High Tech High Graduate School of Education
LESSON STUDY CYCLE 3
An inquiry into learning scientific academic vocabulary through physical movement in the kindergarten classroom.
OUR TEAM
RESEARCH QUESTION
THEORY OF ACTION
GOALS
Rebecca Maldonado
Addy Rigdon
Lillyette Wageman
How can we help students develop academic language through movement?
If we as teachers design lessons that support multiple means of representation, including total physical response, with life science concepts and scientific academic language then students will feel confident expressing their understanding through various means of expression resulting in students developing skills to independently share their thinking through a personalized method of expression.
Equity (UDL) Goal:
Students will be able to express their thinking through multiple means of representation.
Teachers will design modules, lessons and assessments that welcome and celebrate various forms of expression.
Content Goal:
Students will be able to identify the stages of a hornworm’s life cycle
LESSON PLANNING
LESSON SEQUENCE
Lesson 1: Phenomenon of pupation
Can Do: Thinking job share predictions of what will the pupa become
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Lesson 2: Share the pupation of our hornworms. Difference between moths and butterflies.
Can Do: Shadow puppet moth
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Lesson 3: Life Cycle of Moth
Can Do: Make life cycle with food
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Lesson 4: Different ways to show life cycles
Can Do: Represent life cycle of a hornworm with movement. create your own life cycle movements.
LESSON 5- BODIES MOVIN'
Up to 23 kindergarten students will share in a synchronous Zoom meeting for about 25 minutes. Students will share their learnings about the hornworm’s life cycle. These kiddos have expressed their learning about the hornworm through sculpture, drawing, and movement in the asynchronous lessons leading up to this. They will be given clues about life cycle stages and be asked to share their understanding through movements (shared or invented.)
FOCUS STUDENTS
OBSERVATIONS
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​Addy's Notes on FS1: FS1 felt happy and positive at both the beginning and end of the lesson, and held up a heart sign and did a big smile after the activity was over. He physically left the screen 6 times, but each was for very short periods of time (no more than a few seconds.) When he was on screen, he moved his body the entire time (flopping, jumping, rolling) but seemed to track lesson, stay engaged, and volunteered an answer for all questions posed by teacher. There were a few times when he raised his hand, but then turned it into a body roll or a flop- this was a great example of how his movement can distract him from sharing his thinking. Overall, I was impressed by his focus- 30 minutes is a long time for focused listening for a 6 year old! He stayed physically present for most of the lesson and did not leave the room. He seemed joyful throughout the lesson and wanted to share his thoughts many times. He did not seem to get frustrated by waiting to be called on, which was nice to see that he demonstrated flexibility with new online platforms that can feel hard.
​​ Becca's Notes on FS2: FS2 stayed at the computer for almost the whole lesson, leaving once. He seemed to watch the lesson, physically participating twice that we could see. The camera showed the top of his head and there were times it looked like he might be moving his body but the camera angle did not show this. FS2 was eager to share his thinking with extension questions and offered answers were on topic. FS2 raised his hand and put it down a number of times. He did not show signs of frustration with not getting called on when he wanted, and showed patience most of the time. One time, towards the end of the lesson, he was acting more silly while he waited to share and showing signs that he was growing impatient
​Lilly's Notes on FS3: FS3 maintained focus on the screen for the most part, but seemed to be distracted by something off to the side or behind the screen. I am wondering if there was another screen or TV for her to look at. FS3 did not participate in the movements, she seemed to be watching her classmates as they carried out the movements. It seemed as if she was too tired to want to get up and do the movements. She could have been feeling shy, alongside her share about being sleepy. FS3 wanted to participate in some way because she raised her hand to share before a question was even asked. I am curious what she wanted to share. Although her microphone was not working, she did end up sharing her lifecycle representation idea in the chat box with the help of Dad. For me, that showed that she did think deeply about the lesson and about what was being asked of her.
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REFLECTIONS
BECCA (HOST)
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The tech was acting up at first. I began the lesson with seeing only 3-4 faces and not sure if students could see/hear me.
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The energy started low but picked up.
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The students responded with such great ideas for extension ideas after more processing time. I was leading them with the song idea and I would change that in the future.
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I would have used a visual cue for my extension question to support attention needs that may be challenged with the mute unmute issues with zoom.
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I would have loved if we had already established a routine for mics not working, though our solution worked in the end.
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I wonder about routines we could set up for movement activities to ensure we could see the whole student.
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I felt like this activity was well received and that more students were responding to life cycle comprehension questions then with just verbal responses.
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Students were taking risks with answers, both movement and verbal responses. They were responding confidently and showing signs the learning situation was not a threat.
LILLY
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Students were so exited to participate in this lesson. I saw minimal loss of focus across all of the classrooms that participated.
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Despite technology issues, the host teacher was able to press on and make it engaging. The use of the tambourine made it extra interesting for the students.
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Movement is just what students needed given distance learning circumstances where children are stuck sitting at a device for much of their learning.
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The feeling check in included in the beginning and closing of the lesson was very telling of how the students felt after the lesson. They were so energized and obviously happy that their energy and wiggles were welcome.
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Although we could not hear the students saying the scientific language that we hoped they were absorbing, it was clear that they could recall it by the movements that they were able to produce given only the clues to guide them.
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It was especially heartwarming to hear their ideas about different ways to represent the life cycles. Their answers made it apparent that they have been presented with new science concepts through different forms of representation before and they are really internalizing what they have learned.
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The dance party portion at the end of the lesson was not directly related to the content but I think that it will positively impact the student takeaway, prompting thoughts like, "I remember the hornworm life cycle lesson where we had the dance party with Ms. Becca", tapping into the content that they have learned.
ADDY
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Technology was not on our side at the beginning which made it difficult to know which students were present and could see/hear lesson
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Exciting to see that students have settled into distance learning a bit and were more “themselves” on the video call than they were when DL began- personality shining through rather than discomfort/uncertainty about video call
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My FS was definitely being himself! Moving around a lot, flopping and wiggling, but the lesson allowed for that to be part of his learning rather than a barrier.
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He was interesting to watch for engagement- left the screen 6 times and did a LOT of flopping and rolling but did not miss a beat with answering questions or participating.
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Made me think about ways that we track engagement and assumptions we make about body language in our students- “distracted” is such a loaded phrase and a student’s body language is not always an indicator of their listening/participation
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Saw an overall increase in “happy” faces in the second SEL check in of the lesson
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Assessing on a distance learning platform is HARD!!!!! I fully understand why every school seems to be operating a little differently in terms of expectations & making work mandatory vs. optional. Assessment in distance learning can so easily turn into assessment of privilege.
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The kids adored seeing one another both live online and on the slideshow of their work, some were literally cheering.
GROUP TAKE AWAYS-NEXT STEPS
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Students will participate in any learning environment as long as they feel safe.
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Technology is our friend.Through participating in this lesson study, we were thrown into distance learning and given the opportunity to easily record three different lessons, allowing us to observe the lessons and students as much as we wanted.
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Watching a focus student who is often wiggly with his body, but remained totally engaged made us think about ways that we track engagement and assumptions we make about body language in our students. “Distracted” is such a loaded phrase and a student’s body language is not always an indicator of their listening/participation.
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After seeing the joy and engagement in this lesson I would love to incorporate more movement in my own virtual classroom, especially during this time. My students are craving movement. While I might not be ready to craft an amazing science lesson, I plan on including it in more of our full class meetings.