A teacher is not going to remember all of the details and discussion points he/she needs to cover to move the class to their math goals. They are also not going to remember the next year what worked and didn't work for each lesson. Plans are great to use from year to year and really help new incoming teachers. You are no longer flying by the seat of your pants and the class runs more smoothly. Most teachers are doing lesson plans that show what to cover in case of a sub. However, they are not showing what they are teaching, what students are thinking and learning, and how they will support that learning. With good plans, students become center stage of what they are thinking, if they are understanding the content, and if they are moving toward the math goal of the lesson.I liked in figure 7.6 when it said, "don't equate completion of task with understanding of the underlying mathematical ideas." This goes on frequently in math class and good plans stops this issue.
Holly -- that comment "don't equate completion of task with understanding the mathematical idea" really, really hit home. I really need to keep this with me!! I can think back on many different things over the years where this has been boldy visible in the students I teach. They are memorizing process to get the task done, however they cannot make connections or utilize the skill 2 weeks after the test.
I guess I feel there are different levels of lesson planning, depending on your audience. I write my weekly plans for administration and for a sub, however normally I have to rewrite my plans for a sub as they are not comfortable with math content. And then each night or week, I do a more rigorous and detailed plan that I will actually use to facilitate the classroom. It takes a lot of time, but I do think it helps me as a teacher in the classroom. This helps me to be more confident and organized in the classroom. I have to do this to keep track of the learning I want within my classroom. I don't necessarily detail my plan or thinking to the level of the book example but I do think about how I want the students to learn and how I plan to facilitate the learning to meet the goal.
Lesson planning will help "shoulder the burden of teaching" because it is to front load the thinking for the teacher. It is suppose to take away the "on the fly" teaching. The reason the lesson planning is help the teaching is because if you use the 5 practices hopefully you are prepared for the lesson to go in any different direction the students take it and then you are ready to guide them back to where they need to be or take them to a deeper level if need be. Also you will save time because you have anticipated most of the questions and results that you are going to get. You as the teacher will have questions ready to go and it will free up your class time to monitor and work with your students on their learning. Where the lesson planning protocol goes beyond preparing for the discussion, it asks for the evidence of learning, how you are going launch the lesson, what background knowledge you are going to access, what materials you will need and what the students practice will be. During the launch preparation, it is important to know how you are going to launch the task/lesson so that you don't give away to much information while you give the students direction or referencing prior knowledge that they might need to access the task. Writing out your lesson plan makes sure that you don't forget questions/thoughts that you wanted share during lesson, it also gives you an artifact to have for future planning/collaboration with colleagues.
I guess to answer this question, I had to consider what exactly the "burden of teaching" is. There is, honestly, a lot that comes to mind. :) I think the burden that comes to the forefront is that we have to be able to get students to learn, and learn in both general and specific ways. Lesson planning can both address these specifics ahead of time, before students ever come into the room, and also help teachers lead students to the learning during the lesson. As a literacy teacher, there were lessons that I spent a lot of time planning, and there were some lessons where I didn't feel the need to plan much for. In contrast, with the 5 practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions, I'm seeing very clearly the vital importance of the planning, and how it can shoulder MUCH of the burden.
I agree that there have been many times that I have thought to myself that I did not need to lesson plan. For whatever reason (I have taught this before or I know this stuff), but after reading through the chapter I now see the benefit of having lesson plans that lay out the questions, goals, and work and it will make the lesson actually easier to teach. Amanda Thorsen
A lesson plan that is well thought out with all the important details along with a monitoring sheet can make a big difference during and after a lesson. When we are in the middle of class, teachers do not have time to come up with the right questions to ask, keep track of who is participating and in what fashion, and discovering the necessary flow of strategies on the fly to the level students truly need.
When you prepare for a lesson in the way they have shown, you take care of most of the things that may distract from the flow of learning as the teacher already knows what to say or do next. So the burden, or weight, of having to devise or figure out multiple connections at one time is lifted.
This style of lesson planning also is more worthwhile plan to use for the next time you need to teach that lesson. Also, reflecting on the lesson and modifying it as necessary will be easier as you will have a great reminder of what took place in the classroom.
A lesson plan can provide key details that will help you make lighten the on fly questions, responses, and work that will happen during the lesson. A truly effective math lesson cannot be done without careful thought on what goal we want students to reach, how they will work toward this goal, how we will help move them to the goal, and what questions we can ask to foster thinking. A lesson plan that is set up to work through these things will allow the teacher to focus on student understanding and just simply what the answer to the question is. There is also a difference between lesson plans that are bare bones what will be taught and a lesson plan that will dive deep into the math. Using the bare bones lesson will not be enough to help engage students in a productive math class.
I'm not going to lie- I'm at the point in my career that my "lesson plans" are mostly one ore two words or phrase. I know what I am going to do- I might jot down skills or page numbers, but I don't write specific, detailed lesson plans. Having admitted that, I will also admit that lessons almost always go better when I do write out more detailed plans. Writing out a lesson plan ensures that teachers start with a goal, helps anticipate student struggles, plan for engaging activities, creates formative assessments, and helps teachers make sure they teach everything they intend to. Writing down a skill or a few words in place of a lesson plan is bad practice. Teacher do not have enough time to get through everything and we have to maximize our instruction...lesson planning would help us do this.
Jackie If you look at the two examples (fig. 7.1 vs. fig 7.3 on page 98-99), they look fairly similar. Keith's lesson though is definitely set up to should the burden just by simply adding in a few extra minutes to anticipate and prepare questions to ask of the students. When turning in lessons for our admin, I definitely do more like Paige's lessons-quick notes. As I am doing this, I do prepare questions but in my mind. For some reason I think that my steel-trap memory won't fail me after a week's worth of chaos, schedules, and other lessons. It surprisingly does. So even though I anticipate to some extent, I don't write anything down. When it comes to lessons for a sub, I am very detailed, but still don't always include anticipated questions from the students. It would be so simple to just tweak the lessons a bit to include this aspect.
Having a lesson plan written with the detail of those in the book would definitely be helpful to the teacher. The teacher would begin the lesson with the mathematical goal in mind. They would have list of possible solutions and questions. This would allow the teacher to focus on the students in their classroom "in the moment" and not have to be thinking about what comes next or what question to ask to move a group in a certain direction or extend the learning of a different group.
I think that quality lesson planning is key to mindful instruction. So, anyway process that a teacher consistently follows when planning is a good thing. It allows goals to be set, methods of instruction to be considered and evaluation of student learning to be determined. Lesson plans should be constantly evolving to meet the varied needs of students.
How can a lesson plan "shoulder the burden of teaching"? A good lesson plan like a good football practice plan or game plan is key to success. Good daily practice plans, well thought out, well organized, and well administered can make or break Friday night’s game.
A well done lesson plan can have answers to as many questions that you can think of. It can also have examples of previous years or your own examples to be able to sequence student responses. It can even have what connections can be made to next lessons or previous lessons. This way you have answers to the ever pressing question, “why do we have to learn this?”
How can a lesson plan "shoulder the burden of teaching"? If a lesson plan is thought out, practiced and learned from, it should make the lesson go more smoothly from year-to-year. It should help a teacher feel more prepared and more confident. Going back through each lesson and adjusting as you learn as an educator can help aide in the next year. You also need to keep in mind the students within your class and adjust to best meet their needs.
This chapter made me think of what real quality planning should look like. If I have done a complete job of planning a lesson I have thought through all of the possible outcomes for my students and planned scaffolding and extending questions to help move them forward. Since I did so much of my thinking about my student needs in the planning stage, the actual teaching of the lesson should go a lot smoother and I should just have to implement those ideas instead of create them “on the fly”. This frees my thoughts up for those ideas I did not anticipate and I can focus more on helping progress these students. I also should have thought about how to get my students started so the burden of nonparticipation should be lightened too. The five processes hold me as a teacher accountable to be more prepared and have a completely thought out organized lesson before I try it out with my students. This should take most of the surprise out of whether a lesson will be successful or not and make it less intimidating for me to try something new.
A teacher is not going to remember all of the details and discussion points he/she needs to cover to move the class to their math goals. They are also not going to remember the next year what worked and didn't work for each lesson. Plans are great to use from year to year and really help new incoming teachers. You are no longer flying by the seat of your pants and the class runs more smoothly. Most teachers are doing lesson plans that show what to cover in case of a sub. However, they are not showing what they are teaching, what students are thinking and learning, and how they will support that learning. With good plans, students become center stage of what they are thinking, if they are understanding the content, and if they are moving toward the math goal of the lesson.I liked in figure 7.6 when it said, "don't equate completion of task with understanding of the underlying mathematical ideas." This goes on frequently in math class and good plans stops this issue.
ReplyDeleteHolly -- that comment "don't equate completion of task with understanding the mathematical idea" really, really hit home. I really need to keep this with me!! I can think back on many different things over the years where this has been boldy visible in the students I teach. They are memorizing process to get the task done, however they cannot make connections or utilize the skill 2 weeks after the test.
DeleteI guess I feel there are different levels of lesson planning, depending on your audience. I write my weekly plans for administration and for a sub, however normally I have to rewrite my plans for a sub as they are not comfortable with math content. And then each night or week, I do a more rigorous and detailed plan that I will actually use to facilitate the classroom. It takes a lot of time, but I do think it helps me as a teacher in the classroom. This helps me to be more confident and organized in the classroom. I have to do this to keep track of the learning I want within my classroom. I don't necessarily detail my plan or thinking to the level of the book example but I do think about how I want the students to learn and how I plan to facilitate the learning to meet the goal.
ReplyDeleteJenelle Jarnagin
ReplyDeleteLesson planning will help "shoulder the burden of teaching" because it is to front load the thinking for the teacher. It is suppose to take away the "on the fly" teaching. The reason the lesson planning is help the teaching is because if you use the 5 practices hopefully you are prepared for the lesson to go in any different direction the students take it and then you are ready to guide them back to where they need to be or take them to a deeper level if need be. Also you will save time because you have anticipated most of the questions and results that you are going to get. You as the teacher will have questions ready to go and it will free up your class time to monitor and work with your students on their learning. Where the lesson planning protocol goes beyond preparing for the discussion, it asks for the evidence of learning, how you are going launch the lesson, what background knowledge you are going to access, what materials you will need and what the students practice will be. During the launch preparation, it is important to know how you are going to launch the task/lesson so that you don't give away to much information while you give the students direction or referencing prior knowledge that they might need to access the task. Writing out your lesson plan makes sure that you don't forget questions/thoughts that you wanted share during lesson, it also gives you an artifact to have for future planning/collaboration with colleagues.
I guess to answer this question, I had to consider what exactly the "burden of teaching" is. There is, honestly, a lot that comes to mind. :) I think the burden that comes to the forefront is that we have to be able to get students to learn, and learn in both general and specific ways. Lesson planning can both address these specifics ahead of time, before students ever come into the room, and also help teachers lead students to the learning during the lesson. As a literacy teacher, there were lessons that I spent a lot of time planning, and there were some lessons where I didn't feel the need to plan much for. In contrast, with the 5 practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions, I'm seeing very clearly the vital importance of the planning, and how it can shoulder MUCH of the burden.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there have been many times that I have thought to myself that I did not need to lesson plan. For whatever reason (I have taught this before or I know this stuff), but after reading through the chapter I now see the benefit of having lesson plans that lay out the questions, goals, and work and it will make the lesson actually easier to teach.
DeleteAmanda Thorsen
A lesson plan that is well thought out with all the important details along with a monitoring sheet can make a big difference during and after a lesson. When we are in the middle of class, teachers do not have time to come up with the right questions to ask, keep track of who is participating and in what fashion, and discovering the necessary flow of strategies on the fly to the level students truly need.
ReplyDeleteWhen you prepare for a lesson in the way they have shown, you take care of most of the things that may distract from the flow of learning as the teacher already knows what to say or do next. So the burden, or weight, of having to devise or figure out multiple connections at one time is lifted.
This style of lesson planning also is more worthwhile plan to use for the next time you need to teach that lesson. Also, reflecting on the lesson and modifying it as necessary will be easier as you will have a great reminder of what took place in the classroom.
A lesson plan can provide key details that will help you make lighten the on fly questions, responses, and work that will happen during the lesson. A truly effective math lesson cannot be done without careful thought on what goal we want students to reach, how they will work toward this goal, how we will help move them to the goal, and what questions we can ask to foster thinking. A lesson plan that is set up to work through these things will allow the teacher to focus on student understanding and just simply what the answer to the question is. There is also a difference between lesson plans that are bare bones what will be taught and a lesson plan that will dive deep into the math. Using the bare bones lesson will not be enough to help engage students in a productive math class.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Thorsen
DeleteI'm not going to lie- I'm at the point in my career that my "lesson plans" are mostly one ore two words or phrase. I know what I am going to do- I might jot down skills or page numbers, but I don't write specific, detailed lesson plans. Having admitted that, I will also admit that lessons almost always go better when I do write out more detailed plans. Writing out a lesson plan ensures that teachers start with a goal, helps anticipate student struggles, plan for engaging activities, creates formative assessments, and helps teachers make sure they teach everything they intend to.
ReplyDeleteWriting down a skill or a few words in place of a lesson plan is bad practice. Teacher do not have enough time to get through everything and we have to maximize our instruction...lesson planning would help us do this.
Kate Wonders
DeleteJackie
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the two examples (fig. 7.1 vs. fig 7.3 on page 98-99), they look fairly similar. Keith's lesson though is definitely set up to should the burden just by simply adding in a few extra minutes to anticipate and prepare questions to ask of the students. When turning in lessons for our admin, I definitely do more like Paige's lessons-quick notes. As I am doing this, I do prepare questions but in my mind. For some reason I think that my steel-trap memory won't fail me after a week's worth of chaos, schedules, and other lessons. It surprisingly does. So even though I anticipate to some extent, I don't write anything down. When it comes to lessons for a sub, I am very detailed, but still don't always include anticipated questions from the students. It would be so simple to just tweak the lessons a bit to include this aspect.
Having a lesson plan written with the detail of those in the book would definitely be helpful to the teacher. The teacher would begin the lesson with the mathematical goal in mind. They would have list of possible solutions and questions. This would allow the teacher to focus on the students in their classroom "in the moment" and not have to be thinking about what comes next or what question to ask to move a group in a certain direction or extend the learning of a different group.
ReplyDeleteI think that quality lesson planning is key to mindful instruction. So, anyway process that a teacher consistently follows when planning is a good thing. It allows goals to be set, methods of instruction to be considered and evaluation of student learning to be determined. Lesson plans should be constantly evolving to meet the varied needs of students.
ReplyDeleteHow can a lesson plan "shoulder the burden of teaching"?
ReplyDeleteA good lesson plan like a good football practice plan or game plan is key to success. Good daily practice plans, well thought out, well organized, and well administered can make or break Friday night’s game.
A well done lesson plan can have answers to as many questions that you can think of. It can also have examples of previous years or your own examples to be able to sequence student responses. It can even have what connections can be made to next lessons or previous lessons. This way you have answers to the ever pressing question, “why do we have to learn this?”
ReplyDeleteHow can a lesson plan "shoulder the burden of teaching"?
ReplyDeleteIf a lesson plan is thought out, practiced and learned from, it should make the lesson go more smoothly from year-to-year. It should help a teacher feel more prepared and more confident. Going back through each lesson and adjusting as you learn as an educator can help aide in the next year. You also need to keep in mind the students within your class and adjust to best meet their needs.
Kelsey Burger
This chapter made me think of what real quality planning should look like. If I have done a complete job of planning a lesson I have thought through all of the possible outcomes for my students and planned scaffolding and extending questions to help move them forward. Since I did so much of my thinking about my student needs in the planning stage, the actual teaching of the lesson should go a lot smoother and I should just have to implement those ideas instead of create them “on the fly”. This frees my thoughts up for those ideas I did not anticipate and I can focus more on helping progress these students. I also should have thought about how to get my students started so the burden of nonparticipation should be lightened too.
ReplyDeleteThe five processes hold me as a teacher accountable to be more prepared and have a completely thought out organized lesson before I try it out with my students. This should take most of the surprise out of whether a lesson will be successful or not and make it less intimidating for me to try something new.