Adrienne Ducato

Dr. Rosemarie Michaels

EDU 4145

13 October 2019

Lesson Study Midterm

The lesson study at Hamilton Meadow School, with Leslie Smith, proved to be a truly

beneficial learning experience. It provided helpful pointers on ways to teach mathematics to a

diverse group of learners by honing in on the importance of keeping all students engaged

throughout the entirety of a lesson. In particular, the teacher focused on students building a

strong academic vocabulary by modeling the topic in front of the whole-group, along with

making sure all students worked hands-on with the manipulatives. Thus providing students with

a multifaceted learning experience to accommodate their many needs, which was to their

advantage. Overall, this was undoubtedly an effective introduction to the concept of

understanding area as seen by the way every student was able to learn something by the end of

the lesson.

This mathematical lesson, which focused on introducing the concept of area, was based

around three particular standards for mathematical practice. The first practice it included was

making sense of problems and persevering in solving them. This practice was most notable while

the students were working in their table groups which consisted of four students. Every table

group was required to make sense of problems and in particular, the blue table group worked

well together at explaining the best way to arrange the cubes to create an array. Together they

proceeded to persevere when arranging the array of cubes and were therefore successful at
completing the activity. Modeling with mathematics, another math practice standard, was

implemented by the teacher when creating a sample array on the white board to assess the

students’ prior knowledge. By modeling the activity portion of the lesson before students

completed it on their own, she was better able to engage the students in their learning. Leslie

Smith later explained to the prospective teachers in the EDU 4145 course that lots of practice is

required of the students therefore, the role of the teacher is to feed students plenty of information

and model concepts an adequate amount so there is an entry for them. By doing so students are

more actively engaged with staying on track with whatever lesson is being taught. Furthermore

throughout the entirety of this lesson, the third grade students attended to precision when

communicating their reasonings and observations. The students used mathematical vocabulary

when formulating their thoughts in both small and whole group discussions, which enhanced

their knowledge about the concept of area. Through the incorporation of these math practice

standards, the students better understood the concepts being taught as evidenced by their ability

to successfully carry out what was expected of them throughout the lesson’s duration.

Teaching is not based around a lesson being fun but rather are the students engaged and

learning something. Every classroom is filled with a variety of learners that have various levels

of engagement. Therefore, keeping students engaged requires the teacher to truly know their

class, look at the learning outcomes, and then come up with best solution to make every lesson

engaging. Delivering instruction that is engaging, challenging, and interactive is key. The

learning objectives that Leslie Smith incorporated into this lesson were to keep students thinking,

challenged, and talking to their peers while using academic language. Thus, she implemented

more hands-on activities of benefit for them to get a better understanding of the curriculum.
Additionally, before beginning the activity she went over the agreed upon classroom engagement

statement by reading it aloud as a whole-group and then having students identify certain

vocabulary in the statement so that every student understood the outcomes expected of them.

Engagement was most notable with students nearly falling out of their chair whenever they were

asked to raise their hands to respond to questions asked by their teacher. As an educator,

engaging students in the essential knowledge, skills, and understandings for ever lesson taught is

necessary for successful learning.

This particular third grade class consists of no special education students however, it is

composed of around seven to eight English learners (ELs). Therefore, Leslie Smith purposefully

implemented strategies and accommodations to enhance the learning experience for all of her

students but especially for one EL student that recently moved to America. In order to create a

learning environment for him to succeed, he was placed in a permanent table group of bilingual

students where activity procedures can be translated so that he too understands the lesson being

taught. Partnering English learners with strong English speakers benefits both because the best

way to learn something is to teach it. As a teacher it is very beneficial to develop the seating

chart so English language learners are sitting adjacent to bilingual students who can assist them.

By developing social language first it typically lends itself to academic language. Moreover,

hands-on activities allow for English learners to be exposed to more kinesthetic learning.

Incorporating numerous hands-on activities of benefit provides an excellent learning

environment for English language learners as seen by the use of cubes in this lesson. Using these

sort of manipulatives is an EL strategy to boost math language abilities. Although most ELs are

not able to access the academic language it is still helpful to hear what is being said for their
learning. Modeling in front of the class is another strategy that helps to ensure English language

learners are getting a visual of the procedures before engaging in an activity. Making sure

students are visually exposed to an activity before working on it independently has shown to

significantly benefit the progress of learning along with confidence in students’ abilities to carry

out academic tasks. Incorporating effective strategies into the classroom and accommodating

every individual English language learner is crucial to keeping them motivated for success.

Thorough and clear assessment of student learning is essential to the effectiveness of a

lesson. To properly assess students, the teacher must know where the lesson is going otherwise, it

is impossible to assess the students’ learning. From the beginning until the very end of the lesson,

it was clear that Leslie Smith was assessing all of the third grade students on their understanding

of the concepts being taught. Assessing students throughout the entirety of a lesson is of the

essence as it provides immediate feedback on what works and what does not, thus eliminating

confusion and boredom. Moreover, it is important that teachers create an environment for

students to feel safe enough to ask questions and make mistakes in order for them to be properly

assessed. For this particular lesson, students were assessed on the following criteria: how well

they built the models, how well they looked at the models, along with how well they identified

side length and area. At the end, journaling was incorporated into the assessment with students

writing down or drawing one observation from their learning experience. Student assessment is a

critical aspect of the teaching and learning process, as it allows for educators to strategically

evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching by measuring the extent to which students in the

classroom are understanding the course material.

 This observational lesson study experience has truly shown the importance of making

sure every student is actively engaged so that the curriculum is taught in an effective manner.

Understanding that a lack of engagement is not the fault of the students was quite an eye opener,

as it shows that teaching is an essential part in developing and enhancing the learning experience

of students. Teaching to a classroom that is anything less than one-hundred percent engaged is

wasted time because not all students are productively learning the concepts to the best of their

abilities. Thus a valuable lesson requires the teacher to be aware of effective teaching choices

and revise ineffective ones so that every student is given the ultimate opportunity to achieve

success both in and far beyond the classroom.