This document discusses an uncommon approach to professional development called lesson study that focuses on teacher-led inquiry. It summarizes the lesson study process which includes planning, conducting research lessons to collect data on student learning, and reflecting. The document provides an example of a lesson study conducted by teachers on analyzing documents about the Occupy Oakland movement. It discusses how the lesson study approach differs from traditional professional development and supports collaborative teacher learning and improvement of instructional practice.

1. Lesson Study:
An Uncommon Approach to Common Core
Jah-Yee Woo and Nicole Knight
Oakland Unified School District
Jah-Yee.Woo@ousd.k12.ca.us and Nicole.knight@ousd.k12.ca.us

2. Understanding Goals
Teachers will...
• understand the lesson study cycle and explore
ways in which it will support their own inquiry into
teaching and learning in their classroom/site
• understand an interdisciplinary approach to
incorporating the Common Core standards into
their instruction
• understand ways in which teaching argument were
illuminated by the lesson study cycle.

3. KWL
• What experience or knowledge do you already
have about lesson study?
• What are you hoping to learn today?

4. Why an Uncommon
Approach?
Expertise comes from Teachers are the
Academia experts

5. Lesson Study Cycle
1. STUDY
Consider long term goals for
student learning and
development
Study curriculum and standards
4. REFLECT 2. PLAN
Share data Select or revise research lesson
What was learned about student Do task
learning, lesson design, this
Anticipate student responses
content?
Plan data collection and lesson
What are implications for future
teaching, for the field?
3. DO RESEARCH LESSON
Conduct research lesson
Collect data

6. Professional Development
Traditional Research
Begins with an answer Begins with a question
Driven by Expert Driven by Participant
Communication: Trainer to Teacher Communication among Teachers
Relationships hierarchical Relationships reciprocal
Research informs practice Practice is Research
By Lynn Liptak, Paterson School #2, New Jersey.

7. Teachers’ Activities to
Improve Instruction
Choose curriculum,
write
curriculum, align
curriculum,
write local standards
Plan lessons
individually
Plan lessons collaboratively
Watch and discuss each other’s
classroom lessons
U.S. JAPAN
7 copyright Catherine C. Lewis 2005

8. Lesson Study in Practice:
Video Analysis
• What is the student question in each class?
What are students trying to understand?
• What is the teacher research question in each
class? What is the teacher trying to
understand about teaching and learning?

9. Lesson Study in Practice:
Connecting to your work
What in this video did you see that supports inquiry
into teaching and learning? What are teachers
learning about their practice?
What questions emerge?
How is this experience similar or different than your
own professional development experiences?

10. Using Lesson Study to
Understand the CCSS

11. What are the Common Core
State Standards?
National set of expectations for student knowledge and skills that
students need to master to succeed in college and career.
Designed by Council of Chief State School Officers and the
National Governors Association for Best Practices, in
collaboration with educational leaders and university partners.
Adopted by CA SBE August 2, 2010
Will officially replace the ELA and Math California State
Standards in 2014-2015, not the History or Science content
standards.

12. The Common Core State Standards lay out a
vision of what it means to be a literate person in
the 21st century.
1) They demonstrate 2) They build strong content
independence. knowledge.
3) They respond to the varying 4) They comprehend as well as
demands of audience, task, critique.
purpose and discipline
5) They value evidence. 6) They use technology and digital
media strategically and
capably.
7) They come to understand other perspectives and cultures.

13. The Special Place of Argument in the
New Common Core State Standards
Gerald Graff, professor of English and
education, writes that “argument literacy” is
fundamental to being educated. The
university is largely an “argument culture,”
Graff contends; therefore, K–12 schools should
“teach the conflicts” so that students are
adept at understanding and engaging in
argument (both oral and written) when they
enter college.

14. The Goals of the ELA-History
Collaborative
Teacher Learning
1. Increase secondary
HSS and ELA
teachers’ knowledge
of the Common Core
standards and Lesson Study -
understanding of the
shared literacy goals Linking PD Student Learning
of secondary HSS and Classroom
and ELA teachers
Practice Increase student
ability to construct
a strong written
argument.
2. Increased
knowledge of
strategies to help
students develop the
reading and writing
skills necessary to
construct an
argument.

15. Lesson Study Project
Timeline
Collaborative
Formed
Research Lesson
on Occupy
Oakland
Analysis and
Reflection
Summer
Institute
Public lessons

16. Student Question: Is Occupy
Movement Good for the 99% of
Oakland?

17. A Case Study
• Context – Students read 5 documents and write
an argument-based response in multi-grade
secondary classrooms
• Teacher Question - To what extent and depth can
students contrast a range of possibly conflicting
documents in order to form and support a claim?
• Student Question - What are the main ideas and
most important points raised by each document?
What is the bias or point of view of the author/s?
Is the Occupy Movement good for Oakland?

18. Occupy Oakland Lesson
Study Questions
How can we create a sequence of activities in order to write a paragraph
using an evidence sandwich?
When students are provided with sufficient background knowledge, how can
we get them to critically analyze the media?
How can students learn to analyze conflicting points of view?
How can guiding questions lead students to deeper source analysis(as
evidenced by written work, student discussion, etc.)?
How can we help students identify and address conflicting evidence?
How can use use rhetorical appeals as a gauge by which students evaluate
the validity of an argument?
Can instruction of annotating text lead students to writing strong summaries?

19. New Questions that Emerged
after Occupy Oakland
• How does a focus on “frontloading” context, vocabulary and
conceptual frameworks support student understanding of texts
and the focus of writing tasks?
• What classroom structures enhance the role of discussion as a
key support in helping students move from a close reading of
texts to comprehension and understanding? How do we both
structure and encourage the “messiness” of discussion?
• What graphic organizers can support the development of
student understanding and analysis, helping to bridge the gap
between the reading of texts and the development of an
argument?
• How does helping students define and understand the relation
between claim/evidence/argument support their ability to
develop a thoughtful and coherent argumentative essay?

20. Lesson Study – Opportunities and
Challenges

21. Contacts and Resources to Help
Get Started
OUSD Teaching American History Grant Website
http://www.teachingamericanhistory.us/index.htm, Stan Pesick, Project
Director, 510 879-8497; stan.pesick@ousd.k12.ca.us
Lesson Study Group at Mills College
http://lessonresearch.net/
Lesson Study Research Group, Teachers College/ Columbia University
http://www.tc.edu/lessonstudy/
Lessons Studied: Lessons Learned - MacComb Intermediate School
District
http://www.misd.net/lessonstudy/process.htm#Introduction
The Lesson Study Project at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as part
of the Center for Advancing Teaching & Learning.
http://www.uwlax.edu/sotl/lsp/