Lesson Study Resources
Start of Cycle Workshop
March 3, 2003
8:00 - 8:30 Coffee and breakfast
8:30 - 8:45 Workshop Overview
The goals for this workshop were similar to our goals for the
project. First, to learn about mathematics and pedagogy, we wanted participants
to consider an "Open Approach" to math problems. Second, to
learn about lesson study, we wanted to give participants feedback from
the last cycle and inform them of new project requirements. Third, in
our effort to build a community of lesson study practitioners, we wanted
them to meet across teams to share strategies and experiences doing
their work. Finally, we wanted to launch this spring cycle of lesson
study by giving them time to work as a team.
8:45-10:45 An Open Approach to Mathematics
Based on a presentation by Jerry Becker at NCTM Boston and his book,
The Open Ended Approach: A New Proposal for Teaching Mathematics.(NCTM),
this session suggested that an Open Approach to mathematics could complement
team lesson study work, as it is frequently seen in Japanese research
lessons. During this session, participants worked with three kinds of
open problems: problems with many approaches (but one solution), problems
with many solutions, and problems that led to many other problems. To
take a look at some of the math problems, see the Math
Resources section of this website.
Break
10:55 - 11:40 Our Reflections & Revisions (& some business)
During this session, we gave feedback to the participants on what they
did during their first cycle of lesson study, what we learned from their
work and our work, what we were going to do differently in the next
cycle, and then we gave teams time to discuss what aspect of the lesson
study cycle they wanted to work on in the next cycle. For a summary
of the session, take a look at the session slides (pdf).
Lunch
12:15 - 1:35 Team Consultation
Each team met to discuss some of the issues they are facing
while doing lesson study, and then they selected one issue to share
with a larger group. In the larger group, we followed a protocol in
which one team would present their issues, the others would ask clarifying
questions about the issue and then give suggestions and experiences
to the team, while the team silently recorded these ideas. After about
10 minutes, the team would be able to respond to the suggestions and
clarify any questions they had. Each team had about 15 minutes for their
issue.
Break
1:45 - 3:00 Team Meeting
After checking in on team norms and the team goal, we encouraged groups
to utilize their experiences from the day's workshop to jump back into
the lesson study cycle.
3:00 - 3:15 Closing Thoughts
We administered an end of workshop evaluation and thanked everyone for
a wonderful day!
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