Lesson Study Cycle 1

How can students use a variety of ways (including restating their steps, completing similar problems, others?) to show their mathematical thinking so that all students experience success in showing and replicating a mathematical strategy? How can we make sure the peak of success does not necessarily involve teaching others?

Equity Theme

With equity and student centered work at the forefront of our lesson study cycle, we sought answers to how literature gaps affect young mathematicians in accessing, understanding, and sharing their mathematical thinking.

Content Understanding Goal

Students can attend to the task by estimating, adding numbers, and using strategies they know to add numbers. Students can work to develop accuracy. It requires knowing place value and how to regroup numbers. Students need number sense to access and develop this new skill.

The purpose of this task is for students to practice rounding numbers to the nearest ten, connect the rules for rounding with location on the number line, and to introduce the idea of rounding to the nearest 100.

Lesson Study Team: Melina Aguirre, Carrie Geremia, Nicole Sammartino, Becky Snowden

Linked Annotated Bibliography

Research risen aha findings

Students who are challenged with reading comprehension show challenges in accessing word problems. This creates a form of inequality in the classroom. More research is needed to provide specific strategies for how to address this. Number talks are valued to create equity of student voice.

Literature Synthesis

A framework for the research guiding our Lesson Study Cycle 1.

Lesson Study Cycle 1: The Lesson

Our lesson highlights our content understanding goal stated above. Visuals from the lesson as well as the slides and samples of student work are displayed below. Lesson study provides an opportunity for educators to create a research based lesson with student voice and equity at the forefront. Data is collected and multiple teachers may take part in teaching the lesson. A debrief occurs where lesson study participants and observers share findings.

Our research lesson topic explores place value to the nearest hundred.
3rd grade class in Point Loma (24 students)

Students can round to the nearest 100

Warm Up activity

Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100

Vocabulary: Place value, rounding, mid-point, hundreds

Rounding activity

Apply new knowledge of place value to complete an independent activity with time to grapple and share mathematical thinking when complete.

Lesson Slides

Sequence of the lesson is viewable. Detailed information including related content standards are included.

Memorialization Document

Personal goal for lesson design

All Learners

Engagement through doodling

Focus Student 2

Focus Student 1

Student is comfortable asking for help yet rarely shares mathematical thinking. Willing to work hard and enjoys working in partnerships to better understand concepts.

Focus Student 2

Loves working with large numbers. IEP student with math goals. Creative thinker. Comfortable sharing mathematical thinking in small groups. Best supported with clear scaffolds and visuals.

Focus Student 3

Loves solving equations and wants to learn more about multiplication. Quiet. Rarely shares mathematical thinking. Loves school, has many friends. Usually stays on task.

Focus Student 1 work

FS1 exit ticket

Focus Student 2 work

FS2 exit ticket

Language of math

Focus Student 3 work

FS3 exit ticket

Language of words

Valuable Takeaway

While each focus student grappled with math work and had various output, some accurate, some not, ALL focus students drew a happy face after the lesson. The process and classroom culture of acceptance of mistakes prevailed, a huge celebration! All students as a whole community demonstrated participation through hand raised gestures, body motions, writing responses to the warm ups and activities, or looking at the slides and/or teacher. Engagement looks different for all learners. See image above.

Debrief Insight

Lesson study proved to be a powerful learning experience on many levels. Our lesson study team gathered in Melina's Point Loma classroom ready to lead, take data, and support students in the process of accessing mathematical thinking through student voice. We missed opportunities to fully embrace student voice during warm up activities. A partner talk would have benefited students to share their thinking with one another. While students were engaged during warm ups, many were unable to fully explain their math thinking during independent work time.

Reflection

Through the journey of lesson study, I grew as an educator. With a passion for literacy and a desire to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline one reader at a time, I was curious about the connection between literacy gaps and access to mathematical thinking in an elementary classroom setting. Learning about lesson study with a launch into a video of a model lesson study was helpful for me as a visual/kinesthetic learner. I found myself hungry for a literacy example and pressed forth with my curiosity. Ultimately I was paired with a team of upper elementary teachers who were designing a lesson related to place value. We shared a sentiment for a literacy and math connection and a goal of student equity in sharing math discourse. The readings provided a huge connection to our question and also another question as it was revealed that more research is needed in this area. I felt that our lesson needed more student driven opportunities for sharing mathematical thinking and yet we progressed with a more traditional lesson that was focused on high levels of engagement through familiar warm ups, activities, and exit tickets. During our debrief we were able to address that growth was needed to increase student engagement. We rose as a team and Melina led with creating the lesson slides, class lists, and other valuable content related materials for the lesson. Students were prepared for our visit and their behavior was exceptional in my opinion. This was a clear reflection of Melina's classroom culture and perhaps a level of excitement with the newness of the experience drove student engagement as well. I learned that lesson study provides an avenue for improving my practice and I look forward to growing with collecting data, creating assessment that supports student learning, and giving grace to myself and others.

Page updated

Report abuse