For EDTE 314 at Central Connecticut State University

1. Transformative
Teaching Methods &
Lesson Plans
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University

2. What is a “Lesson”?
It depends on your conceptual frame...
What are the traditional, liberal/
progressive, and transformative
definitions of lessons?

3. Teacher’s Role
Teacher-as-Mediator
Have students explore various contexts
(social, cultural, ecological) in
connection with the content
Learn basic skills (of course), but the
target is to understand how those
skills/concepts are present in our
community

4. Student’s Role
Student-as-researcher
Student will use basic skills/concepts to
understand and explore community
(mainstream messages, hidden
messages, null messages, and tensions
and relationships)
The goal is to become a more democratic
participant in community

5. Unit Plan
Lessons 1-2: Lessons 2-6:
Raise Lessons 2-6: Lessons 2-6:
Engage critical Lessons 3-8: Lessons 8-10:
questions Work with Critically
questions with Community 1 Community 2
about real skills and question skills
skills in the
world concepts and concepts
community
New New
Thought Thought Relationship
Critical Communities
Info Questioning
New New
Thought Thought Relationship

6. Essential Questions
“To what extent...” allows for students
to explore complex relationships and
tensions rather than binaries
These are the target or anchor
questions that you will teach towards
during the lesson.

7. Hierarchy of Questions
Unit Level
Lesson Level (questions that support
the unit level)
Supporting Level (questions that
support the lesson level)

8. Hierarchy of
Essential Questions
Unit Level
Lesson Level Lesson Level Lesson Level
Supporting Supporting Supporting Supporting Supporting Supporting
Supporting Supporting Supporting

9. Let’s Try It...
“What effects did the Industrial Revolution have on nature
in the U.S. during the early 20th century?”
What theory or theories is this question connecting with?
What relationships and/or tensions is the question
connecting with?
What level do you think that this question is at (unit,
lesson, or supporting)?
What are the other t wo levels of questions that connect
with this question?

10. One more time...
“How does the media in the U.S. perpetuate stereotypes of
people of color?”
What theory or theories is this question connecting with?
What relationships and/or tensions is the question
connecting with?
What level do you think that this question is at (unit,
lesson, or supporting)?
What are the other t wo levels of questions that connect
with this question?

11. Assessments
Informal
Formal
Formative
Summative

12. Informal vs. Formal
Informal -
Ongoing, unique to the students,
Formal -
Generally scheduled in as its own
activity, same for all students

13. Assessment
Traditional
Truth
Informal:
Formal: Exam,
Check Thought Performance
knowledge

14. Assessment
Liberal/Progressive
Informal:
Check prior
knowledge
Informal: Formal: Exam,
Check Performance
knowledge
Thought scaf
fold
New
Truth
Thought
scaffold
Thought

15. Assessment
Transformative
Informal: Informal: Formal:
Formal:
Check prior Connections Formal: Exam, Prepare for Formal:
Performance,
knowledge to personal performance Community 1 Community 2
written
experiences
Informal:
Connections Formal:
to the real “Thick
world Description”
New New
Thought Thought Relationship
Critical Communities
Info Questioning
New New
Thought Thought Relationship

16. Response
To
Intervention

17. Activity
Does the activity clearly make the bridge from the
lesson level question/objective to the assessment?
Lesson Level Activity
Question & Assessment
Objective

18. Activity
Lesson Level To what extent does qualitative and quantitative data identify
Question patterns of racial microaggressions from Disney films?
Students will be able to analyze qualitative and quantitative data
Objective to identify patterns of racial microaggressions from Disney films
Students watch excerpts of Disney films to identify patterns of
Activity racial microaggressions.
Record obser vations, record frequency of racial microaggressions,
think-pair-share, journal writing, roleplaying, satirical
exploration, sur veying of friends/family
Assessment Students provide a critical discourse analysis (qualitative) and
sur vey (quantitative) identifying patterns of racial
microaggressions from Disney films

19. Differentiation
Cognitive connections: Connecting with
students’ diverse ways of learning.
Cultural connections: Connecting with the
diverse cultures of your students. Breaking out
of the Eurocentric mindsets present in the
curriculum.
Levels of resistance: Connecting with students
who are creatively maladjusting because they
see schooling as hurting them.

20. “Methods”
Traditional - Methods as tools to plug in or “deposit”
information and reach predetermined destinations;
teacher-centered “banking method”;
convergent thinking
Lib/Prog - Methods as tools to explore various
pathways to reach predetermined destination;
student-centered “banking method”;
convergent thinking
Transformative - Methods that support divergent
thinking; create “thick descriptions” of community
(understandings of intersections in a social, cultural,
and ecological contexts)

21. Methods for
Divergent Thinking
1. Cooperative 5. Small-Group
Grouping Discussion
2. Inquiry 6. Whole-Group
Discussion
3. Socratic Method
7. Use of Media
4. Direct Instruction
Work in small groups •Thick Description
Count off up to 7 •Community Involvement

22. Transformative
Cooperative Groups
Traditional and Lib/Prog cooperative
grouping has each member with a different
task all aiming for the “right answer”
Transformative cooperative grouping is
about connecting to each student’s
strength with some aspect of the
community-based issue that is at hand.
Feminist pedagogy

23. Transformative Small-
Group Discussion
Students working in small groups to explore
transformative concepts and develop analyses.
Each small group reports out to the rest of the
class.
Teacher might ask for groups to report based on
commonalities/differences rather than having
each group do its whole presentation.
Feminist pedagogy

24. Transformative Whole-
Class Discussion
Teacher/students driving discussion through
transformative analyses and questions.
Good for when everyone needs to be on the
same page, but not as engaging as small group
discussions.
Feminist pedagogy, topic dictates pedagogy

25. Transformative Use of
Media
Viewing = consuming
What is transformative “viewing/consuming?”
Creating = producing
What is transformative “creating/producing?”
Viewing/consuming transformative issues is coupled
with creating/producing transformative awareness
and action in one’s community.
Topic dictates pedagogy

26. Transformative Inquiry
1. Teacher/students determine a
transformative context
2. “Mess about” & develop testable questions
3. Investigation
4. Report findings & discussion about
connections to curriculum; “vocabulary”
emerges from findings and teacher’s
guidance

27. Transformative
Socratic Method
Using authentic questions exclusively to explore social,
cultural, and ecological relationships embedded in the
curriculum
Authentic questions are grounded in asking who we are,
what are our relationships, and what our are actions
and decisions that support them?
Authentic questions are NOT focused on getting
students to generate the “right” answers.
Feminist pedagogy, topic dictates pedagogy

28. Transformative Direct
Instruction
Can be helpful when the teacher wants to help
students construct lenses of analyses.
Can be helpful when the level of disequilibrium is
more than the students might be able to handle
effectively on their own.
Use it sparingly! It can be done very well, but it
can be overdone pretty quickly.
Topic dictates pedagogy

29. Community Involvement
Stage 1
Researching the Community
Inter views Ethnography
(family, friends, members of (cultural thick description)
organizations, leaders, veterans,
artists, scientists, lawyers) Participatory Research
(reporting on their experiences)
Observations
(the mall, school, sporting event, Demographic Research (census,
school dance, playground, on the state dept websites)
internet via social net work
sites, environment) Literature Research
(local newspapers, internet)
Case Study
(focus on one person, group, Field trips as sites for all of these
location, ecology)

30. Community Involvement
Stage 2
Action in the Community
Art Exhibits Theatre of the Oppressed
(Art show, public art, instillations, (Forum theater, rainbow of desire,
eco-art, murals, street art, image theater, legislative theater)
“guerrilla art”)
Reports & Publications
Poetry Slams (Writing to local newspaper,
having a journalist present, BOE
Critical Performances meetings, community groups,
(Plays, musicals, choir pieces that WWW)
rework and recontextualize texts
or existing pieces) Documentary Film
(Local issues, local attitudes, local
Video Game projects, film festival)
(Social or Eco-themed)
Habitat for Humanity House