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Gathering Data

Grab two post-its and put your name on both. Answer the questions below and put your post-its on the charts.

How many sodas do you drink per week?

How many glasses of water do you drink per day?

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Japanese Lesson Study: A Model for Teacher-Led Professional Development

Eric Appleton, Tyler Holzer, Solange Farina, Mark Trushkowsky

CUNY Adult Literacy/HSE Program, Borough of Manhattan Community College & Fifth Avenue Committee

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Agenda

Launch: data gathering activity
What is lesson study?
Introducing our research lesson
A taste of our lesson: Comparing visual representations…

...as students

...as teachers

Video clips
What we learned
Q&A

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“The idea is simple: teachers come together with a shared question regarding their students’ learning, plan a lesson to make student learning visible, and examine and discuss what they observe. Through multiple iterations of the process, teachers have many opportunities to discuss student learning and how their teaching affects it.”

Aki Murata, 2011

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Steps of Lesson Study

Form a group
Choose a subject area: Where is there a gap in students’ learning?
Define the overarching and content goals
Plan the research lesson
Teach and observe the lesson
Debrief and revise the lesson
Teach and observe the lesson a second time
Reflect on the process

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Planning our Research Lesson

Teachers from six different adult education programs

CUNY and community-based organizations
Full-time and part-time teachers

Our original schedule

Eight 3-hour meetings in summer 2015
One 3.5-hour research lesson in August 2015

Stipend provided by BMCC
Support of program directors
Lesson would focus on data and statistics

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Beginning Our Research Lesson

Read articles about lesson study

“A Lesson Is Like a Swiftly Flowing River,” Lewis and Tsuchida (1998)

Researched data and statistics

How to Lie with Statistics, Huff (1954)
A Problem Solving Approach to Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers, Billstein, et al (2016)

Established overarching goals and content goals
Chose a topic: Sugar consumption in the United States

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Our Lesson Study Goals

Our overarching goal: We want students to be problem-solvers and to feel like they have a voice in society.

Be inquisitive about math/world connections and use math to navigate their world.
Be generous and compassionate, and think about how to work with others.
Experience a sense of joy in learning and become teachers themselves.

Our content goal: Students will compare the effectiveness of visual representations and create their own based on real-world data.

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Outline of Our Lesson

Generate Data: Post-It Activity
Order Beverages by Sugar Content
Watch New York City PSA about Sugar
Compare Visual Representations of Sugar Data
Create a Visual Representation of Sugar Data

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Comparing Visual Representations

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Now put on your student hat: For each graph, answer the following:

Sugar Addiction

Sugar: Too Much of a Sweet Thing

130 Pounds

How does each representation get its message across?
What is effective about each graph?
What makes it effective or powerful?

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Predicting Students’ Responses

Now think about your students. Work with a partner on the following:

What would your students do/say while looking at these visual representations?
What would you do/say to support their learning?

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Steps of Lesson: Learning Activities/�Key Questions	What Are Students Doing? Expected Responses	Teachers Response to Students
Comparing Visual Representations (45 min.) Purpose: Comparing the effectiveness of different visual representations with the goal of identifying criteria for evaluation, prepares students to create their own representation, provides a model, discussion of audience/purpose, gives data they might use Take a quick poll: How much sugar do Americans consume? (Using any measure you choose) Pair/share, then group conversation. Record student estimates on the board. Say: “This question of sugar consumption is something that has been studied extensively. Now we’re going to look at some of that data represented visually.” Put students into groups of 3 or 4. Hand out three different visual representations. Give students 3-5 minutes to look at the graphs. What do you notice? Ask: In general, what messages are these visual representations trying to convey? Give out Comparing Graphics handout: How does each representation get its message across? What is effective about each graph? What makes it effective or powerful?

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Our Students Comparing Representations

What do you notice?

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Challenges

Planned for 8 meetings, had 20+ meetings
Project lasted one year instead of one summer

The group lost two members
Funding ran out

Coordinating meeting times/dates
Fitting research lesson into curriculum sequence

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Lesson study is not about the lesson; it’s about professional growth.

Developed collegial relationships across programs
Learned to step up, step back
Grounded conversation about teacher moves
Detailed discussions about scaffolding and sequencing
Learned how to build from student knowledge and experiences
Investment in the process

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Eric · @eappleton · eric.appleton@cuny.edu

Solange · @stregasol · soul.farina@gmail.com

Tyler · @rezloh · tyler.s.holzer@gmail.com

Mark · @mtrushkowsky ·

· mark.trushkowsky@cuny.edu

Web Sites:

nyccami.org · MathMemos.org · CollectEdNY.org

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Steps of Lesson: Learning Activities/�Key Questions	What Are Students Doing? Expected Responses	Teachers Response to Students
Comparing Visual Representations (45 min.) Purpose: Comparing the effectiveness of different visual representations with the goal of identifying criteria for evaluation, prepares students to create their own representation, provides a model, discussion of audience/purpose, gives data they might use Take a quick poll: How much sugar do Americans consume? (Using any measure you choose) Pair/share, then group conversation. Record student estimates on the board. Say: “This question of sugar consumption is something that has been studied extensively. Now we’re going to look at some of that data represented visually.” Put students into groups of 3 or 4. Hand out three different visual representations. Give students 3-5 minutes to look at the graphs. What do you notice? Ask: In general, what messages are these visual representations trying to convey? Give out Comparing Graphics handout: How does each representation get its message across? What is effective about each graph? What makes it effective or powerful?	Students will use background knowledge to interpret visual representations. Students will have an emotional response to the information represented, which may interfere with looking at the facts represented. Students will struggle with understanding graphs mathematically and need time to process the data. Students discuss the effectiveness of the visual representations separately from their content.	Validate emotional response to the data, but focus on mathematical evidence in the visual representations. Help students with specificity, using evidence to think about actions outside of the classroom students may take as a result of looking at these graphs. Infographic: How many teaspoons was consumed in 1820 in 5 days? What about in 2012? How has sugar consumption changed? Bar graph: What does each bar represent? How is this graph similar to and different from Sugar Addiction? Pictograph: Why did the author choose this title? What does each spoon represent? Why do you think the recommended daily teaspoons is different for men and women?