Dana, Lesson Study observers focus on what it is the group decides would be good evidence for their lesson goals. A lesson is so multidimensional that it would be useless to try to focus on everything. So you decide what your lesson is meant to influence then focus on evidence that would show your influence had impact. The focus is usually with the students and what they are doing, saying, showing... For instance, in my math lesson study we wanted students to discourse on the math we had presented and we wanted to hear "flexiblity" as in movement between math languages like fraction language, decimal language, percent, or money language all used interchangeably to examine the math concept. So the observers listened to an assigned pair of students (different pair each observer) and recorded their conversation. For each replay of the lesson we were trying to increase this language and increase student persistence on a given problem (a content and a behavior goal). So we had three observers on student language and one timer observer. That way the data could be (hopefully) influenced on future lesson attempts. I believe in Jennifer's lesson the focus was on the student dialogue also--but they were listening for student questioning. You definitely debrief--as soon after as possible. And you definitely do it again and again. A typical study goes for three to four repeats aiming for lesson improvement each time (improvement on the specific goal). I would be happy to share more with you off list, just email me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Just so you know, Japanese and American teachers agree that the biggest learning is in the teacher dialogue before and after lessons. It is a fascinating process. Very intense.
:)Bonita > I have never done a lesson study before, but some colleagues and I are > interested in trying it. I have a few questions for Jennifer (and Bonita). > I don't want to take everyone off of the topic of understanding, so if you > think it's more appropriate, feel free to email me using my personal email. > I'm wondering - > Is there a focus for the observers, other than to observe student learning? > Do they just write anecdotal notes throughout the lesson, or are they looking > for specific behaviors? Do you debrief and talk about what changes could be > made to the lesson and then just try it again with a different group of kids? > > I did some reading on it, and it sounds like a great technique, so I just > want to make sure we do it properly. > > Thanks! > Dana Williams > [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
