Lesson Analysis Tool
Community-based funds of knowledge
How does my lesson help students connect the subject area with authentic situations in their lives? And how does my lesson support students’ prior knowledge to understand, critique, and change important issues in their lives?
The level of cognitive challenge
How does my lesson enable students to closely explore and analyze lesson concept(s), skill(s), and procedure(s)?
Students’ depth of knowledge & understanding
How does my lesson make student thinking/understanding visible and deep?
Subject matter discourse
How does my lesson create opportunities to discuss the subject matter in meaningful and rigorous ways (e.g. debate historical ideas/solution strategies, apply science terminology to a demonstration, develop explanations, communicate reasoning, and/or make generalizations)?
Ability to engage and participate
How does my lesson encourage student participation, invite their knowledge authority, value student contributions, and address comprehension differences among students?
Academic language support for MLs
How does my lesson provide access and inroads for students to learn and use the academic language of the lesson?
Access to language repertoire
How does my lesson provide opportunities for students to use knowledge from all of their languages to comprehend and make meaning of the lesson content?
Adapted from Aguirre & del Rosario Zavala (2013)
