"Knowledge for teaching is embodied in instruction and is spread and refined as teachers watch and discuss practice" - Lewis & Hurtd, 2011
Lesson study allows teachers to look at student work and discuss teaching practices. Lesson study begins with a question where content is driven by inquiry and teaching is practice.
Research Question & Theory of Action
Research Question - How can we help students use academic language in regards to mathematical discussion? Theory of Action - If we as teachers build upon students’ academic language, then students will be able to describe their math thinking, resulting in math agency and effective discourse.
Content Goals - Students will understand that a JSU (joint start unknown) can be done by counting up or counting down. Equity Goals - Students will listen to, value, and build off of each other’s ideas.
Focus Students
As the host teacher, I chose four different math students. These students were chosen because I felt they were the best four to represent the class as a whole. Please click the link below to read about the focus students, their current mathematical abilities, and the research team's goals for them.
As a research team we thought about and anticipated how our focus students would approach, solve, and talk about the problem. Click the links below to look at our anticipatory plan and lesson plan.
Launch: The lesson was a CGI lesson following the launch, explore, and discuss structure. In the launch the teacher reads the problem, three students repeat the problem, and then students are asked a comprehension question. When/if there is a disagreement during the comprehension questions students discuss their reasoning without telling how they will solve the problem. The teacher closes the launch by saying, "I cannot wait to see how you solve this problem". Explore: Students work independently grappling with the problem. Students have Unifix cubes, a hundreds chart, and tens, ones, and hundreds manipulatives available to them. Discuss: Three students are chose to present their strategies to the class. Students explain what they did and why they did it. The class responds but saying what they notice and questions they might have. The discussion is concluded by looking at similarities and differences between the strategies.
The Debrief
The research team met after the lesson to discuss what they learned about their research question and theory of action.
Bailey's Reflection: I believe the lesson went well. All the things we put in place - vocab wall, turn and talks, and the partners helped the lesson. The turn and talk after the comprehension question helped students stay engaged. It was awesome to have so many people there to provide notes for additional structures. Becca's Reflection: Becca watched focus student one and was intrigued by the way he grappled with the problem and his perceived status as a mathematician. She noticed that focus student one is very detail oriented and was persistent on solving the problem. Lilly's Reflection: Lilly was responsible for watching focus student four. She was happy about how happy and engaged the focus student was throughout the lesson. She appreciated how respectful the focus student was to her peers and how eager she was to learn. Sandy's Reflection: Sandy was intrigued by the thinking of focus student two. She noticed that he started with standard algorithm and attempted a second strategy. She wants to hear more about focus student two's thinking in the future.
Key Learnings
The team identified two big takeaways from the lesson: 1. The importance of a student created vocabulary wall that can be referred back to frequently between the teacher and the students. 2. Consistently built in structures for students to discuss mathematics (comprehension question, sentence starters, math partners, and discourse) are essential in effective discourse.