JCPS ESL LESSON STUDY FINAL REFLECTION

Challenges of the Lesson Study Process

Benefits of the Lesson Study Process

Lesson study has been quite the undertaking for not only a new ESL teacher, but also a teacher new to the district. This process has been quite tiring and demanding but infinitely more rewarding In teaching there is an attitude of not wanting to The first thing that sticks out in my mind when I reflect on grow or be better. Offense is taken when a this process so far is how incredibly thoughtful, caring, and knowledgeable my ESL colleagues are. There is never a suggestion is made. Unfortunately, this comes at a moment in our meetings that we are not fully engaged and high cost for our students. focused on the task at hand, which is to improve the learning for our children. Everyone in our group has a can do attitude and a willingness not only to share their ideas but to be willing to accept others. I find so often It is refreshing to be around professionals that are always looking for ways to improve their classroom and ultimately their students learning. Typically, we are so focused on what were going to The second aspect of Lesson Study that I appreciate is the do instead of what our kids are going to do. We absence of the goal of achieving perfection. worry about our production way more than our kids. Lesson Study really highlights best practice for the classroom Often, as teachers, we go through the day focusing There is no pressure to come up with the perfect lesson on activities and filling the allotted time without as plan, because it does not exist. much attention on student learning. We rely on how we "think" they did with the lesson, but, of course, we were too busy to slow down and actually see the lesson through students' eyes. And, to be fair, we are already attending to about 15 things at once. When I joined the Lesson Study group I felt a little bit It was amazing to study students and analyze their skeptical about its usefulness and about its results. engagement and success. After teaching for more than 25 years, I felt like I knew everything I needed to be an excellent teacher; and after finishing my masters program at IUS, that feeling got even deeper. I have to admit that I particularly do not like to Lesson Study has given me the opportunity to look at my observe other teachers teach a lesson. The feeling own students through the lens of an observer which was very enlightening. . There are no earth moving ideas but maybe caused by the intimidating teacher simple ah ha moments that make such perfect sense. observation policy followed in Cuba, in which department chairs, administrators, and resource Lesson study has been really eye opening. teachers used to show up in your classroom without any previous warning and their observation was more geared toward picking stupid details to give you a very low score in their evaluation than helping you become a better teacher and educator.

JCPS ESL LESSON STUDY FINAL REFLECTION Teaching should be more prescriptive. Formative assessments were created to inform teaching, but I'm not really sure that we do that. We often make it through the day and begin planning for the next. Thinking about what the students really need often gets lost as we try to keep up with assessment and pacing guide demands. Instead of filling a class period, we need to think about fulfilling the needs of our students -- the kids in our classroom this year, at this moment. Working collaboratively is really powerful. Teaching can be such a private act, and it can be intimidating to share and perform in front of others. Working with THIS group provided a safe place from which to work. It was quite powerful to create an entire lesson from the bottom up as a group. The group norms were key. Knowing that all participants had an equal voice and that differences would be respected was vital. We are using the group norms to guide us. We build on each other's ideas and listen intently to suggestions. We implement those ideas in the lesson that we feel best serves the students. Time is such a precious gift for teachers. We are lucky to have the time to slow down, plan, analyze, and reflect. This is a true PLC.

What We Learned about Teaching

Lesson Study is simply (ha!) reflecting on our work as professionals and improving in needed areas. We are to take what weve learned and apply it to our lessons so that we can be more effective educators. Procedurally: Talk less, listen more Lesson: High standards are key, don't focus on too much -- keep the focus narrow. The importance of annotation. Don't box kids in with multiple choice. Allow them to show their thinking with free response, white boards, etc. Reteach lessons. Share feedback with others. The importance of student conversation. We learned how to continually focus on the learning target and strategies we need to implement to be able to know if we have achieved our goals. We learned so much. Teaching students to use the strategies seems easy enough, but it's quite difficult to assess whether they are actually using the strategies we taught We learned that just because a student showed thumbs up or wrote that they used a certain strategy, that doesn't necessarily mean they got it. We learned that we lose student authenticity when we structure things in ways that are convenient for us as teachers, rather than for students. We learned a lot from analyzing student behaviors. We were very focused on using research to inform our next steps. I am excited to watch this lesson evolve. We have learned that we can always make a lesson better, and it gets even better when we listen to each other, and assume others have valuable ideas I think we lost the "authenticity" in the students thinking by limiting their responses to a,b,c choices. I cannot wait until the next lesson to see how much OUR lesson improves and engages students! Through this cycle we have been able to see the importance of team work when preparing the lesson, as well as in observing the students, and when analyzing the outcome and the data. Once we have completed this first part of the cycle, we are better prepared for the preparing the reteaching lesson. In the long run, everyone will benefit from the study lesson: students and teachers. 2

JCPS ESL LESSON STUDY FINAL REFLECTION