, by focusing on speaking and removing some of the silence in those spaces, future breakout rooms can become places where more voices are heard, more ideas are considered, and more learning is happening.