Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Lesson Study

Our social studies team participated in a lesson study activity recently.  Here's a recap from Ms. Johnson:

I have heard a lot about the term “lesson study”, but have never been able to do, participate in or observe until this past Friday. My best summary of what I’ve taken away from the process is that a group of teachers (in this case all social studies teachers, instructional coaches, and GRT) collaborate to build a lesson together in the morning. You randomly select one teacher to teach that lesson in the afternoon while the others observe. Finally, you debrief in the afternoon about the lesson it-self, process, what you’ve learned, etc…This is a great way to work vertically with department members, discuss instructional strategies, plan together and have time for a solid discussion. On Friday, the social studies department worked on creating a lesson around primary and secondary sources. Students were split up in several different groups to review primary and secondary sources about a particular explorer.

The group had to work together to read through the provided primary and secondary sources and gather information to create a visual that they explained to the class about their explorer. Mr. Rooks was selected (by drawing his name out of a hat) to teach/facilitate this lesson to Mr. Wright’s sixth grade students. While the students were actively working together, analyzing sources, and summarizing information, the adults were taking notes on the intended student actions vs. observable student actions and any other observations. The lesson study process would be great for any content or level of teachers. Our instructional coaches can certainly facilitate this, so let them know if you’re interested. Awesome work, everyone!

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