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Charlotte
Higuchi, Director, Lesson Study Project of the United Teachers of Los
Angeles Charlotte started by describing the professionalization GOALS OF THE UTLA Lesson Study Project, emphasizing how the location of the project in the UTLA Building contributed to the Project’s credibility with teachers. Charlotte Higuchi described the following sequence in her project: (1) all the teachers come from grades K-12, are clustered in K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 groups, and are planning a Literature Lesson focused on one Theme (Interdependence); (2) The teachers start by selecting a literary selection for the grade(s) under consideration; (3) The teachers read and discuss the selection, attempting to arrive at a consensus interpretation and sometimes responding to an outside reader who takes a contrary position on the selection’s meaning; (4) The teachers plan and prepare two assessments that they anticipate will challenge the students but not defeat them , one for reading and another for writing (The assessment is written as three-to-five questions about the selection, one question aiming for what happened and the others aiming for why did it happen); (5) The teachers then plan a three-to-five day Lesson Unit for teaching the selection; (6) They try out the Lesson and the assessment; (7) They get together and, after looking at results (scoring some papers), they revise the Lesson and the Assessment; (8) They present the Revised Lesson and Revised Assessments and then score the assessment, using Rubrics they have written for the assignment (There is a Generic Rubric as a guide); (9) They then review the results and rewrite the Lesson for Publication; (10) They present the Lesson at a Conference (not all teachers do this); and (11) They publish the Lesson with the accompanying assessments. This project has been underway for almost eight years, and the Project just published its second Handbook of Lessons and Assessments. To some degree, Charlotte’s project follows the backward design principles of Wiggins. But Charlotte has added several unique features. First, she includes parents in the scoring of student papers. In these scoring sessions, teachers are not only scoring papers but also explaining scoring to parents and others who do not understand. Second, Charlotte’s project puts a heavy emphasis on the importance of publication, including receptions and award ceremonies as part of the publishing process. She closed by reviewing how this Project has fulfilled its professionalization goals.
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