Transcript Thinking Through A Lesson: Collaborative Lesson Planning

Designing Instruction:
The Key to Effective Teaching
Peg Smith
University of Pittsburgh
Teachers Development Group
Leadership Seminar on Mathematics Professional Development
February 12, 2009
Overview





Establish the importance of lesson planning
Compare and discuss two lesson plans
Read and discuss the Darcy Dunn vignette
Consider the benefits of the TTLP as a planning
tool
Brainstorm ways to help teachers engage in
more thorough and thoughtful planning
Why Lesson Planning?



The effectiveness of a lesson depends significantly on
the care with which the lesson plan is prepare (Brahier,
2000).
Good planning “shoulders much of the burden” of
teaching by replacing “on-fly-decision making” during a
lesson with careful investigation into the what and how of
instruction before the lesson is taught (Stigler & Hiebert,
1999, p.156).
“During the planning phase, teachers make decisions
that affect instruction dramatically. They decide what to
teach, how they are going to teach, how to organize the
classroom, what routines to use, and how to adapt
instruction for individuals” (Fennema & Franke, 1992, p.
156).
Comparing Two Lesson Plans

Review the lesson plans (and related
tasks) for Paige Morris and Keith Nichols

Compare the two plans and consider:
How are the plans the same/different?
 How do you think the differences are likely to
impact the teachers’ enactment of the
lesson?

The Darcy Dunn Vignette

Read the Darcy Dunn Vignette

Consider the following:

What do you think Darcy Dunn might have
done to prepare for this lesson? What
evidence can you find in the vignette that
supports your claims?
How Can We Help Teachers Plan
Lessons “More Like Darcy”?
No
Planning
Paige
Morris
Keith
Nichols
Darcy
Dunn?
Thoughtful and
Thorough
Planning
Learning from the Japanese:
What it Takes to Plan a Lesson



Anticipating solutions, thoughts, and responses
that students might develop as they struggle
with the problem
Generating questions that could be asked to
promote student thinking during the lesson, and
considering the kinds of guidance that could be
given to students who showed one or another
types of misconception in their thinking
Determining how to end the lesson so as to
advance students’ understanding
Stigler & Hiebert, 1997
Thinking Through A Lesson
Protocol (page 134 of white
white handout)

Review the TTLP
What aspects of the protocol stand out?
Thinking Through A Lesson
Protocol (page 134 of white
white handout)
Makes teaching more “controllable” (and
successful) by limiting the amount of
improvisation needed
 Supports the enactment of cognitively
challenging mathematical tasks
 Shifts the focus from the teacher to the
students

Brainstorm

How can we help teachers improve their
capacity to plan (and enact) lessons that
support students’ learning?

Can tools, such as the TTLP help in doing
this work?
Darcy Dunn
I follow this model when planning my
lessons. Certainly not to the extent of
writing down this detailed lesson plan, but
in my mind I go through its progression.
Internalizing what it stands for really
makes you a better facilitator.
Kelsey Evans
Coming up with good questions before the
lesson helps me keep a high-level task at a
high level, instead of pushing kids toward a
particular solution path and giving them an
opportunity to practice procedures. When kids
call me over and say they don’t know how to do
something (which they often do), it helps if I
have a ready-made response that gives them
structure to keep working on the problem
without doing it for them. This way all kids have
a point of entry to the problem.
Zachary Carson
Sometimes it’s very time consuming,
trying to write these lesson plans, but it’s
very helpful. It really helps the lesson go
a lot smoother and even not having it in
front of me, I think it really helps me focus
my thinking, which then [it] kind of helps
me focus my students’ thinking, which
helps us get to an objective and leads to a
better lesson.
Paige Morris
We’re graphing systems of linear inequalities
so to understand what the…I guess, shaded
region means.
Keith Nichols
I’m just interested in them realizing that salaries are going to
go up then down. The commission is going to go up. Just kind
of develop a little intuition about exponents and that’s…even
though we’re...even though we’re not officially covering
exponential functions, we’re just doing the operations of the
properties of exponents, I’m just trying to develop a little
intuition with exponential functions.
We’re basically working on applications of some of the stuff
they’ve…application of some of the properties they’ve
learned…So basically I wanted them to...it’s a little tricky to
figure out exactly what the next day’s salary is so, I mean,
that’s just kind of a working through the problem, that really
doesn’t have anything to do with the mathematics behind it but
once they get the worksheet started, once they get the pattern
right I’m just looking for them to be able to generalize
the…commission based on the number of days.