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Home > Lesson Study Resources > Intro. Workshop materials > February 2003

Lesson Study Resources

Introductory Workshop
February 10-11, 2003

Monday, February 10; Tuesday, February 11

Monday, February 10

8:00 Introduction
We described the key elements of Japanese lesson study and the basic lesson study cycle. We showed the Can You Lift 100 Kilogram video which illustrates the major steps of lesson study. And we discussed some of the benefits one could gain by doing lesson study.

9:00 BREAK

9:15 Exploring Mathematics in Lesson Study
There were 2 parts to this session. In the first part, we looked at a video from the TIMSS study to see how mathematics is typically taught in a Japanese lesson. We also talked about the influence of TIMSS and The Teaching Gap in spreading the idea of lesson study in the U.S.

In the second part, participants worked on a problem individually and then discussed the mathematics behind the problem as well as the expected responses from students. You can find a copy of the “Beep Me Home” problem participants worked on in the Math Resources section of this website.

11:30 Participant Survey
For the research component of this project, we administered a survey to all participants to establish a baseline of data on individual and team characteristics.

12 – 1 LUNCH

1:00 Choosing a Research Theme
We introduced participants to the concept of goals within lesson study by having individuals and groups reflect on their ideal image of students and the gaps that currently exist between their ideal and actual students. Teams then began to narrow in on a long-term goal for their lesson study process based on these reflections.

2:00 BREAK

2:15 Team Meeting I: Selecting a Topic

During this session, each team met to begin selecting a topic. Participants were encouraged to choose a concept that was important mathematically and that was interesting to the group. Participants were given guiding questions to help them narrow in on a topic.

3:15 End of Day Feedback

3:30 ADJOURN

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Tuesday, February 11

8:00 Panel of Teachers with Lesson Study Experience
Three teachers, Dana Agabiti (Watertown Middle School), Mike Mosbrooker (Newton South High School) and Betty Strong (Brookline High School) spoke about their experience doing lesson study work as part of the first cohort in the project.

9:15 Establishing Group Norms

This session was focused on productive ways to work together and make decisions as a group. It was intended to be a start of that work. We anticipate that teams would revisit issues related to working collaboratively in their lesson study groups when they meet together at their school. In particular, we asked participants to describe what makes a good group and what drives them crazy in groups. Then teams began to discuss norms they would adopt for their own groups.

10:15 BREAK

10:25 Team Meeting II: Getting Started on the Lesson
Each team met to begin work on their lesson by sharing their own expertise in the content area and looking at how the selected topic fits into the broader curriculum. Some teams began to look at how the concept was approached in their textbook compared to other texts. All teams left this session with an agenda for their next meeting, which would be at their schools.

12 – 1 LUNCH

1:00 Observing, Debriefing and Revising
We gave participants an image of observation, debriefing, and revising by utilizing the video "Teacher to Teacher: Reshaping Instruction Through Lesson Study" from NCREL. Participants were also given a 4-column lesson plan to gather data from the video and to use in their own debriefing discussions.

2:30 Business
During this time, participants were given information about the support that would be provided by EDC as well as what was required from the project in order to receive the stipend. Participants were told about the opportunity to receive Professional Development Points (PDPs) or graduate credit by taking on additional assignments.

3:00 Final Evaluation

3:30 ADJOURN

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