Lesson Study Cycle 2
How do we differentiate instruction so that all students have access to appropriate academic challenge?
In an integrated classroom, it's easy to find oneself "teaching to the middle." This interdisciplinary cycle of lesson study explores strategies for differentiated instruction to create access to appropriate, meaningful challenge for all students.
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Essential Question: How do we differentiate instruction so that all students have access to appropriate academic challenge?
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Content Understanding Goals:
Students will be able to understand the argument that the author is trying to make and can cite text-based evidence as to why they think the author is trying to make that argument.
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Students will understand that other people present a curated image, and internally, we are alike in our hopes, fears, and insecurities.
Key Research
Key research 1
Gresalfi, M., Martin, T., Hand, V., & Greeno, J. (2009). Constructing Competence: An Analysis of Student Participation in the Activity Systems of Mathematics Classrooms. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 70(1), 49–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-008-9141-5
Key research 2
Solomon, Y., Hough, S., & Gough, S. (2021). The Role of Appropriation in Guided Reinvention: Establishing and Preserving Devolved Authority with Low-Attaining Students. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 106(2), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-020-09998-5
Key research 3
Bieg, S., Backes, S., & Mittag, W. (2011). The role of intrinsic motivation for teaching, teachers’ care and autonomy support in students’ self-determined motivation. Journal for Educational Research Online / Journal Für Bildungsforschung Online, 3(1), 122–140.
Research Base
Plan - Do - Study - Act
Self-Assessment Survey Version 1
At the end of a lesson, students respond to the following:
1. How was this lesson for you?
Too hard / Just right / Too easy
2. What would have been helpful to make this lesson more effective for you?
Self-Assessment Survey Version 2
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1. How was this lesson for you?
Too hard / Just right / Too easy
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2. What worked well for you?
3. What would have been helpful to make this lesson more effective for you?
A More Normal Normalcy
Students will be able to understand the argument that the author is trying to make and can cite text-based evidence as to why they think the author is trying to make that argument.
RI.9–10.1, RI.9–10.10
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Students will understand that other people present a curated image, and internally, we are alike in our hopes, fears, and insecurities.
Focal Student 1 is an English multilingual learner who dreams of being a doctor or a veterinarian. She has a large extended family that she feels very close with. She benefits from language supports like sentence frames and discourse protocols, and from visual mathematics like diagrams.
Focal Student 2 is an aspiring artist who is proud of his dad's career in graphic design. He is a passionate communicator, and he often does his classwork quickly and with many mistakes, so he benefits from group and class discussions to challenge common assumptions and misconceptions.
Focal Student 1 initially struggled to access this activity. Our host teacher began the work time by checking in with her to ensure she understood the directions for the activity, and that she had access to translation software should she need it. She drew a number line, struggled to label it, then erased it and waited for the whole-class discussion to reproduce another students' double number line solution. Her partner at her table group was absent for much of the work period, so she communicated very little with her table group during this task.
Focal Student 1
Focal Student 2 did not draw a diagram, table, or double number line to visualize the ratio. He recorded his answers in the sentence frames on his page, then erased and modified his answers during the whole class discussion when other students presented strong reasoning in support of a different answer. It is unclear which strategy he was persuaded by.
Focal Student 2
The Task
Given a rate, students will represent the rate using a diagram, ratio table, or double number line (of their choosing). Using their visual, they will try to find the unit rate.
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This task emphasizes student agency and authority through group work and whole-class discussion, in which students engage in mathematical discourse about ratio reasoning and compare different visual strategies. The teacher should remain neutral through the discussion and instead emphasize students' responsibility to one another to craft sensical arguments.
Reflection
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