Raising the Bar

Goal Driven Lesson Study at Harris Elementary

 

Rebecca McKay
Director, Literacy and Professional Development

     “Understanding the distinction between “incidental” and “purposeful” lesson study learning is essential if U.S. lesson study practitioners are to engage in a deeper, more sustainable lesson study process. Groups could conceivably go through numerous iterations of lesson study without ever becoming aware of or addressing this concern. Lesson study practitioners need to become vigilant monitors of their own work in order to avoid this pitfall. As a community, U.S. lesson study practitioners need to pay explicit attention to thinking and learning about how to achieve a lesson study practice that is purposeful and productive because it is goal driven.”( Lewis & Tsuchida, 1998)
      This excerpt is particularly salient to Cornerstone schools as we approach the 2007 Winter Conference to be held in Stamford, Connecticut. As a school change organization, we are ready to move deeper into studies of classroom lessons to build practice that is worthy of sustainability while impacting teachers, students, and schools to the deepest level. Last month Spotlight on Literacy included a checklist for improving Lesson Study and impacting student achievement. The Winter Conference promises to be chock full of learning as we continue to explore the role of Facilitator and Knowledgeable Other to meet this end. The following article describes the journey of one school district, Springfield, Massachusetts, and the beginning of their exploration of goal driven Lesson Study.

The Beginning

     What a difference a year makes particularly when schools are growing and changing! A little less than twelve months ago a large delegation of educators led by Joanne Wilson-Keenan traveled from Springfield, Massachusetts to attend a two day Lesson Study at Sycamore Elementary School in Talladega County, Alabama. There are some entertaining stories about their trip. Let’s just say that they did not travel to the Mecca of fine dining and hotel accommodations. What they did discover in their two day pilgrimage and participation in Lesson Study is what Catherine Lewis and Ineko Tsuchida (1998) call: “the eyes to see children.”  The Springfield school delegation liked what they observed in the Talladega Cornerstone Schools: “the use of Lesson Study as a means to discern student achievement and the reaching of the zone of optimal learning through the alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment”.  (Farenga, Joyce, & Ness, 2002)

Getting Ready for Foundation Status and Lesson Study

        Before returning to Springfield, the Harris and Freedman school teams met with the Talladega County Cornerstone leaders and started an action plan for implementing lesson study and next steps toward writing a plan for Cornerstone Foundation status. From the district plan (http://www.sps.springfield.ma.us/webContent/ReadingPlan.pdf), the two Springfield Schools, Freedman and Harris, set into motion their frame for the coming year’s work as Cornerstone Foundation Schools. The district reading plan provided an excellent structure for their work. This simple and elegant curriculum guide is very similar to the description of Japan’s national curriculum, “a shared, frugal curriculum” (Lewis & Tsuchida, 1998). The purpose of Springfield’s foundation work, spreading the Cornerstone school change and professional development model, also embraced the use of balanced literacy practice in the content curriculum with particular emphasis on science. The plan utilized the research supporting the strong connection between science and literacy in much the same way that Thier (2002) suggests:
       “A growing number of science educators believe that by making science a key element in strengthening literacy skills, teachers can demonstrate that a strong program of science instruction can play an important role in improving achievement in literacy.”
     Under the leadership of the district office, principals, coaches and Cornerstone Literacy and Leadership Fellows, the Springfield district started a full year in advance to solidify their plan for spreading the Cornerstone work. Underpinning the foundation plan was a strict adherence to purposeful learning for principals, students, teachers, and district coaches, all based in the process of Lesson Study. The plan included the adoption of two partner schools and a curriculum for a full year’s staff development for the Springfield District Literacy Coaches. The staff development curriculum was teeming with opportunities to observe first hand the Cornerstone literacy work at Freedman and Harris Elementary Schools. Early on in the planning, the various stakeholders were resolute that staff development be grounded in the daily work of the foundation schools with heavy emphasis on their school improvement plans. There would be no “dog and pony shows” here.

Harris Elementary and Goal Driven Lesson Study

     Frederick Harris Elementary in Springfield, Massachusetts is dedicated to lesson study and committed to keeping the whole school community focused on three school improvement goals around science, mathematics, and literacy. Concrete reminders of the goals are printed on beautiful book marks and used throughout the school to keep the focus on the important business Harris is conducting. The incorporation of school mission statements and school improvement plans were the central focus for the content for developing other schools in the district through Lesson Study. The Lesson Studies and staff development were planned with what Lewis and Tsuchida (1998) call “purposeful” learning goals.
     Recently while reading a book about staff development for teachers of science, my mind raced as I visualized scenes from my site visits to Harris. The article I was trying to synthesize was Teaching Science When Your Principal Says “Teach Language Arts” (2002).  As Cornerstone children often say while reading, I made a connection.  I thought about my facilitation of the Harris November Lesson Study and Deb Lantaigne, principal at Harris Elementary. I giggled a bit to myself as I thought aloud and wished I could actually speak to the author of the article and say:
  “Boy, have I got a principal for you! You should meet Deb. She leads a school to teach science and language arts in an integrated manner and provides a science coach to take the content to the deepest levels. You won’t believe this, but she and her leadership team are using goal driven Lesson Study to monitor children’s learning and the delivery of literacy lessons through science content!”
     Acting as facilitator for Harris’ first Lesson Study since their hosting of the 2006 Cornerstone Regional Conference, I observed and learned about deepening and sustaining the process of Lesson Study:

  • The week before the Lesson Study the Harris coaches and the science teacher prepared and sent reading materials to build background knowledge on determining importance and synthesis in nonfiction texts to all participants and district coaches. They included an important Cornerstone Newsletter by Ellin Keene that tied the deep structure comprehension strategies to content areas: (http://www.cornerstoneliteracy.org/NEWSLETTER/052902/ellin.html).
  • The coaches, Laura Caron, Kim Still, and Renee Lodi, worked with the fourth grade teachers to plan a cloud lesson that was within a broad unit of study on weather. This unit culminated in a real world project for the fourth grade classes and fit within a larger frame of integration in the science and literacy curriculum. 
  • The lesson goal originated from the Harris school improvement/literacy action plan from the science portion of the school’s improvement plan. There was a clear focus on science standards framed within a literacy standard. The final student generated product by the fourth grade classes served a real world purpose as a review game for their peers in fifth-grade to use as a review on weather.
  • The student goals for learning were written in clear standards based language and included differentiation through invitational grouping and teacher conferences. Student work products using rubrics and checklists that the children had internalized were used as data sources.
  • The school leadership team aligned teaching, assessment, and the use of quality materials with content standards to plan the Lesson Study. Harris has invested heavily in good nonfiction texts similar to the materials listed on the National Science Teachers Association website: http://www.nsta.org/ostbc.
  • Participating Lesson Study teachers discussed the lesson in great depth and came to the conclusion that the school wide focus on accountable talk was successful with most children, but not all students were living up to their potential in this area. As facilitator, my role calls for collecting accountable talk readings and sending them to the school.
  • A Knowledgeable Other, Andres Rameriz from a local university was invited to video the Lesson Study. After the lessons, Andres met informally with a few members of the planning team and suggested next steps in the process. He suggested a reading by Lemke (1990) to aid in connecting science and language. Lemke’s book, Talking Science: Language, Learning, and Values, extols the role of language in teaching and in communication of science. The text provides insight for teachers regarding the importance of teaching students the facts, concepts, and language of science in a way that makes them feel at ease.
  • The unit taught will be posted to a district website that houses exemplary lessons to further spread the teacher researched lessons to a broader audience.

      Last month’s Spotlight on Literacy included the following: Checklist for Strengthening Lesson Study: A Dozen Questions We Could Pose to Increase Achievement for Diverse Students.  While serving as the Lesson Study facilitator at Harris Elementary, I observed eight (listed above) of the proposed dozen actions for raising student achievement.  This was their first study conducted solely by their staff! Next steps for Harris might include investigation of accountable talk and provision for students to share their perspective on the Lesson Study and how they think they performed as learners.
      Cornerstone staff, coaches, principals, and teachers must lead our schools to the higher ground required when raising the bar for goal driven Lesson Study. Paths to the higher ground include providing teachers with feedback about their instruction when they are involved in Lesson Study and at the same time surveying them on how the feedback affects their instruction.  Everyone involved in the important work of Cornerstone must ask hard questions of teachers by openly discussing how the lessons, the planning, and the collaboration from the study will impact their future planning and how they hold themselves and their students accountable. Recognizing the need for mentors in the process, we will do well to remember what the Springfield School district has accomplished in such a short time period. There are reasons why Harris and Freedman reached Foundation status: leadership and dedication.

Lesson Study Powerpoint

References

     Akerson, V. (2002).Teaching science when your principal says “Teach language arts”. In Teaching Teachers: Bringing first-rate science to the elementary classroom. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press National Science Teachers Association.
     Keene, E. ( 2002). “To understand.” In Ellin’s Corner.  Retrieved December 15, 2006, from http://www.cornerstoneliteracy.org/NEWSLETTER/052902/ellin.html
     Lewis, C. & Tsuchida, (1998). “A lesson is like a swiftly flowing river: How research lessons improve Japanese education.” American Educator, 22(4), 12-17; 50-52.
     Lemke, J. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning, and values. Westport, CT: Ablex.
      McKay, R. (2006). “Lesson study versus school in a box.” In Spotlight on Literacy. Retrieved December 15, 2006, from http://www.cornerstoneliteracy.org/NEWSLETTER/volume_7_2/index.html
     Farenga, S., Joyce, B., & Ness, D. (2002). “Reaching the zone of optimal learning: The alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.” In R. Bybee (Ed.), Learning science and the science of learning. (pp.51-65). Arlington, VA: NSTA Press National Science Teachers Association.
     Thier, M. (2002). The new science literacy: Using language skills to help students learn science. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Further Reading for the Science-Literacy-Inquiry Connection

1. November 2006 Science and Children published by the National Science Teachers Association. This issue's focus: Reading Strategies for Science.
http://www.nsta.org/main/news/stories/journal_archive_date_list.php?
category_ID=86&issue_ID=995
From: Chris Ohana, Field Editor: “This issue highlights the connection of reading skills to science and the many processes the two subjects share, such as making predictions, inferences, collecting evidence, and more. Of course, that’s assuming that this reading takes place in a classroom in which students engage in investigations and inquiry—reading shouldn’t replace active science. When done together, they are a powerful combination!”

2.    December 2006/January 2007 Educational Leadership published by the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. This issue’s focus: Science in the Spotlight   
http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/index.jsp/
From Marge Scherer, Editor in Chief: “The authors of these articles recommend making science courses more rigorous. They also emphasize the importance of making learning science meaningful to students—not only to entice more of them to pursue careers in science but also to inform future world citizens. Here are their recommendations:

  • Building science lessons sequentially and linking hands-on inquiry to the development of science content understandings.
  • Clymer and Wiliam describe standards-based assessment that supports the teacher to improve learning rather than just measure it.
  • National science standards contain far too many concepts, writes Gerald F. Wheeler (p. 30). More science content is not necessarily better science content.
  • The need for science teachers who not only have a firm grasp of content but also know how to teach students is enormous.
  • Ordinary citizens must get beyond basic understanding of science if they are to tackle important concerns: product research, medical treatments, climate change, and technology

3. January 2006 Language Arts published by the National Council for Teachers of English. This issue’s focus:Learning through Inquiry
http://www.ncte.org/portal/30_view.asp?id=120586

4. Crossing Borders in Literacy and Science Instruction: Perspectives on Theory and Practice, Vol. 1 by E. Wendy Saul (Editor). Published by the International Reading Association and the National Science Teachers Association.
Review from Barnes and Noble: Editor E. Wendy Saul offers a variety of pieces to help educators address the literacy-science connection:

  • Quasi-theoretical pieces to help you think differently about how language and the specific discourse of science work together.
  • Literature reviews to help you understand trends in the literature.
  • Case studies to help you recognize exemplary teacher practices.
  • Evaluations of particular interventions to help you forgo the assumption that there is agreement on best practices Each thought-provoking chapter encourages you to reflect on your own beliefs and find new ways to foster the literacy-science connection among your students and colleagues.