Lesson Study Cycle 2:

Research Team: (from Left to right)
Chelsea Smith: Art Teacher, grade 12 High Tech High Chula Vista
​​Raffelina Grano: Humanities Teacher, Grade 9 High Tech High International
Jannika Nyberg:  Humanities Teacher, Grade 12 humanities High Tech High Mesa
Adriana Ponce: Drama Teacher, Grade 8, High Tech Middle Mesa

Lesson Study Breakdown

Lesson Study
​Session I: 

Warm Up:
Students were asked to refresh their knowledge on the use of the elements of design by creating a drawing of their choice, using one of the elements 

Gallery walk:
​Students did a gallery walk of art that hung around the classroom and inspected and admired it for the principles of design that it highlighted, as well as what the art piece focused on for it's activist intention. 
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​Station Rotations 1&2: 
Students were given 10 minutes of work time to start at a station of their choice, 1,2 or 3. 

Lesson Study
​Session II:

Station 3 Rotation:
​ Students came back from a transition break and rotated to their third and final station for the last 10 minutes of work time.

Quotes and Former Student Activism work:
Students were given further inspiration from quotes and by looking at former student work around activism in art.

Project Sheet Handout:
Teacher reviewed student handout and read over guidelines and expectations of their steps and goals in their Craftivism project that would lead to the culmination of an Art Activism piece of embroidered work. 

Project work time:
Students used the last 30 minutes of class time to begin collaborating contemplating  and crafting the first draft of their art piece, by drawing a 6X6 box on their sheet of paper and Creating within that space.

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The Role of Equity: 
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Content understanding Goal:
Students will be able to understand how art has been used as a vehicle for change and how to apply those connections to their own creative processes. By the end of this lesson, students will begin the design process with their new knowledge of design principles and activism.
The Research:
The research guided our work by giving us two main ideas
  • The need for differentiation in our art class lesson
  • The importance of creating an engaging lesson through which students could see themselves or things that they resonated with as a part of the work they were doing in learning and engagement. 

Thoughts Invoked During the Gallery Walk

Student Work

Focal Student
​Assets and Needs:
  • Very creative
  • Art is one of their subjects they connect to
  • Social
  • Prompting to initiate tasks and stay engaged

Lesson Observations:
  • Student was very engaged in the creating station
  • Student completed graphic organizer for all stations
  • Student utilized the principles of design in their drawing and description
  • Student was very focused on the creating station and it made him distracted at the other stations.
Growing in Practice :

Timing Lesson Plans:
This lesson study really helped me see the power in the effective timing of a lesson plan. The ways in which every part of the lesson plan had a rotation was important because it was helpful to see students rotate through the motions. Diving in with a gallery walk was helpful and there were important initial thoughts  about the principles of design that found their ways into the work that the students produced. 

 Rotation Stations:
This lesson study was based on the power of stations. The stations really brought out the ways in which the students can engage with really work, especially if it is thought provoking. The drawings station was engaging and helpful to students to think through how a phase can turn into an image. The second station, research about an artist was helpful to the students to learn the causes of the artists, as well as to expose them to important and inspiring art. Lastly, the third station provided a very strong pull towards understanding the ways in which visual art and the principals of design can be  paired with a strong message of resistance. The readings, paired with the other two stations were helpful to the students to be able to engage in a lesson from their perspectives and with their creativeness they were able to share.  

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Lingering Questions:

1. Is there anything the teacher could have done differently to get less interested students engaged more deeply in the work?
2. Would intentional pairing of students help have those who might be less engaged?
3. Could an accountability buddy be effective in working together since it was successful in the research part of the lesson? ​
Reflection and Conclusion:
Our team learned that the ideas behind how to differentiate lessons for students were many, but the outstanding notions of the research was that students needed to be able to see themselves in the work, whether they be students of color, or whether they be neurodiverse students. The research also taught us that our goal of differentiation in the lesson could have two entry points, learning deeply about the kids and their interest or giving students the ability to enter into the lesson study through multiple means of engagement, which we accomplished with the use of our gallery walk and our station rotations as a means of engagement. We learned that students in high school didn’t necessarily respond to the idea of choosing their entry point, if they knew that they would make their way to all 3 stations regardless of their choice, however, what we did note through our exit ticket was the idea that most of the students engaged both visually and kinesthetically with the work through creating their own drawing design and that this was largely the most helpful exercise to them. 
Lastly, we asked students to share their thoughts on which station helped them feel most prepared to begin their embroidery activism project, and 69% of students found that the drawing station was the most effective with the article station 3 coming in at a 17% effectiveness rate, and station 2 with a 13% effectiveness rate for getting students feeling prepared. 

Gallery of Exit Ticket Feedback