Class 8 / 9: Lesson Study 2

Lesson Study II

Lesson study is a form of classroom inquiry in which several teachers collaboratively plan, teach, observe, revise and share the results of a single class lesson.  (Learn more about the “formal” process here)

We are modifying that formal process into a simple one. Each student in the class will “teach” a 25-30 minute lesson. The rest of the class will act as participate / observers – serving as “students” during the lesson and afterwards, giving feedback to the “teacher.”

Assignment 5 – lesson Study II / blog post

Class 8 (10/22). Nicole  |  Nick K  |  Gabe
Class 9 (10/29). Jana  |  Nick C  |  Jordan

“Teachers” have prepared a lesson and written an anticipatory blog post following guidelines outlined here.

Participate / observers will use the following prompts to guide their feedback  immediately following the lesson.

  1. Content: as a student, what were you learning – facts, skills, insights?
  2. Process: what did you see the teacher do to set up and deliver the lesson?
  3. Product: what were you, as a student, tasked to “do / produce” to demonstrate your learning?
  4. Assessment: as an observer, how did the lesson go? Insights on content, delivery, workflow. Suggestions?
Assignment 6 | Completed reflections here

“Teachers” will write a blog post that reflects on how your intent was realized in your delivery. Possible prompts: Did you accomplish your goals? What worked well? What didn’t?  How about your timing, delivery and workflow? What did you learn from the experience?

Assignment 7

Students will begin planning their historical thinking lesson plan for inclusion in our final showcase publication. At our Nov 5 class, you should be ready to  give an 3 min “elevator pitch” on your lesson idea.

This lesson should be designed for direct use by students and include:

  1. Introduction of the lesson with brief historic context as needed.
  2. Essential / generative  question
  3. About 5 – 8 related documents (image, text, video, audio) that will assist the students in answering the generative question
  4. Clear statement of what students will be asked to do
  5. Close reading scaffolding question for each document to assist the student in examining the documents

For inspiration for turning historical documents into a lesson see:
How did Americans change their lives to support the war effort?  (894KB pdf) and Re-Defining the Role of Women in Industrial America (492KB pdf)

Class 5 / 6: Lesson Study 1

Lesson Study 1

Lesson study is a form of classroom inquiry in which several teachers collaboratively plan, teach, observe, revise and share the results of a single class lesson.  (Learn more about the “formal” process here)

We are modifying that formal process into a simple one. Each student in the class will “teach” a 25-30 minute lesson. The rest of the class will act as participate / observers – serving as “students” during the lesson and afterwards, giving feedback to the “teacher.”

Assignment 3 – teaching a lesson / blog post

Class 5 (9/24). Nicole  |  Nick K  |  Gabe
Class 6 (10/1). Jana  |  Nick C  |  Jordan

“Teachers” have prepared a lesson and written an anticipatory blog post following guidelines outlined here.

Participate / observers will use the following prompts to guide their feedback  immediately following the lesson.

  1. Content: as a student, what were you learning – facts, skills, insights?
  2. Process: what did you see the teacher do to set up and deliver the lesson?
  3. Product: what were you, as a student, tasked to “do / produce” to demonstrate your learning?
  4. Assessment: as an observer, how did the lesson go? Insights on content, delivery, workflow. Suggestions?
Assignment 4 | Completed reflections here

“Teachers” will write a blog post that reflects on how your intent was realized in your delivery. Possible prompts: Did you accomplish your goals? What worked well? What didn’t?  How about your timing, delivery and workflow? What did you learn from the experience?

Class 3: The Lesson

Three key elements of student engagement

Class will lead off with a follow up discussion to our Visualizing Place assignment. Special attention will be paid to reflecting on the workflow of the assignment, video tutorials and possible uses in student placements.


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

  1. Higher-order thinking
  2. Student choice and reflection
  3. 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. week3-16-handouts 1.7MB 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.

key lesson components

Written assignment for Class 4:

Lesson Study is due 9/19.

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

Assignment lesson-study-16 47kb pdf
Sample based on today’s class lesson-study-sample-16 51kb pdf

Imperialist sentiments leading to the War of 1898

Uncle Sam's Picnic 1898

Uncle Sam’s Picnic 1898

Content- We will be studying how Americans at the turn of the century saw their place in the world i.e. manifest destiny and their responsibility to what they believed were lower, less civilized races and societies. The students will continue to work on their OPCVL skills and translating this information into a succinct but comprehensive paragraph.

Continue reading “Imperialist sentiments leading to the War of 1898”