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The purpose of this lesson form is to help students develop conceptual understanding, effective problem solving strategies, and explain and critique each other’s reasoning, especially in mathematics. To effectively teach through this model, several instructional shifts must take place:
The purpose of this lesson form is to help students develop conceptual understanding, effective problem solving strategies, and explain and critique each other’s reasoning, especially in mathematics. To effectively teach through this model, several instructional shifts must take place:
- The teacher becomes a listener, rather than a talker.
- The teacher becomes the sorter of information, rather than the giver of information.
- Students learn to rely on reasoning, rather than relying on telling and patterns.
These three pieces define a lesson and lead to conceptual understanding.
Launch
Launch
The purpose of the launch is for the teacher to
- introduce new concepts.
- review old concepts.
- help students understand the context of the problem.
- issue a (mathematical) challenge to the students.
Suggestions for effective launches:
- Tell a story to set up the problem.
- Relate the problem to the students’ lives and their activities.
- Create challenges for the students.
- Revisit ideas from previous (math) experiences.
- Vary the type of launch from day to day.
- Make expectations clear to the students.
- Create a clear focus.
Explore
Explore
The students are active during this phase and should be observed
- gathering data.
- sharing ideas.
- looking for patterns.
- making conjectures.
- developing strategies.
- creating arguments to support their reasoning and their solution.
During an effective explore students should be
- choosing the tools they need.
- solving the problem.
- asking questions of each other.
- recording solutions in their notes.
- preparing a presentation.
The teacher becomes a facilitator during this phase and should be
- asking questions to encourage thought.
- asking questions to redirect.
- observing individual differences.
- providing extra challenges.
During an effective explore teachers should be
- asking questions to redirect or extend learning.
- taking note of student strategies and solutions.
- tracking attempts, struggles, and successes.
- mentally orchestrating the summary.
- constantly making instructional decisions.
Summarize
Summarize
During the summary, teachers and students work together to resolve the concepts presented in the problem and lay the groundwork for future study.
As a group, teachers and students will
- collect, organize, and analyze data.
- observe differences and similarities.
- discuss and refine strategies.
- develop rules or generalizations.
- verify generalizations.
During an effective summary
- students present ideas.
- conversations involve the whole class.
- students debate over the correctness of answers.
- students analyze strategies and discuss similarities.
- students are encouraged to ask questions.
- The ideas are related to previous concepts.
- upcoming ideas are foreshadowed.
- extension questions are asked.
Source: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (Producer). (2013, December 13, 2015). Mathematics Instructional Framework: Launch – Explore- Summarize – Reflect - Apply (LESRA). Retrieved from http://www.wisconsinrticenter.org/assets/files/Math_Resources/3.1%20LESRA%20Handout.pdf.
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