I found the article on lesson study to be extremely interesting and relevant to our class right now. There was a lot of dislike when the math lesson was assigned and I believe that lesson study and the lay out of that project are similar. In my eyes, watching someone teach is extremely useful, especially when we will spend so much time next year running the lessons and classroom on our own. Also the idea that it is led by other teachers is very useful. Teachers often look at researchers or educators as being out of touch with the classroom. This means that they often do not believe that what they are teaching them is feasible in their classrooms. If this is led by a fellow faculty member, someone they know well and respect, it could have a huge benefit. The teachers may believe in the idea or process more and see how it can be implemented into their classroom. I know that I feel more comfortable when discussing something with my peers than with an authority figure. This most likely is also true for most teachers, since we are almost them :). I liked the way that everyone being involved in the planning is stressed. That might be a problem that American teachers see with this plan is that their ideas and processes will not be a part of the lesson, and they don’t like that. But, I believe that by stating u front that everyone’s ideas are important and everything will be decided together will help put some teachers at ease with the entire situation.
Following the comments in which Jenna made about the articles being interesting and useful, I totally agree. Following her comments about how she finds it useful after watching another teacher teach, I as well feel that you gain a ton of skills and knowledge from seeing an experienced teacher do a task. Per my CT on my lesson plans that I taught last semester, she said that more experience teaching a lesson will also be beneficial because I become more used to it. For more of a group plan and teach process that the article stated, I feel that this would be a very useful technique as well. I think along with our math task that we will be doing in here, it will benefit not only for the person teaching, but for the observers and seeing how the lesson as a whole came together. I feel that this is a good way for us to further gain experience and ways to teach lessons to our students.
ReplyDeleteI think that the ideas presented in the article are very insightful. Having the opportunity to watch peers teach can be beneficial to your own teaching styles. The situation presented in the article, a lesson study with a multitude of students and teachers in the same classroom, however, is not ideal. I think that a small group of teachers in the same grade level studying a lesson can be beneficial to their own teaching in many ways. A lesson study would allow teachers to observe different management techniques, language, and general practice. It seems like an effective way to do professional development, or at least contribute to it.
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