My apologies to the digest if this double posted--my internet provider can be frustrating! > 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
Yes, Jennifer--thank you for clarifying that. What I meant was the dialogue between teachers, the sharing of ideas and observations led to deep learning on our parts. But you are so right that the real learning continues in the silence (and not silence) afterwards...just as To Understand is teaching me. All those layers of understanding. My lesson study group continued to think on that single first lesson for YEARS after. It infiltrates all teaching (and that--not the perfect lesson--is the real goal of lesson study). How do I know it infiltrated their thinking as well as mine?--we would see each other in the halls months later and suddenly start talking about connections between our lesson study lesson and things happening in our rooms ... Japanese teachers say the same things. They say that although many of their lesson study developed lessons run like poetry to those of us observing, the real potency of lesson study is the way it affects teacher thinking for all lessons and all lesson preparation. We become attuned to students. You so make me wish I had a lesson study group right now. It is so time consuming and difficult to manage without administrative support and teacher commitment that our team disbanded. I miss it. I love that you are doing it with reading comprehension. I love that To Understand seems to be influencing your process (am I right?) _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
