Collaborative Lesson Study: ReVisioning Teacher Professional Development

by Vicki S. Collet

Overview

Discover how Lesson Study benefits both students and teachers. Unlike scripted curricula that strip teachers of professional decision-making, Lesson Study values teachers by expecting them to be agents of improvement in their own classrooms. This resource empowers readers to oppose reform efforts that minimize teacher agency by offering an evidence-based approach to teacher-led instructional improvement. The text provides structures for attending to students’ interests, knowledge, and values when planning, teaching, reflecting, and revising instruction. It also shows educators how to use Lesson Study to design culturally responsive, differentiated instruction for the K–12 classroom. Use this step-by-step guide to develop professional learning communities; increase teacher motivation, efficacy, and knowledge; and support improvement adapted to local contexts.

Book Features:

• Guides readers through three cycles of Lesson Study, taking teacher learning deeper with each cycle.
• Focuses on developing student understanding that supports meaningful instruction across academic areas.
• Emphasizes the utility of Lesson Study for informing culturally responsive instruction.
• Includes examples from a variety of grade-levels and content areas, featuring both pre- and inservice teachers.
• Includes additional resources and prompts in each chapter to guide application.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807778067
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	09/20/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Vicki S. Collet is an associate professor in the department of curriculum and instruction at the University of Arkansas. Prior to becoming a teacher educator, she worked as a district curriculum coordinator, instructional coach, interventionist, and elementary and secondary classroom teacher.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ellin Oliver Keene ix

Introduction 1

Lesson Study in a Turnaround School 2

An Overview of Lesson Study 2

Impact of Lesson Study on Student Learning 6

About This Book 7

Note 9

Part I Lesson Study as Responsive Professional Learning

1 Engaging in Lesson Study: Risk-Taking, Resilience, and Re Visioning 13

Perpetual Motion: Unrelenting Improvement of Teaching and Learning 15

Risk and Reward: Professional Growth Through Lesson Study 17

Valuing Teaching and Teachers 20

Context Matters 21

Reflect and Respond 22

2 Challenging Norms of Privacy and Isolation 25

Benefits of Collaboration 25

Challenges to Collaboration 28

Shared Expectations 33

Supporting, Scheduling, and Sustaining the Work 36

Overcoming Privacy and Isolation 39

Reflect and Respond 40

3 Lesson Study as Contextualized Learning 41

Why Context Matters 42

Lesson Study in Varying Contexts 43

Supporting a Positive Culture for Teaching 48

Reflect and Respond 49

Part II Layers of the Lesson Study Process

4 Purposeful Planning: Teachers as Designers 53

Collective Agency and Innovation 53

Creating a Vision for the Lesson 54

Predictive Planning 61

Reflect and Respond 62

5 Observation: The Eyes Have It 63

Another Pair of Eyes 63

Before the Observation 65

The Observation: Seeing with New Eyes 69

Reflect and Respond 72

6 Debrief: Deep Reflection and Lesson Re Visioning 75

A Disposition for Reflection 75

Reflection Starts with Description 79

Re Visioning Through Appraising and Appreciating 81

Re Visioning Teaching and Learning 84

Reflect and Respond 85

Part III Refining the Focus

7 Building Understanding 89

What Is Understanding? 89

Supporting Student Understanding 91

Developing Teacher Understanding 93

Reflect and Respond 96

8 Flexibility 97

Teaching Requires Cognitive Flexibility 97

Flexibility vs. the Perfect Lesson Plan 100

Flexibility as a Focus for Lesson Study 101

Increased Flexibility 104

Reflect and Respond 104

9 Supporting Responsiveness 107

Cultural Responsiveness 108

Contextual Responsiveness 111

Responsiveness to Individual Lives and Interests 114

Responsiveness to Students' Learning Needs 116

Responsiveness to Teachers' Needs 117

Understanding, Flexibility, and Responsiveness 118

Reflect and Respond 119

Conclusion: Ongoing Cycles of Lesson Study 121

Variations and Iterations 121

Dispositions 125

Re Visioning Through Lesson Study 126

Reflect and Respond 128

Appendix A Agenda for Introducing Lesson Study by Savanna Gragg 129

Appendix B Planning Our Lesson 131

Appendix C Observation Day Agenda 132

Appendix D Videos for Observation Practice 134

Appendix E Before and After Lesson Study Plans 136

Appendix F Student Interest Inventory 145

References 147

Index 155

About the Author 166

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Collaborative Lesson Study provides the path to the most meaningful professional learning many of us will experience and I, for one, am deeply grateful to Vicki for writing this significant book.”
—From the foreword by Ellin Oliver Keene, founder, Mosaic Literacy LLC

“This book helps us understand how educators in a "turnaround school" became powerful agents of instructional improvement. Collaborative Lesson Study will inspire all educators with the power of collaborative research on instruction.”
—Catherine Lewis, director of The Lesson Study Group, Mills College

“Teachers who dive into this book with eyes and minds wide open will emerge with much, much more than a process for curriculum refinement. They will develop a new vision of teacher leadership and teacher collaboration in service of student learning.”
—Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, executive director, National Writing Project