Lesson Study

1. Lesson Study What is in it for schools? Lesson Study: Together We Can, December 4-6, 2008, Stamford CT. Lynn Liptak, lliptak3@yahoo.com Bill Jackson, bjackson@scarsdaleschools.org

2. Treasure or Trash? What’s In It for Schools What’s Not In It for Schools A quick fix: Immediate improvement in test scores. A need for a large increase in the budget for professional development. • A lot of hard work • Potential deep improvement in the quality of teaching and learning. • Increased engagement of the minds of teachers in professional learning. • Potential increase in content knowledge. • Clearer focus on student learning.

3. Lesson Study: Planting, Supporting, Growing

4. Planting

5. Rethinking professional development Or is it professional learning?

6. TraditionalLesson Study (Professional Development) (Professional learning) • Begins with an answer • Driven by the expert trainer • Is workshop based • Communication flow from trainer to participants • Relationships: (tacitly) hierarchical • Research informs practice • Begins with a question • Driven by the participants • Is classroom based • Communication flow: conversation among participants • Relationships: Reciprocal • Practice is research

7. “There does seem to be one common element in successful educational improvement everywhere: teachers are deeply involved in figuring out what high quality education actually looks like at the classroom and school levels if significant change is to take root.” (Atkin and Black, 1997)

8. Scheduling Lesson Study: It’s About Time

9. It’s about time that we… • engage the minds of teachers in improving classroom instruction. • improve practice based on classroom-based research and observation by practitioners and knowledgeable others. • develop the “eyes to see the students” and “the ears to hear the students” through skillful formative assessment. • invest time in professional learning.

10. Not Enough TimeTime is Not Enough • It’s about more than time. • Quality use of the time. • Focus on improving instruction. • Building teams, building trust. • Knowledgeable others. • Concise, coherent curriculum. • School/district culture.

11. Whose time? • Information about lesson study. • Volunteers or whole school? • Certain grade levels? • Single grade level or multi-grade teams? • Classroom teachers only?

12. Investing Time • Implementing Lesson Study requires an investment of 80 minutes to 2 hours per week per teacher. • “Seed” time. • Reallocate existing resources--not “soft money.”

13. Downside of the Investment • Providing quality instruction while teachers meet during the school day. • Loss of direct services to students while teachers meet. • Difficult to adapt the practice in the U.S. • Worth the risk?

14. Returns on the Investment • Returns accrue gradually. • Increased teacher collaboration. • Careful observation of students • More thoughtful, reflective teaching. • Improved content knowledge • More consistent teaching of content across grade levels. • Improved student achievement

15. Options for Scheduling Lesson Study as Part of the Work Day • Non-classroom teachers • Pre-service teachers • Specialists & special classes • Support services • Departmentalization • Personnel from Abbott decision, class size reduction • Partner teachers • Student lunch time • Teaching assistants

16. Scheduling a New Charter School • Start with instructional priorities. • Decide on days and times. • Schedule lesson study first. • Schedule other meetings next. • Meet contractual requirements.

17. Scheduling a New Charter School • Four classes per grade level Kindergarten-4th (20 classes) • Each teacher to have a daily prep, weekly grade level meeting and a double period each week for lesson study. • Therefore 160 periods are needed with others teaching the classes.

18. Scheduling a New Charter School • Ten 40-minute periods per day. 8 teaching periods per day X 3 special area teachers X 5 days per week = 120 of the needed periods. • Each of the 4 assistants teaches 10 periods per week=40 periods • 120 + 40 = 160 periods needed.

19. Scheduling the School year • Lesson Study Promotion Committee • Timeline for lesson study cycle • Scheduling lesson study cycles so that not all groups are doing lesson study simultaneously. • Scheduling observations and debriefing of research lessons.

20. Paterson Public School No. 22007-2008Lesson Study Cycle Schedule PLC Team 2 (Grades 3, 4, 5) A-DAY: 8:30-9:45

21. Paterson Public School No. 22007-2008Lesson Study Cycle Schedule PLC Team 2 (Grades 3, 4, 5) A-DAY: 8:30-9:45

22. Paterson Public School No. 22007-2008Lesson Study Cycle Schedule PLC Team 2 (Grades 3, 4, 5) A-DAY: 8:30-9:45

23. Supporting

24. The Role of the Principal

25. What does it mean to lead? • Lead from in front (Traditional staff development) • Lead from in back (Organizational development) • Lead from within (Lesson study)

26. The Role of the Principal • Listening • Learning • Providing resources (time, knowledgeable others) • Protecting (test pressures, conflicting demands) • Controlling the climate (school culture, focused curriculum, community of learners) • Commitment to long-term growth

27. Listening Leadership • Teacher/principal relationships: more reciprocal, less hierarchical • Honoring teacher concerns regarding Lesson Study • Building trust • Building community

28. Connecting with knowledgeable others • RBS/Mid-Atlantic Eisenhower Consortium • Greenwich Japanese School • Global Education Resources • Teachers College, Columbia University • Rosenbaum Foundation • William Paterson University

29. Building support at the school and district levels

30. Reducing barriers in the school culture • Reducing teacher isolation • Learning to observe and critique • Increasing collaboration • Increasing autonomy • Reducing classroom interruptions

31. Growing

32. Growing • Content Knowledge • Curriculum • Instruction • School as a Caring Community

33. Content Knowledge

34. Content knowledge is the root of good teaching

35. Understanding what it is that American teachers do not know about elementary school mathematics • Deep understanding of concepts • Multiple representations of concepts • Inter-relations among concepts • Understanding of the curriculum across grade levels. (Liping Ma)

36. Observing GJS Teachers • Lesson on the sum of the angles of a star--8th grade math teacher taught content to other GJS teachers who did not know. Where is the mechanism in the US for this to happen? • Lesson on proving that the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is 180 degrees. GJS teacher added a sixth method. Math content

37. Improving Content Knowledge • Lesson study • Studying the Singapore Math textbooks (U.S. textbooks do not address this adequately) • Summer courses with Dr. Makoto Yoshida

38. Curriculum

39. A concise, well articulated curriculum is the tree trunk, through which the content knowledge travels and which supports the units and lessons.

40. Curriculum focus in depth on a limited number of topics Top performing TIMSS countries U.S. Curriculum

41. Importance of knowing the curriculum across all grade levels • Participation in lesson study deepened our appreciation of the importance of knowing the curriculum across grade levels to understand why concepts need to be developed in certain ways and to enhance consistency. • Teachers should spend most of their time thinking about the implementation of the curriculum, not developing the curriculum.

42. Instruction

43. Instruction (Branching out) With solid content knowledge supporting a strong, well articulated curriculum, teachers can focus on the units and lessons which promote learning.

44. Influence of Lesson Study on Lesson Planning : • Relating the lesson to the larger unit, as well as previous and future years. • Thinking through details of the lesson. • Anticipating student responses (Use student responses as part of the lesson, both errors and different methods) • Emphasis on ongoing ( assessment and evaluation (Doesn’t just happen at the end of the lesson or on weekly tests.) • Challenge: Do this in all lessons, not just “research lessons.”

45. Focus on Student Thinking • Changing focus from having the students figure out what the teacher is thinking, to having the teacher figure out what the students are thinking: • How are students thinking about the topic? • What methods are students using to solve a problem? • Use of student errors.

46. Students learn from one another • Through cooperative problem solving • From each others’ presentations • Challenge: How can we help students develop the capacity to ask questions and debate mathematicalideas?

47. School as a Caring Community

48. School as a Caring Community • Interest in reading student journals. • Beginning each lesson by establishing rapport. • Leaving the lesson study open house to say good bye to the children. • Knowing each child well. • Relentless until each child (or adult) understands. Orchard

49. Building Student/Teacher Relationships

50. Building Teacher/Teacher Relationships: Reducing Teacher Isolation • No longer, “We are all in this alone.” • Beyond teacher collaboration.