Bonita I would agree that the planning and the debriefing is where the learning occurs but also in the private reflection time afterwards. Once the conversation has ended, the hours afterward, when I have to digest what I have learned, when I am preparing mentally for teaching the next round...the learning strengthens. I have to say that originally we were trying to design the 'perfect' comprehension lessons. We got some pretty decent lessons, but that would be selling the process short. There is so much about teaching and learning that I learned that I take with me to EVERY lesson I teach. So, to me, it was about the process...talking about the most minute moments in an individual lesson and what the impact of it was on kids, that helped take my teaching and move it forward. It is about striving to UNDERSTAND the teaching and learning process and there is much value in the struggle.
Jennifer Palmer Reading Specialist, National Board Certified Teacher FLES- Lead the discovery, Live the learning, Love the adventure. Reading furnishes the mind only with the materials of knowledge. It is thinking that makes what we read ours. -John Locke From: Bonita DeAmicis Sent: Tue 4/8/2008 11:39 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Understand] Understand Digest, Lesson study 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 _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
