In the Fall of 2009, FLICC – in conjunction with the Florida Department of Education – designed and delivered a series of institutes across the State of Florida focusing on lesson study. The idea was to take Professional Learning Communities to the next level by having regional personnel, district staff, and teachers trained in the art of lesson study.
So the FLICC Team, with the help of the Anchin Center at USF, set off to seven locations across the great State of Florida: the rolling hills of Ocala, history steeped St. Augustine, and centrally located Orlando; followed by the beaches of the Tampa Bay area, Naples, and Boca Raton, finishing in our capitol city, Tallahassee. A whirlwind tour to be sure.
Dr. Lois Brown Easton facilitated the sessions, tweaking the presentation as the series of institutes unfolded. Currently living in Colorado, Dr. Easton was appreciative of the opportunity to serve the educators of Florida again (not to mention the warm winter weather!). She returned to Florida after providing training for the FLDOE's Regional Assistance Centers during the summer. That session was so well received that FLICC brought her back for this series of seven institutes. These encores, of sorts, built on the summer training and organized it for training additional regional FLDOE personnel, district staff and secondary level educators.
The institutes were designed to cut to the chase and be a series of hands on experiences in lesson study. This was not a sit and get series of events. During the first experience, the unsuspecting participants were asked to teach a secondary math lesson provided by the FLICC Team. This challenged comfort levels as Dr. Easton directed one team to teach the lesson to another team of "students." This was a baptism by fire in lesson study!
After teaching the lesson, groups reconvened in a debriefing session of the lesson called a "colloquium." In colloquium, teachers, students, and data collectors share their impressions of the lesson, focusing on the content of the lesson and the student reaction to it. The key is not to focus on the teacher per se; the focus should be on the students' engagement in the lesson and their potential for learning the standard or benchmark. Lesson study never focuses on the teacher.
The second experience with lesson study was somewhat more comfortable because educators were given the choice of working on a provided lesson in their own area of expertise: science, mathematics, social studies, or English language arts. In addition, participants engaged in a broader discussion of lesson study and the data to be collected during the observation of the lesson being taught. As the sun set on the first day, participants moved from their second colloquium to a networking reception with Dr. Easton and the FLICC Team. Comfort food and conversation closed out the day.
It is said that it is always darkest before dawn and this seemed to be true for the lesson study groups. At the end of the first day, participants still had many questions about implementing lesson study in their regions, districts, and schools. How will we find the time to do lesson study? Is a lesson ever perfect? How many lessons should we work on during the school year? How do we start implementing lesson study?
Luckily, like the story of the shoemaker and the elves (you'll remember that the shoemaker cut the leather and the elves came in dark of the night and made shoes), Dr. Easton expertly cut the leather of lesson study on Day One and institute participants began to bring shape to what was laid before them as they continued to work on Day Two.
The third experience with lesson study came slightly after dawn on the second day. This lesson study experience was the group's first variation in that educators were given the opportunity to develop a lesson with likeminded content experts guided by a copy of the Next Generation State Standards for each content area. Participants set about developing lessons in science, mathematics, social studies and English language arts. Like the previous day, the group was split between those who taught their lesson and those who acted as students, followed by colloquium.
Next, a second variation of lesson study was discussed. This variation focused on the tuning protocol. The tuning protocol is the classic protocol, the one upon which most other protocols have been based. It features times when a presenter talks and is silent and times when participants talk and are silent. It provides three levels of depth: presentation → participant discussion → presenter reflection, finalized by a general debriefing that can extend the conversation about the lesson.
After the tuning protocol activity, the practice of lesson study solidified for institute participants. This foothold provided the foundation to discuss the logistics and implementation of the lesson study process. Teams struggled with the issues for their districts and schools, suggesting solutions and planning the next step to implement lesson study back home. This is when the lingering questions from the previous day were addressed and answers to the details of implementation answered.
So over the busy two day schedule, participants grew to understand the basics of lesson study by engaging in three lesson study experiences and learning about lesson study variations. Regional personnel, district staff and teachers also planned the implementation of lesson study in their respective regions, districts, and schools and discussed how they all will work together to solve any issues related to lesson study implementation.
The participants left the institutes edified and ready to implement lesson study wearing the new shoes their teams had cobbled.
Materials from the lesson study institutes are available on the FLICC website (www.ets.org/flicc ) including the following:
- The Day One Packet
- The Day Two Packet
- A Guide to Facilitating Lesson Study
- A Rubric for Evaluating Lesson Study
- A Guide to Scheduling Lesson Study
