Good Morning, Sunshines! (It is spring?)

1. Good Morning, Sunshines!(It is spring?) TE803: Social Studies for All Students

2. KICKOFF • Colleen • Matt • Ally NOTECARDS ARE VOTECARDS • Workshop time today: all lesson study? (due 4/25) • Workshop time today: all special needs factsheet? (half due 4/11, half due 4/18) • Split today’s workshop time?

3. TODAY’S PLAN • Welcome-back conversations: unpacking your lead teaching experience, focusing in on students’ responses to your instruction. • Overview of the coming weeks • Assignments • Class times • In-depth look at lesson study • Work time: lesson study? Or fact sheet? • Cinematic Food for Thought: Misunderstood Minds, part 1. Yeah, going to cut this if we cut anything.

4. AND WELCOME BACK!!Groups of three or four… not from your own school! • About Lead Teaching, Part 1: • “How’d it go?” • What did you learn about yourself as a teacher? • What did you learn about teaching in general and teaching your students in particular? • One blazing triumph of glory: how? When? Why? • One thing you feel like you’re still working on as a teacher or that you envision yourself developing in the next year

5. WELCOME BACK!! • About Lead Teaching, Part 2: • How did social studies, in particular, go? What was your unit topic– and what within that unit are things that worked and things that didn’t? • Were there any teaching risks you took that paid off? • What did/is your assessment data (this includes observations and conversations with students!!) inform you about students’ learning? Did they learn exactly what you wanted them to? What unplanned things did they learn? What did they really get into? What flopped with them if anything?

6. WELCOME BACK!! • About Lead Teaching, Part 3: • Students with learning exceptionalities: Quickly describe the student(s) (using an initial or pseudonym): how did they respond to your social studies unit? (and to the events during lead teaching in general)? • What were interventions you planned, improvised, tried? • What worked and didn’t? • What did/is your assessment data (this includes observations and conversations with students!!) tell you about these students’ learning?

7. WHAT IS LESSON STUDY? • Form of professional development that is teacher-driven • Originated in Japan • Teachers work together to: • Develop goals for student learning • Collaboratively plan a “study lesson” that will help students meet these goals • Conduct the study lesson with one team member teaching and the rest observing and collecting evidence of student learning • Collaboratively debriefing about the lesson, drawing upon evidence collected during the study lesson • Re-teaching of the lesson based upon the feedback during the debriefing

8. HOW CAN LESSON STUDY IMPROVE INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT LEARNING? • Lesson study has helped improve curriculum and textbooks in Japan • The focus is on the student – the observers carefully observe student learning and analyze student work and note areas of struggle

9. How LS is different from traditional PD • Is designed to influence change in a slow and steady way • Is situated in practice – rooted in the experience of interactive teaching • Is collaborative and requires negotiation and compromise to reach agreed upon lesson plan that all teachers will enact • Requires opening up your teaching practice to colleagues • Treats teaching as a work-in-progress rather than a finished product

10. Potential Challenges to LS • Requires very detailed planning in order for teachers to enact their lessons consistently (and you are good at this by now) • Requires a new orientation to teaching, that opens up one’s practice to critique (this is happening all over the place these days anyway) • Involves learning/refining techniques for providing feedback to colleagues

11. Steps of LS (as we are using it) • Planning the Study Lesson • Enacting/Observing the Study Lesson • Reflecting on the Study Lesson • Re-Enacting the Study Lesson • Reflecting on the Study Lesson

12. Good stuff • Teachers feel they are part of a professional learning/planning team (something that they don’t always have in their school community) • The lessons designed were of very high caliber and reflect the minds of four-five teachers, rather than one • The “practice” sessions allowed teachers to iron out kinks in the lesson • Teachers felt the lessons improved considerably following the debriefing sessions

13. Tough Stuff • Teachers tend to be nervous about “performing” in front of their peers (making sure they followed the lesson correctly, answered students’ questions appropriately) • The intensive amount of time involved planning and observing • There needs to be high level of trust and support among colleagues • Designing one lesson that many teachers will teach requires a high degree of negotiation and compromise, and can interfere with a teacher’s ability to “tailor” a lesson to meet the needs of her class

14. Testimonials from former Interns • 1) We found a time where we could all sit down together and brainstorm - everyone was really open to other's ideas but we eventually compromised and used elements from everyone' s ideas to come up with our tasks (We did come across ideas that wouldn't work but no one was defensive about it - if an idea was given we discussed the pros and cons of it until we eventually compromised)  In this portion of the planning it is important to remember that the lead teacher will have valuable input as to what his/her students can or cannot do so this is important to consider 2)  Together we made an outline of the general flow of activities and what we wanted our students to learn (objectives, GLCE's, materials needed, etc.) 3) From there, it was easiest if the person teaching the lesson actually typed out the lesson plan in a bit more detail - tailoring it to their individual classroom's needs 4) While the lead teacher did this, the rest of the group was preparing the materials they would need for the lesson, including worksheets, so we were able to divide up the tasks among group members 5)  Once the lead teacher finished the lesson plan - everyone revised it together with comments or changes until we all agreed upon a final project. 6)  We also made sure to discuss how we would assess student learning so that we were all looking for the same thing - we even came up with a chart that the observing teachers had so that they would all be on the same page and looking for the same things

15. Testimonials from former Interns • I believe our lesson study project was successful because we were able to combine each of our strengths, ideas, experiences, and viewpoints on the topic to make it the best it could be. We all went into the lesson as if we were each going to teach it, and therefore we knew it backwards and forwards. We came up with a main focus area and we individually took notes on what we observed in relation to it. As a group we came together and shared our observations noting the similarities and differences. Although only one person taught this lesson, it was a group effort to make it a success.

16. Testimonials from former Interns • I think that it worked well because we had a specific goal in mind.  We knew that we had to teach a second grade math lesson that dealt with measuring, so we sat down together with the GLCEs and came up with a lesson.  It was helpful to work in our school groups because we already knew each other and it was easy to meet after school to complete the lesson.  Also, we each did a part by dividing up the responsibilities so one person was not given the burden of completing the entire lesson.  I do not usually enjoy group work, but it was helpful to hear others' insight and watch a colleague teach a lesson that I helped create.

17. Lesson Study with TE803 - Goals • Engage students in a professional learning group that plans and reflects collectively • Experience the differences between a morning and afternoon lesson following a debriefing session • Become more comfortable “performing” in front of peers • Experience what good social studies teaching is like with in-depth and thoughtful planning • Gain experience with a prominent and increasingly popular pedagogical approach (something interesting to focus on in a job interview)

18. Lesson Study with TE803 • Topic is determined by you • Instructional Strategy can be: • Inquiry • Discussion • Primary Sources • There will be two lessons: one in the morning, then a debriefing session, then another lesson in the afternoon (or 2 consecutive days)

19. Break! • See you in 15

20. Turn to a partner, Flash a Smile…Yes, this will be awkward… • “Tell me about yourself.” • “Why did you decide to be a teacher?”

21. Workshop

22. For Next Time • No class next week! • Thursday, April 11th • Presentation on jobs by Sean Williams, a principal who is now an MSU 803 instructor • Great article on lesson study– Lewis et al-- please read • Workshop time. Factsheet presentations start 4/18.