Bringing It All Together

 

	Kathy Francescani Coach, Charles Lake Elementary Cleveland, Ohio
	Jodi Snyder Coach, Charles Lake Elementary Cleveland, Ohiio

Over the past four years at Charles Lake we have employed a variety of coaching models in our endeavor to get the work done. The latest of these is lesson study, suggested to us by our Literacy Fellow, Dave Younkin. This approach demands that teachers work together toward a common goal. During the lesson study process we've experienced an increase in collegiality and more trusting relationships have developed. Our professional development sessions now reflect this and are evidenced by the sharing of leadership and willingness to take risks. Teachers volunteer more freely and share their expertise with their peers. Lesson study is a refreshing change from the previous coaching models we've implemented. Although we're just beginning to delve into the process of conducting a lesson study, the enthusiasm it has generated is encouraging. It is clear that this method may be what we need to move us toward that ultimate goal of building teacher capacity and collegiality within our school.

Lesson study is a professional development practice that originated in Japan and is sometimes referred to as "polishing the stone". Teachers plan, teach, reflect, and re-teach one lesson as a team during the process of a lesson study. The goal of a lesson study is for a team of teachers to work collectively towards providing students with meaningful learning experiences. This method is a win-win situation for all involved. The teachers on the team are afforded the time and opportunity to explore effective pedagogy and the literacy content of a lesson and they reap the benefits of sharing in the expertise of their peers. Students have the advantage of being taught "research lessons", that only get better with time.

Lesson Study provides many valuable learning opportunities for teachers and coaches:

• Collaborating on planning a lesson that belongs to oneself and all of one's colleagues.
• Time and opportunity to explore good pedagogy.
• Time and opportunity to discuss and observe the role of good instruction in classroom management.
• Having the luxury of watching a lesson unfold in someone else's classroom in invaluable.
• Reworking a lesson and then seeing the revised lesson improve student learning
• Being a planner, but not a Lesson Study teacher (one who teaches the group's lesson), and then trying the same lesson in your own classroom.

A large amount of research has been done on lesson study. We have examined some of this research and synthesized it to develop our own form of lesson study. There are numerous timelines a school could choose to follow when deciding to implement a lesson study model. We have selected the following schedule because it best meets our needs. This lesson study takes about ten weeks if weekly meetings are held. Following a schedule similar to this provides the potential to conduct two lesson study cycles within a school year.

• Establish criteria for need, and selecting an overarching goal. (2 meetings)
• Discuss standards and select the lesson. (1 meeting)
• Develop research questions that will guide the planning (2 meetings)
• Plan the lesson (2 meetings)
• Teach and discuss the lesson (1meeting)
• Revise the lesson (1 meeting)
• Re-teach, discuss, and reflect on the lesson study (1 meeting)

As we began our lesson study we came up with a list of characteristics that described what we believed constituted the ideal learner. We then compiled a list of traits that described the students we teach. By comparing the two lists we agreed upon an overarching goal for our lesson study. This goal was developed to bridge the gap between what we expected of the ideal learner and what attributes we perceived our students to possess. This part of the process promoted rich discussions about how our students were achieving and why, and what we expected of our students. The following chart resulted from engaging in this discussion with a team of second and third grade teachers.

 

An Ideal Learner	Our Students
Takes pride in work Preservers-doesn't quit Self-motivated Cares about her learning Asks questions when confused Takes responsibility for learning Prepared to learn Risk taker Accountability to others See classmates as sources of knowledge See the importance of participation Share what they know and seek information from others	Emotional baggage Irresponsible Don't ask for help Afraid to take risks Devastated by being wrong Don't see classmates as a source of learning Don't go the extra yard Don't feel parental support

After reflecting on the discrepancies between the qualities we desired of our students, and the traits we had attributed to them, the need for our overarching goal became clear. Lauren Resnick's Principles of Learning for Effort-Based Education was used as a source to facilitate a discussion about how to get our students to become the ideal learners we had defined. As a team it was determined that our greatest area of focus needed to focus on Resnick's principle identified as accountability to a learning community. The following overarching goal was agreed upon:

Our students will actively participate in classroom talk, listen attentively to one another, elaborate and build upon ideas and each other's contributions, and work towards the goal of clarifying or expanding a proposition.

The next step in the lesson study was to select a lesson to use as a sort of starting point for our research lesson. We had been working on writing in our most recent professional development sessions so we decided to select a lesson from Ralph Fletcher's Craft Lessons on teaching writing. First the group spent time individually perusing the 2nd & 3rd grade lessons and selecting five that were deemed as most pertinent to the needs of our students. After establishing the importance of all lessons considered we sequenced them by importance and decided on one for the initial focus of our lesson study. The lesson we decided to plan for was nudging students to move beyond list and love stories.

We observed that many of our students were experiencing difficulty elaborating on a topic. Instead they were generating formulaic sentences such as, " I like to play. I like to ride my bike. I like to read."

After deciding upon that specific lesson the team reviewed the overarching question and then developed research questions that would guide us in planning the lesson. The following questions were considered as we began this part of the process:

• What specific information and understandings do you want students to get from this particular lesson?
• What question guides the lesson plan?
• What do students currently understand about the topic?
• What source documents will be used to focus the lesson?
• How might students respond to the questions and activities in the lesson?
• What problems and misconceptions might arise?
• What might be the response?

This led to aligning the lesson with our state standards and determining what prerequisite skills the students needed and what the implications were for teaching the lesson. Some of the research questions the team decided on in respect to the overarching goal and the implications for teaching and learning were:

• What are the conversation patterns in the classroom (teacher to student, student to teacher, student to student)?
• How can we assure that students are listening to each other?
• How will opportunities be afforded for students to engage in conversations with one another?

The next few weeks will be spent planning the lesson. This is a time for the team to reflect on our goal and decide exactly how we can structure the lesson to ensure that it is successful. We are working to make certain that our expectations are clear: both to the teachers on the team and to the students. It is essential that our lesson be implemented in such a manner that the content is covered and the objectives of the overarching goal are met. In order for this to happen the team must analyze each aspect of the lesson plan in respect to what the students will be accountable for, what the responsibilities of the teacher will be, and how the remaining team members will observe for specific, predetermined elements of effective instruction.

Following the initial teaching of the lesson the team of teachers will reconvene and discuss the effectiveness of the lesson. The lesson will then be then revised and plans will be made for the lesson to be re-taught by another teacher on the team. The planning and debriefing in a lesson study constitutes the most critical aspect of the process. This is when teachers reflect on students' learning and through the collection of qualitative data establish trends in teaching and learning. This data leads us toward revisions in lesson planning. Reflective planning is at the core of developing teaching expertise and planning together through the lesson study model helps build the capacity of the entire team.