Lesson study – Page 2

September 12, 2015September 20, 2015

Class 3: Peer Review

Peer Review

Last week’s class introduced key elements of lesson design and assigned Lesson Study I. This week we are going to conduct two peer reviews of each lesson study, before it gets “turned in.” This models the student centered approach – with your peers sharing their higher-ordered review of your work – analyzing and evaluating it’s content. Following their feedback, you get to reflect on your work before turning it in.

We’ll manage the lesson study peer review this way:

You should bring in 3 copies of your 1st draft. (two to share and to one keep your notes on).
You will be randomly put in the first peer review paring
Meet and greet: exchange a quick 1 min intro to your lesson study – grade, subject, scope (one class lesson or a larger unit?)
Exchange written drafts and study for 3 mins. Mark up your copy if you see typos or want to add suggestions. Develop 3 questions you will ask for clarification.
Student A questions B. Student B responds 3 mins
Discussion / Brainstorming / B takes notes to captures modifications 3 mins
Reverse roles with Student A’s work under review
This should take us about 20 minutes to review each other’s work. You will then be assigned to another student to repeat the peer review process

After everyone has completed two reviews you will then have about 20-30 minutes to make revisions to your lesson study. (A good time to talk to the instructor as well). You should also write a personal reflection on what they learned in developing their first lesson study and participating in the peer review process.

edTPA Video Recording tutorial / WordPress Training

We have a 1 hour tutorial scheduled in the Clark Library Digital Lab from approximately 5;15-6:15. We will conclude with WordPress tutorial time.

Written Assignment for Class 4: Submit lesson study as blog post

Students will turn in their revised Lesson Study assignment as a post on this blog by 10 PM Sept 19th. It should include their lesson study as well as personal reflection. Each post should also have a historic photograph (public domain with citation) that matches the theme or subject of their lesson study. Student Lesson study posts

I’ve prepared some brief WordPress video tutorials. You can find them at this YouTube playlist / WordPress tutorials for using our class blog

I made these tutorials were with Apple QuickTime – you can use a free Chrome Plug in called SnagIt.

Reading Assignment for class 4 on historical thinking

I’ve used the TEDEd flipped lesson feature to curate a existing YouTube and turn it into a lesson to support next week’s class on historical thinking: Who is the historian in your classroom? Another way to flip a class.
Also do one online reading Thinking Like a Historian By Sam Wineburg

Image Credit: First woman jury, Los Angeles (November 1911)
The Library of Congress Call Number: LC-B2- 2354-15
Notes: Photo shows the first all-woman jury in California who acquitted the editor of the Watts News of printing indecent language, on Nov. 2, 1911.

September 6, 2015September 7, 2015

Class 2: The Lesson

This week we take our first look at instructional design. The class begins by addressing key elements of lesson design :

Higher-order thinking
Student choice and reflection
Effective classroom strategies

This portion of the class lesson includes three major elements:

Practical examples of Bloom’s taxonomy in the form of sample exercises and questions. They are used to anchor a conversation on Bloom in action.
How student choice can impact key lesson elements – content, process, product, evaluation.
Demonstrate a student-centered approach to a teacher presentation as a way to foster reflection (instead of listening to a straight lecture on the subject)

The lesson is driven by a Keynote presentation Week 2-15 Handout 2.5MB pdf.

We will use an audience response system to gather student input. The lesson includes multiple activities that illustrate the content. Student will be led through discussing their reactions to the activities to connect them to the content. This lesson will serve as a kick off to their first assignment to write and share a Lesson Study.

Later in the class we will share the learner selfie assigned in class 1.

Written assignment for Class 3:

Lesson Study I is due next week.

The goal of this assignment is two-fold. First, to offer supportive feedback on your lesson development through a peer review process. Second, to offer some “lenses to look through” that help you easily see the essentials of a lesson. This perspective should be useful when you later craft your edTPA commentary.

This is not some exercise for the benefit of your instructor. This should be a process that works for you. So feel free to modify to meet your particulars. Use a scale that works for you – focus on just a small segment of a larger unit, or look at the entire unit. Don’t like Bloom? Use another schema to discuss the kinds of thinking that your students will need to successfully complete the assignment

Lesson Study assignment 47kb pdf
Lesson Study Sample 51kb pdf

September 10, 2014

What’s Up With the Constitution?

8^th Grade Social Studies Lesson Study

Content – As we introduce our unit on the United States Constitution, we will examine the intent and underlying philosophies of the framers. The learning goal is to understand the concept of basic rights and the role of government.

Process – The students will be split up into groups of 5. Each group will be given a different scenario to analyze. The scenarios will focus on the tension between personal rights vs. the good of the community.

1) You want to build a mountain bike trail in the woods near your house, but in doing so you would be damaging rare bird habitat.

2) Your neighbor wants to turn his back yard into a hog farm, causing strange smells to waft through your window.

3) In an effort to curb obesity, the school no longer allows the drinking of soda or other sugary beverages in school.

4) The school implements a new zero tolerance policy for cell phone use. If a student is found using her phone during school hours, the phone will be confiscated for 1 week.

The groups will be given 10 minutes to discuss the possible outcomes and issues with their given scenario. We will then come back together and a representative from each group will explain their scenario to the group, identifying the central issue that is being argued, who are the main actors, and which side they support. The students will take notes on each other’s scenarios during the presentations. For homework, after reading the chapter in their textbook on the framers of the Constitution and their guiding philosophies, they will write a reflection of the exercise they did in class and how it fits into the issues at play in the crafting the Constitution.

Product –The students will have briefs of the scenarios from class and a written reflection.

Evaluation – The students will be evaluated informally by their participation and engagement in the exercises, and their ability to apply the concepts discussed in class to the history of our Constitution.

What kinds of thinking will students need to do to participate in the lesson?

The students will use strategic thinking such as formulating, assessing and analysis when they discuss the scenarios. For the reflection the students will need to use extended thinking like connecting and applying to make the connection from the classroom exercise to the history.

To what extent do students have options or choices regarding these lesson components?

The students can interpret the scenarios any way they choose. They have the option to align more with individual rights or the collective good, either answer is correct as long as they see that there is tension between the two. For their reflection they can choose what they found meaningful and how it relates to the history.

Personal Reflection

This project proved quite challenging for me because it involved both a lesson planning aspect and a technology aspect. These are two areas in which I have little experience. My original lesson was very much like a traditional lesson, there was a lecture, a worksheet, and a little bit of group work for the students. This is the way I was taught and is my first instinct when it comes to designing a lesson. However, we have learned repeatedly that students need to have more control of the learning to truly understand concepts. Through the peer review process I was able to rewrite my lesson to put almost all of the learning in the hands of the students. As the teacher I simply designed the lesson, but the students came up with all the content. I even decided to leave out the lecture all together and have the students try to make the connections themselves from the exercise to the homework reading. I can always fill in the blanks if the reflections reveal a lack of understanding of the concepts. Going forward I will attempt hold my lessons up to a standard of maximum allowable student interaction. I will see where I can replace my talking with student activity, discovery, and hopefully, understanding.

__________________________________________________________

we the people photo: Wang

reflection photo: essentialscafe

September 6, 2014

Class 3: Peer Review / WordPress Tutorial

Peer Review

We’ll manage the lesson study this way:

You should bring in 3 copies of your 1st draft. (two to share and to one keep their notes on).
You will be randomly put in the first peer review paring
Meet and greet: exchange a quick 1 min intro to your lesson study – grade, subject, scope (one class lesson or a larger unit?)
Exchange written drafts and study for 3 mins. Mark up your copy if you see typos or want to add suggestions. Develop 3 questions you will ask for clarification.
Student A questions B. Student B responds 3 mins
Discussion / Brainstorming / B takes notes to captures modifications 3 mins
Reverse roles with Student A’s work under review
This should take us about 20 minutes to review each other’s work. You will then be assigned to another student to repeat the peer review process

After everyone has completed two reviews you will then have about 20-30 minutes to make revisions to you lesson study. (A good time to talk to the instructor as well). You should also write a personal reflection on what they learned in developing their first lesson study and participating in the peer review process

Submitting lesson study as blog post: See results here

Students will turn in their revised Lesson Study I assignment as a post on this blog by 10 PM Sept 10th. It should include their lesson study as well as personal reflection. Each post should also have a historic photograph (public domain with citation) that matches the theme or subject of their lesson study.

I’ve prepared some brief WordPress video tutorials. You can find them at this YouTube playlist / WordPress tutorials for using our class blog These tutorials were made with a free Chrome Plug in called SnagIt.

Assignments for class 4 on historical thinking
I’ve used the TEDEd flipped lesson feature to curate a existing YouTube and turn it into a lesson to support next week’s class on historical thinking: Who is the historian in your classroom? Another way to flip a class.

Also do one online reading Thinking Like a Historian By Sam Wineburg

Image source:

Beach tug of war at Southport, 1917
State Library of Queensland link