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Lesson Study Cycle 2
The Theme:
To find ways to encourage students to participate in mathematical thinking, and have students understand the importance of math as it pertains to their daily life.
The Content understanding goal:
Students will understand they can use proportional relationships (including comparing rates and unit rates) to find the most cost-efficient means of purchasing products.
Our Lesson plan
Day 1: Lesson
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Lesson Goal: Students will learn how to calculate unit rate/cost.
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Task: After introducing the activity and reviewing the concept, students will work in pairs to determine the unit ratio/cost of two products to determine which is more cost-efficient.
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Flow: Prior to this lesson students learned how to work with proportional and linear relationships. They also have been practicing solving equations. This lesson is intended to build on their previous knowledge of equations while applying it into a context that students may experience in their everyday lives.
Day 2: Future implications
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Lesson Goal: Students will understand how to graph unit rate/cost.
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Task: Students will be able to use the information from the previous day’s lesson in order to create an equation that shows the cost per ounce of various products from the grocery store. Students will also learn how to solve and graph systems of equations by graphing different equations with varying slopes and learn the meaning of a solution.​
Research
Key Takeaway:
Students often need to be shown the implications and importance of math. While math can play a role in our daily lives, it is often not seen unless explicitly taught. Our lesson study showed students unit ratios for some of their favorite snack items, and gave them the tools to discover whether or not buying items in bulk or individually is the better deal. The research shows that explicit decisions are important when creating a math friendly environment for students. Students often need to feel safe before they feel comfortable sharing their thinking during a math lesson.
PDSA Data
Student work
Focus student 1
This focal student was the leader of their partner pairing, and was often helping their partner with the assignment. Initially during the lesson he was discussing the concepts with the teacher (during the first station), once his group had switched to the second station he was able to finish the assignment on his own. He and his partner did calculate one of the stations wrong, but they were able to figure out the mistake they had made. He would often discuss ideas with his partner, and would explain concepts to them. Overall he was able to understand the concepts that were being shown during the class, and was able to apply them to the assignment.
Focus student 2
This student followed more, and asked more questions. They were able to complete the assignment as well. As the groups continued to switch, this student seemed to be more confident as they were able to complete some of the work on their own without their partners help. The student seemed to understand the concepts that were being taught in the lesson, and the student need little prompting as the activity went on.
Analysis and synthesis
Student survey results
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This data allowed my group to review how students were able to reflect on their own participation and understanding. Looking at the data, we noticed that most students participated during whole class instruction and asked a question about content. Looking at the second piece of data from the survey, 10% of students listed that they did not share their thinking outline. However, while observing the whole class, each student pair was interacting with one another about the activity whether they were asking questions or taking the lead and offering explanations. Lastly, we can see that a 90% of students either understand the content practiced or feel confident enough to teach it to someone else. Although 10% of students listed that they somewhat understand, no students reflected that they did not understand at all during this comprehension check.
Reflections and Takeaways
One major takeaway from conducting this lesson study cycle is that the mindset a student has before beginning any lesson is important to notice and address. Confidence is key to encourage students to engage with content material. It is vital that educators set students up for success by teaching them proper ways to adapt a positive growth mindset when struggling with a concept. As a group, we found that math can be a difficult subject for some students to connect with and be able to relate to their everyday lives. We discovered that teaching new math concepts by connecting it to real life experiences or student interests while positively motivating students can drastically change their perspectives of math.
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​ This lesson study cycle taught me how to lean on other educators and research to help give insights on how to address struggles in the classroom. Conducting research with a problem of practice in mind helped to focus on what I really wanted to find out. It was motivating to find articles and mentors that helped answer the questions I had. Additionally, being part of a group that focused on the same problem of practice was ideal to discuss strategies and noticings with one another. ​
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A personal takeaway I have with this lesson cycle is the difference from having my classroom be the lesson study focus as compared to going to another's classroom. I found it much easier to discuss my own students since I know them well. Here I noticed that it felt more difficult to write meaningfully about the students, since I don't know their stories.
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As someone who also personally struggled in math and also had the "when will I use this phase?" I know the importance making math accessible and safe for students who may have an antagonistic view of math. As the research said time and time again. students need a safe space in order to explore math concepts.
Goals:
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Students should understand equations and ratios.
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Students should be able to apply this knowledge to their own lives (buying items in bulk vs individually)
This was the data gathering tool that we used for our data collection. It's focus was to measure how often a student was asking questions and how often they were providing ideas within their group.