Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis

ISTC: 702

Jared Frame

Introduction
Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis 1

For the 4 Shifts Protocol lesson plan analysis I chose to step out of my comfort zone and

choose a lesson plan that wasn’t part of my content area, physical education. Instead, I choose a

social studies/history lesson for grades 3-5. The lesson focus is on holidays, specifically

President’s Day. I found the lesson on Nearpod, and the lesson is fully online. The lesson is

broken up between 26 slides. The slides contain a variety of teaching tools and techniques. The

slides are made up of various readings (some of which are interactive/immersive) and various

assessment tools.

At the beginning of the lesson students are presented with two learning objectives (see

Figure 1.). One objective describes what learners will be able to do by the end of the lesson and

the other states key vocabulary the students will learn. On the second slide learners will see three

infographics that explain how the lesson will be broken up. The infographics are labeled

“explore 10 minutes, explain 10 minutes, evaluate 10 minutes” (see Figure 2.). This gives the

learners an idea of what is to come and approximately how much time the lesson will take. On

the third slide students are presented with a “guiding question (see Figure 3.). Learners are

expected to consider this question as they progress through the lesson.

“Explore” is the first section of the lesson. The first slide of “explore” is a crossword

puzzle activity, where students are asked to fill in the crossword puzzle using prior knowledge

(see Figure 4.). Following the crossword puzzle there are three slides that each contain a short

reading with pictures or tables. Following the short reading is a critical thinking question. This

slide contains an interactive picture and a Digital discussion board type space where students can

post their responses to the questions (see Figure 5). The students have a few choices for how

they can respond to the questions. They can write a response, audio record a response, video
Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis 2

record a response, send a gif, or upload a file (which could be a wide variety of things such as

pictures, pre-recorded videos, or full-length papers).

The second section of the lesson is titled “Explain”. This section is a mix of different

types of readings. Some of the readings are traditional and others are interactive/immersive. For

the readings that are interactive/immersive the learner is able to click on a speaker icon and have

the readings read to them (see Figure 6.). They are also able to click on the pictures. When a

learner clicks on a picture it will expand and have a short caption describing the picture. The

captions also have an immersive reader. At the end of the “explain” section there is a quiz (see

Figure 7.). The quiz is multiple choice. At the top of the quiz is a reading from earlier in the

lesson for students to reread.

The final section of the lesson is titled “Evaluate”. Each slide in this section contains an

assessment. The first slide is a matching question where students must match a sentence with a

picture (see Figure 8.) The second assessment is an open-ended question. This slide asks the

students "Why do people celebrate Presidents' Day”. If students need help answering this

question, they are provided with a passage from earlier in the lesson to review. Once students

are ready, they can respond to the question by typing their answer in a text box (see. Figure 9).

The last slide of the lesson is the final assessment. This assessment is another digital discussion

board type question. The question asks for students to respond with one interesting thing that

they learned about President’s Day from the lesson (see Figure 10). Students can post their

question to a board where they are able to read other students' responses and comment on them.

Higher-Order Thinking

Higher-order thinking is the first shift of the 4 Shift’s Protocol. For this shift educators

want to analyze their lessons to make sure that the information in the lesson is not just factual
Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis 3

recall (McLeod & Shareski, 2017). Instead students should utilize deeper thinking through

“critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, communication, and collaboration” (McLeod &

Shareski, 2017). The lesson that was analyzed incorporates higher-order thinking in a few

different ways. The lesson requires students to use critical thinking skills to analyze authentic

posters and make inferences about why President’s Day is celebrated on the third Monday of

February every year. The lesson also has students communicating with each other through a

digital discussion board. On this board students are able to post their responses to questions and

view their peers' responses. This allows students to read other perspectives on the question and

reevaluate their response. The final assessment question is styled this way too. Students are

asked an open-ended question about what they found interesting or surprising throughout the

lesson. This question gives students a chance to show what they learned from the materials but

in a way that utilizes critical thinking skills. This question also allows students to respond in a

variety of ways, letting them use various levels of creativity when responding. Finally, the

readings, infographics, and visuals are all designed to help students use their critical thinking

skills to find pertinent Information that connects directly to the learning objectives.

To add more higher-order thinking into this lesson I would add a mind-mapping activity.

In the middle of the map would be “Presidents Day” and students would be asked to map out

what led up to the creation of President’s Day. This would add to the higher-order thinking by

requiring students to activate their knowledge of President’s Day. Students would be able to

respond to this activity through a variety of mediums. Examples would include typing text,

pictures, and gifs. Another resource I would add would be more options for students to choose

from to access the “new learning”. All of the materials were readings and infographics. I would
Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis 4

add videos to the lesson allowing students to choose which medium they access the new learning

though.

Authentic Work

Authentic work is the 2nd shift in the 4 Shift’s Protocol. This lesson does a good job

with supplying students with authentic work. The lesson has students review materials in order

to perform research. Students read passages and examine period authentic posters. This directly

mimics how students would conduct research in the “real world”. Students then are given the

chance to post responses to a discussion board, where they can read and respond to each other.

This activity allows students to have an authentic experience with their peers as they would if

they were engaged in higher learning.

To improve on the authentic work for this lesson I would have students conduct some of

the research on their own. I would have students research President’s Days and post links to

articles, pictures, posters, videos, or any other artifacts that they may find to a discussion board.

This would give students an opportunity to conduct real research. Being able to post the artifacts

that they found to a discussion board would allow for authentic interaction with their peers also.

Agency

Agency is the 3rd shift in the 4 Shift’s Protocol. The lesson has integrated agency in a

few different ways. Agency is all about giving students choice in their learning. From the

materials they choose to review to how they respond. In this activity students are presented with

a couple tools that help utilize agency. For some of the reading’s students are given the option to

click on pictures to get a deeper understanding of the material. Also, the readings have an

immersive reader. This allows the students to choose if they want to read the material

themselves or have it read to them. The digital discussion boards give students opportunities to
Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis 5

interact with each other too. Finally, many of the assessments allow students to respond through

a wide variety of mediums including text, pictures, audio, video, and gifs. All of this combined

helps to contribute to increased agency throughout the lesson.

Giving students the option to work with other students or individually is one way that I

would improve agency. This lesson has some student interaction, but it is limited. Part of agency

is giving students the ability to decide how, when, and who they work with. So, giving them the

option for group work would help improve the agency within the lesson. I would also allow

students to find some of their own artifacts, as I described in the previous section. Letting

students find some of their own artifacts gives them control over the material they review and

ownership of their learning experience, as described by the Shift Protocol agency.

Technology

The 4th shift of the 4 Shift Protocol is technology. This shift is all about incorporating

meaning technology into a lesson (McLeod & Shareski, 2017). McLeod and Shareski explain

that this is a push to move away from the traditional classroom. In the lesson that I analyzed this

shift was utilized in many ways. To start, the entire lesson was digital. Students navigated

through a series of interactive slides. The slides that had readings on them were immersive.

Students are able to click on a speaker icon and have the readings read to them. The pictures on

the readings were also immersive. When students click on the pictures, they become enlarged

and have new interactive captions. The assessments also utilized technology. The quizzes were

either multiple choice or matching and the critical thinking questions were short response.

Because the quizzes are digital this allowed the students to receive immediate feedback with

their score. The quizzes also had a sidebar at the top with reading passages or interactive visuals

for the students to refer back too. The assessments consisted of short response questions. Each
Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis 6

of the short response questions had an interactive photo for the students to refer to. They were

also styled as discussion posts where students would post their responses to a board and could

interact with each other.

When combined, all the technology found throughout the lesson enhances it. It gives the

learner a deeper understanding of the source material and helps them reach the learning

objectives by the end of the lesson. The assessments help create a sense of community through

the peer interaction and help facilitate transfer of knowledge between peers. If this was a

traditional lesson students wouldn’t have any of these opportunities. Traditional lessons limit

students' learning by only utilizing analog materials such as pencil and paper. And though a

traditional lesson can create a sense of community through group work and sharing it doesn't

provide students with the variety of tools the way a digital lesson can. Letting students respond

to critical thinking questions through visuals such as gifs gives the students a chance to express

what they have learned in their own individualistic way. Overall, I think that technology was

integrated appropriately and meaningfully adding to the lesson seamlessly.

Summary

This lesson is an excellent example of how to incorporate the 4 Shifts Protocol as

described by McLeod and Shareski. Technology is used to enhance the lesson and help the

learner reach the learning goals in a seamless manner. Through research and the discussion

assessments students are presented with an authentic learning experience that mimics higher

education. The critical thinking questions, creative ways to answer the questions, and the

communication initiate higher-order thinking and allow for agency to be reached by the learner.
Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis 7

Link to Lesson

https://np1.Nearpod.com/sharePresentation.php?

code=9259608ae3669becaa760e02d334a9d8-1&oc=lesson-library&utm_source=link
Four Shifts Protocol: Lesson Plan Analysis 8

References

Nearpod. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2023, from

https://Nearpod.com/library/preview/lesson-L130027979

McLeod, S., & Shareski. (2017). Deeper learning schools: 4 big shifts. Dangerously

Irrelevant. Retrieved 2 22, 2023, from http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/wp-

content/uploads/2017/10/Scott-McLeod-4-big-shifts.jpg
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Appendix

Figure 1.
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Figure 2.
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Figure 3.
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Figure 4.
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Figure 5.
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Figure 6.
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Figure 7.
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Figure 8.

Figure 9.
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Figure 10.