Lesson Study Group at Mills College

School-Wide Video Segments For Lesson Study Step By Step

The video links (click on images) show the school-wide lesson study work featured in Lesson Study Step-by-Step. Over a school year, we see teachers choose a school-wide focus on investigating instructional strategies to close the achievement gap, and we follow a group of first through fourth grade teachers as they work to improve their Writer's Workshop program through lesson study (2005).

Video Clip 1	At schoolwide staff meeting, teachers choose a focus ("research theme") for the year's lesson study work, based in part on a district mandate to close the achievement gap. Questions to consider before viewing this segment:
	=>	What aspects of teaching and learning would benefit from schoolwide inquiry at your school?
	=>	What do you know about lesson study, and what do you anticipate will be the challenges and benefits?

 

Video Clip 2	Lesson Study Group brings their own pressing instructional questions to schoolwide research theme.
	=>	How are teachers' views and fears similar or different to your own? What supports help teachers voice and reexamine their views?
	=>	After reading the Writing Teaching-Learning Plan for Grade 3, what do you anticipate will be the success and challenges for students?

 

Video Clip 3	Research lesson conducted in a third grade classroom
	=>	Carefully observe students, take notes, and discuss what students said and did, and what that suggests about their thinking and learning.
	=>	What do you think about the distinction between models and modeling and how do you think teachers' ideas about models and modeling changed?

 

Video Clip 4	Post-Lesson Debriefing Session
	=>	How did the presence of educators from outside the school add to the discussion?
	=>	How does this lesson study cycle fit with your ideas about effective professional development?
		How might lesson study be used at your site to build a teacher learning community?
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