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The
Research Lesson ----Publication At
the center of Lesson Study is the Research Lesson.
Makoto Yoshida showed us a copy of a collection of Research Lessons,
published by the Japanese education ministry.
When teachers write a Research Lesson, they know that they are
writing the Lesson for publication in a collection of Lessons and that
other teachers will read what they write. Thus, the writing of a Research
Lesson is both a preparation for one’s own teaching and a publication
for use by others, requiring a teacher to write the Lesson in such a
way that strangers can understand it. This publication responsibility
forces teachers to clarify special points and, in fact, to discover
areas where the teacher understands may not have been all that coherent.
Teachers may be working on a new Lesson (they are the first authors)
or they may be revising an old lesson (They join a long list of authors).
----Unit
and Grade-to-Grade Sequences The
Research Lesson is a Lesson Design for one class hour in a particular
subject. The Research Lesson begins by spelling out Unit Objectives, the
main ideas of the Unit, and the sequence of Unit topic targets (with
the number of hours estimated for each subject target), thereby embedding
the Daily Lesson in the weeks-long Unit.
In addition, there are notations about what was taught in previous
grades and what will be taught in future grades, thereby embedding the
Lesson in the student’s school experience with a particular subject
matter. It seems clear that
specifying the unit sequence and the grade-to-grade sequence is one
way for teachers to re-commit to the overall plans adopted by colleagues.
U.S. teachers often write units and Daily Lessons, but they almost
never review the grade-to-grade sequence of subject matter topics or
the Unit sequence of which the Daily Lesson is a part. ----Common
Format One
common format for Research Lessons is the three column lesson development: (1) tasks and the wording of the assignment (with textbook references),
including the (a) introductory problem when the students come in and
take their seats (a problem tied to the previous day’s work), (b) the
problem for small groups (stated as a narrative and as “formula”), often
accompanied by a banner on the Blackboard
stating the subject topic,
and (c) the ending problem for whole class; (2) anticipated student
responses, including both anticipated correct and incorrect student
responses; and (3) instructional considerations, including organization
of blackboard, materials for student portfolios, needed artifacts for
the Lesson, and so forth. In the preparation of the Research Lesson,
teachers spend considerable time on the anticipated student responses,
much more so than U.S. teachers.
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