Math New Mexico

Final Report Guidelines

These guidelines provide an overview of the type of questions that we would like teachers from participating Lesson Study teams to discuss and reflect upon. All research reports should be written in complete sentences and paragraphs and be understandable by educators who have not seen the lesson before and should cover the following areas: mathematics learning, instructional strategies, and the lesson study process. These areas should explicitly be incorporated into data collection activities during the observation cycle of the lesson study process. Answers to each section should be supported by data that has been collected during observation and discussed during reflection and revision meetings. The final research reports are presented MathStar conferences and are made available online shortly thereafter.

Introduction

What is the research lesson topic you investigated this semester? How does this topic relate to the overarching goals for your students and your school? How did you go about planning for this lesson? What resources did you utilize? What is the mathematical focus of the lesson? (What do you want students to know and be able to do as a result of the lesson?) Why did you choose to focus on this mathematical area? What enduring understandings to you hope to help your students gain through this lesson study? Please describe your students (demographics, motivation, learning challenges, etc.).

Mathematics Learning

What have you learned about the way different students learn the mathematics content that your lesson study topic investigated? What does robust undertanding of this topic look like?

1. What concepts have students been working with prior to the lesson? What previous knowledge will the lesson build from? What extensions to this lesson would you like to share?
2. What misconceptions or knowledge gaps do students have regarding this concept? How do you know? (Please include examples of student work and adjustments you have made to the lesson plan and/or recommendations you have for other teachers to be prepared to address these misconceptions. A detailed list of student misconceptions may need to be on a separate sheet instead of within the lesson plan itself if space is an issue.)
3. How do you insure that students have gained the mathematical understandings for which this lesson is designed?
4. Summarize any understandings you have developed regarding students' mathematical learning (specific to this concept and in general) as a result of your involvement in this research lesson.
5. What did you learn about this mathematics content? How did you insure you had a strong conceptual understanding of this topic?

Instructional Strategies

1. How are the instructional strategies of the lesson designed to build students understanding of the mathematics concepts listed above? (e.g., What techniques did you use to make sharing of strategies useful and productive?)
2. What changes were made in the lesson from one iteration to the next? Why were these changes made? (Please include a summary of the development of the lesson towards the final form, highlighting why changes were made based on what you learned about the teaching and learning of this lesson.)
3. How did you engage students' interest and attention to the lesson? How did you sustain their minds-on engagement during the course of the lesson? How did you facilitate communication and collaboration during the lesson? How did you assess what your students knew and understood during the lesson? How did you put closure on the lesson?
4. Summarize any understandings you have developed regarding instructional strategies (specific to this concept and in general) as a result of your involvement in this research lesson. Please reflect upon, summarize, and include examples of what you have learned about classroom communication (e.g. how to foster it through instructional design and/or how to facilitate it via the types of questions that are asked).

Lesson Study Process

1. As a mathematics team, how has your involvement in the Lesson Study process impacted the way you work with other teachers at your school?
2. Personally, how did Lesson Study support your growth as a teacher?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Lesson Study process? In what general ways can the Lesson Study process be improved? How can the Lesson Study process be adapted to better fit within your school context? What recommendations do you have for integrating Lesson Study into your school schedule?

The processes and documents described above were significantly influenced by the work of James Stigler and James Hiebert, authors of The Teaching Gap, and workshop materials from Clea Fernandez and the Lesson Study Research Group. These processes and materials are continuously evolving as we adjust them to the unique needs and challenges of the teachers, students and environment of New Mexico.

* MathNM would like to acknowledge MathStar for the materials they developed.



Standards Based Resources NM Standards and Benchmarks NCTM Standards Research Textbook Evaluation Resources Math Resources Mathematics Education Organizations NM Math Initiatives NMCTM New Mexico PED Math & Science Bureau STEM Education Group TODOS Teacher Certification Options Mathematics Events Town Hall NMCTM Conference NSF Epscore Conference Essential Events Professional Development Providers MC2 partnerships New Mexico Math Group NM Services and Workshops Assessment Lesson Study PED Text Adoption		Final Report Guidelines These guidelines provide an overview of the type of questions that we would like teachers from participating Lesson Study teams to discuss and reflect upon. All research reports should be written in complete sentences and paragraphs and be understandable by educators who have not seen the lesson before and should cover the following areas: mathematics learning, instructional strategies, and the lesson study process. These areas should explicitly be incorporated into data collection activities during the observation cycle of the lesson study process. Answers to each section should be supported by data that has been collected during observation and discussed during reflection and revision meetings. The final research reports are presented MathStar conferences and are made available online shortly thereafter. Introduction What is the research lesson topic you investigated this semester? How does this topic relate to the overarching goals for your students and your school? How did you go about planning for this lesson? What resources did you utilize? What is the mathematical focus of the lesson? (What do you want students to know and be able to do as a result of the lesson?) Why did you choose to focus on this mathematical area? What enduring understandings to you hope to help your students gain through this lesson study? Please describe your students (demographics, motivation, learning challenges, etc.). Mathematics Learning What have you learned about the way different students learn the mathematics content that your lesson study topic investigated? What does robust undertanding of this topic look like? 1. What concepts have students been working with prior to the lesson? What previous knowledge will the lesson build from? What extensions to this lesson would you like to share? 2. What misconceptions or knowledge gaps do students have regarding this concept? How do you know? (Please include examples of student work and adjustments you have made to the lesson plan and/or recommendations you have for other teachers to be prepared to address these misconceptions. A detailed list of student misconceptions may need to be on a separate sheet instead of within the lesson plan itself if space is an issue.) 3. How do you insure that students have gained the mathematical understandings for which this lesson is designed? 4. Summarize any understandings you have developed regarding students' mathematical learning (specific to this concept and in general) as a result of your involvement in this research lesson. 5. What did you learn about this mathematics content? How did you insure you had a strong conceptual understanding of this topic? Instructional Strategies 1. How are the instructional strategies of the lesson designed to build students understanding of the mathematics concepts listed above? (e.g., What techniques did you use to make sharing of strategies useful and productive?) 2. What changes were made in the lesson from one iteration to the next? Why were these changes made? (Please include a summary of the development of the lesson towards the final form, highlighting why changes were made based on what you learned about the teaching and learning of this lesson.) 3. How did you engage students' interest and attention to the lesson? How did you sustain their minds-on engagement during the course of the lesson? How did you facilitate communication and collaboration during the lesson? How did you assess what your students knew and understood during the lesson? How did you put closure on the lesson? 4. Summarize any understandings you have developed regarding instructional strategies (specific to this concept and in general) as a result of your involvement in this research lesson. Please reflect upon, summarize, and include examples of what you have learned about classroom communication (e.g. how to foster it through instructional design and/or how to facilitate it via the types of questions that are asked). Lesson Study Process 1. As a mathematics team, how has your involvement in the Lesson Study process impacted the way you work with other teachers at your school? 2. Personally, how did Lesson Study support your growth as a teacher? 3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Lesson Study process? In what general ways can the Lesson Study process be improved? How can the Lesson Study process be adapted to better fit within your school context? What recommendations do you have for integrating Lesson Study into your school schedule? The processes and documents described above were significantly influenced by the work of James Stigler and James Hiebert, authors of The Teaching Gap, and workshop materials from Clea Fernandez and the Lesson Study Research Group. These processes and materials are continuously evolving as we adjust them to the unique needs and challenges of the teachers, students and environment of New Mexico. * MathNM would like to acknowledge MathStar for the materials they developed.