Prerequisites for Planning Lessons Effectively

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Prerequisites for Planning Lessons Effectively

• Akihiko Takahashi
• Tad Watanabe
• Makoto Yoshida

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Effective Teaching

• Effective teaching requires knowing and
  understanding
• content
• students as learners
• pedagogical strategies.

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Important Ingredients for Preparing a Good
Lesson

• Subject content knowledge
• Subject pedagogical knowledge
• Knowledge about students thinking and learning
  process
• Clear goals and outcomes

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Frequently Asked Questions About Outcomes of
Lesson Study

• Can lesson study improve teachers subject
  content knowledge?
• Can lesson study improve students test scores?

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• Yes, if lesson study includes the intensive study
  of instructional materials.

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Necessity for Studying Instructional Materials
Intensively

• What does it mean to study instructional
  materials intensively?
• Is it enough to study and understand how to
  solve problems in the textbook?
• Is it enough to study and understand what
  teachers manual suggests for implementing
  lessons in the classroom?

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Instructional Materials Investigation

• Kyozaikenkyu
• Understanding subject content and the scope and
  sequence
• Establishing a clear understanding of the goals
  and outcomes
• Preparing necessary instructional materials for
  the learning activities
• Thinking and preparing instruction to help
  students to achieve the learning goals

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What Do Japanese Teachers Say About Kyozaikenkyu?

• Teachers can provide the richness of learning
  experiences for the students in the classroom
  only up to the level of teachers understanding
  of the instructional materials. Thus, it is
  important for teachers to conduct kyozaikenkyu
  every day through classroom practice.

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• Teachers can provide the richness of learning
  experiences for students in the classroom only up
  to the level of understanding of the students
• Students thinking and learning process, common
  misunderstandings, etc.

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Conducting Instructional Materials Investigation
in Lesson Study

• Lesson Study enhances the level of investigation
• Collaboration helps deepen understanding of the
  instructional materials
• Teachers can influence each other to grow
  together by sharing and contrasting different
  point of views

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Instructional Materials Investigationin
Mathematics
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Learning Mathematics

• Mathematics is a subject for which students need
  to build up their knowledge and skills based on
  the foundation of what they learned before.

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(A) Investigating Scope and Sequence

• Where does a topic fit within a content standard
  and how is it related to other topics within the
  content standard as well as to other content
  standard areas?
• Why do students need to learn specific topics
  before learning a certain topic?
• How do the topics they learn build upon other
  related topics they learned previously?

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Area of Parallelogram
Relating area of parallelogram to area of
rectangle
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Making different shapes with two congruent
triangles
Composition and decomposition of shapes
Equivalent area transformation
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Area of a parallelogram where the height is
located outside of its base
Can students understand why they still can use
the formula base times height to find the area?
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Square Rectangle
Triangle
Parallelogram
Parallelogram
Triangle
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Area of a regular triangle
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Area of a triangle where the height is located
outside of its base
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Understanding Scope and Sequence

• Understanding scope and sequence helps teachers
  to
• Develop a clear understanding of mathematical
  concepts they are teaching to students
• What concept will be taught?
• When will the particular concept be taught?
• What is the connection to other concepts?
• How will understanding of the concept be
  developed using prior knowledge?
• Determine clear goals for the lesson

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(B) Investigating Problems Activities

• How does solving a particular problem or
  engaging in an activity help students understand
  important mathematical concepts?
• What kind of knowledge and skills do students
  develop through the lesson, and what is our role
  in helping them achieve the goals?

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Finding area of L-shaped figure
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• Understanding the structure of the figure by
  asking students to measure the sides instead of
  giving all the measurements
• Students might discover they dont need to
  measure all 6 sides

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• Understanding multiple ways to solve this
  problem and finding similarity and differences
  among those ideas gtgtgt Lead to discovery of other
  and better solutions

A
B
C
D
E
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• Fostering expressive ability to describe their
  ideas for solving problem
• Manipulating the figures
• Drawing diagrams
• Explaining with words
• Writing mathematical sentences

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(C) Understanding Students

• Think about students
• state of learning
• process of thinking and learning
• anticipated reactions and solutions
• common misunderstandings thoughout the
  instructional materials investigation

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How Does Kyozaikenkyu Help Teachers to Conduct
Lesson Study Effectively?

• Enhances content knowledge (mathematics,
  mathematical concepts, scope and sequence, etc.)
• Establishes clear goals of the lesson
• Develops deeply thought out rationale,
  hypothesis, and instructional plan for the lesson
• Evaluates the lesson effectively
• (clear objectives gtgt clear evaluation points)

Greater Learning from Lesson Study
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How does Teachers Practice of Kyozaikenkyu Help
Students?

• Develops a well thought out lesson
• Identifies thoughtful questions (Hatsumon) for
  provoking students deep thinking
• Increases understanding of students different
  perspectives
• Develops insight into student misunderstandings
• Supports individual students needs

Improves Students Learning and Understanding