I think the main mathematical goal of this
lesson is helping students to distinguish the difference between area and
perimeter through an example with a difference of opinion. The teacher and he
helpers are very active in trying to get the students to get them to prove
their answer with a picture. This would help students to sort through their
thinking and prove what the correct answer is. The debriefing video was similar
to what I expected in the respect that each person shared their ideas about
what they observed in the class being taught. The difference that I noticed in
the video was that the teacher who taught the lesson did not share very much/at
all. I would hope that in my lesson study debrief, the students that are
teaching would share their thoughts on how the lesson went and how the students
reacted to the lesson from their perspective. The Whitenack article states
that, “A teacher might encourage
students to explain and justify their ideas during class discussions for many
reasons. All students can benefit from these discussions, including the student
who is explaining and the others who are participating in the discussion. When
asked to explain or justify their thinking, students can revisit their mathematical
ideas.” (Whitenack 2002) To me, this means that the teacher really needs to
encourage students to explain their thinking behind the decisions that they
made when doing a problem. Not only do I think teachers need to understand students
thinking, but it will help students realize if their answers are flawed through
verbalizing what they did. I think the most challenging part of the lesson
study will be to take notes on everything that is being said throughout the
lesson. I think this will be hard because some students in a first grade
classroom will be speaking very quietly and some will speak very fast. I think
the debriefing after the lesson will be the most beneficial part of this lesson
study because it will be very nice to be able to collaborate with group members
about what went on in the lesson. I know that I have reflected on my lessons on
my own, but to have someone else watch the same lesson and then get their
feedback about it will be very helpful for my personal learning.
I agree that the mathematical goal is to distinguish between area and perimeter, but I think it goes a little beyond that. I think that the main goal of this lesson is for the students to understand that area is measured by square units, where as perimeter is just measured in units (or inches in this case).
ReplyDeleteThe debriefing video was almost exactly what I expect to occur in our lesson study debriefing, as well. Since each person is required to do his/her own observations, I expected us to go around in a circle and share what we saw just like the people in the video did. I also noticed that the observers from the video started to interpret the observations they wrote down, which is an important part of the debriefing session. However, I had expected more back and forth communication about what each person saw, rather than having one person speak, then another, then the next, and so on. Since we only saw a small 5 minute portion of the debrief I am assuming that part comes later in the session. I would assume if we saw more of the video that we would also see the teacher speak as well (or I would hope!)
I really like the quote you choose from the Whitenack article. I think the big idea in that article is to stress the importance of student thinking and questioning. In the article the importance of both teacher and student questioning was obvious. The teacher in the article made the student questions the focus of the discussion so the student sharing could clarify his/her own ideas, and the students asking questions could continue to reason what they saw. As we have talked about many times in class, it’s important to never say anything a kid can say. I think questioning plays a big role in that because the right questions can bring out important content from student reasoning rather than reciting the information to them. For my groups lesson study, this idea is something we have been trying really hard to include in our planning. Instead of telling the students what length and width mean or how to measure the length and width of an object, we want to be prepared with questions that will lead the students to think through those mathematical concepts. For the observers, I think it’s important to take note of the kinds of questions that come up in the discussion because those could be really telling of how a student is thinking.
I think the most challenging part of the lesson study will be the debriefing session, only because this is something very new to us. Making sure we are able to correctly interpret the observations we all took will be an extremely important part of the lesson study, but since it is pretty unfamiliar territory for us I think it wil be more challenging than we are anticipating. Taking good notes is obviously a big part of the debriefing session so I agree that this will be challenging. As with first graders, kindergarteners can also have a hard time clarifying their ideas.
That being said, I also agree that the debriefing session will be the most beneficial aspect of the lesson study. Reflecting on student observations to better understand how a student thinks about a mathematical concept, as well as how we can plan lessons in the future that build off that information is HUGELY important as an educator. I think this gets overlooked in schools a lot as teachers become more and more comfortable with a certain way of teaching. But, methods of teaching are constantly changing and improving, so teachers need to look at student learning as a way to cater their lessons to incorporate those changes.
Like Carrie and Caitlin, I also saw some flaws in the debriefing part of the lesson study video. Carrie mentioned that there was not much back and forth conversation and the teachers mainly shared their observations one at a time. I too hope that my group feels comfortable enough to use the debriefing as more of a discussion. The one teaching the lesson should be commenting the most in my opinion, because I feel like the teacher reads the overall direction of the lesson the most. That being said, as an observer, I think it will be difficult to take notes and make interpretations without missing anything. I feel like my group has an advantage because we have 6 members in our group, and the second grade class we are teaching in only has 20 students. I feel like if all of us correctly does our jobs then this lesson study is going to bring many different view points, which is great. As future teachers, I think sometimes it's hard to get different views about the lesson we teach because we want to believe the way we choose to teach is the most beneficial.
ReplyDeleteCaitlin also mentioned how pivotal good questioning is in any lesson. I too agree that a teacher should form his/her questions in a manner that doesn't give away and answers and challenges students to think deeper about the content. After lesson planning two math lessons I now see how important it is to anticipate student thinking in order to keep the students on task and keep the class discussion moving.
All in all, I'm excited and interested to view and discuss how all of our lesson studies play out!