Before jumping into the post-lesson discussion, give observers the chance to review their own notes and student work and to collect their thoughts.

Immediately following the lesson, give observers and planning members at least 10 minutes of quiet time to review their notes before the post-lesson discussion starts. Encourage observers to consider which of their observations to share in the discussion, and to be selective, rather than providing a long list.

Make sure student data from the lesson (such as student journals or tasks) are available for review. Review of the work from all students allows observers to refine and expand the knowledge they gained from observing a particular student(s). Artifacts of the lesson (such as posters capturing the public writing) should also be available.

Provide observers with different-colored sticky notes to flag and categorize key observations in their notes or in student work.

For teams focused on students’ writing, you may want to allow substantial time (30 minutes or so) for all participants to read all student writing and attach sticky notes that relate to features of interest.

Organize the post-lesson discussion around a shared set of questions in order to help observers focus their verbal and written comments. Often these shared questions are developed in advance by the lesson study team and included in the Teaching-Learning Plan (# 10), but sometimes interesting new questions emerge during the research lesson, and can be announced at the beginning of the post-lesson discussion.