Brancati 1

Victor Brancati

Rosemarie Michaels

Active Inquiry In Education p. 1

Lesson study on 10/17/17

Lesson Study Essay 2

For the second lesson study of the semester our class went to see a second grade class at a

private school in San Rafael. I was really looking forward to this lesson study because I had not

had the opportunity to see second grade as a student at Dominican until now. The class had 20

students all of which were meeting the standards for that grade level and none had any kind of

disability on file. The lesson we observed the teacher teaching was Number stories and nutrition

with learning outcomes of having the students both write and answer their own number word

problem with a topic of nutrition in it. While observing the lesson, the three main focuses were

TPE: pedagogy for teaching math, math practice standard 1: make sense of problems and

persevere in solving them, and math practice standard 2: reason abstractly and quantitatively.

First, TPE: pedagogy for teaching math was demonstrated throughout the lesson. At the

start of the lesson the students went over a pattern warm up problem from the morning. Since

they had already made a prediction, they talked with partners about what they thought would be

next and why. By doing this the were able to learn and practice explaining their reasoning and

proof. Another part of the teachers techniques that I really admired seeing and plan to use in my

class is how she called the students to different parts of the class. When going from the tables to

the carpet or vice versa the teacher said things like if you have an even number of letters in your

name go sit down or odd number of vowels. By relating the math directly to them the students

were in some ways learning productive disposition. Concluding, procedural fluency could be
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observed through the teacher singing math songs with the students. The songs had different tunes

of nursery rhymes, but went through math multiples. The teacher did effectively demonstrate that

math pedagogy was incorporated in the class.

Second, the first math practice standard: make sense of problems and persevere in solving

them was also demonstrated during the pattern activity. At the start of class that day the teacher

had the students sign in by going up to the smart board and move their name into a tri-Venn

diagram. The three categories were white, pinnate, and up. The pattern that the students

were trying t figure out had many different parts to it including color, type of leaf, and direction.

The students were able to follow through with this practice standard by finding their own way of

thinking in order to solve the problem. As mentioned earlier, the students did have the

opportunity to talk with each other about how and why they got their answers, which helped the

students follow through with understanding the reasoning of others and different ways of getting

other answers. Students continued the same method of understanding the meaning of the problem

and coming up with a solution pathway during the number line activity that the class completed.

Last, the second math practice standard reason abstractly and quantitatively, was

observed during the number line activity. The teacher had a number in her head that the class had

to figure out. The teacher started out by setting up a number line that went all the way to 150 by

tens. The class counted with her while making the number line and then started making

predictions to what the number might be. The students would quantitatively guess a number and

the teacher would tell them if the number was greater than or less than the students then

contextualized where they should and should not guess on the number line and then make

another prediction to what the number is. At one point there were a few students who the teacher

thought were acting up and had them go back to their seat, but they then became somewhat
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disconnected from the activity. To conclude, the number line activity was a great opportunity for

the students practice math standard two.

Overall, this lesson study did a great job of showing the specific details of the three main

focuses of our time at the class; TPE: pedagogy for teaching math, math practice standard 1:

make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, and math practice standard 2: reason

abstractly and quantitatively. As great of an opportunity as this was to learn about the specific

parts of the math pedagogy, I found that it got lost in other parts of the lesson study. Some of my

peers mentioned that only girls were being called on, but sometimes that is the luck of the draw

of the Popsicle sticks. One thing I want to remember for my class when I am a teacher is to make

sure that even when a student might be uncooperative to always put them somewhere where they

can follow the instruction instead of away where they can get lost and not follow along.
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Notes form Note taker Delainey:

Lesson Study 10/17/17

General Notes
o 20 Students; none with disabilities; all on grade level
o Balls with udders to sit on to help them stay focused and wiggle
o Be Flexible!
o They had made creative pencil and eraser homes
TPE: Pedagogy for teaching math
o Bridges math program (K-5)
o If you have an even # of letters in your first name go sit down, even # of vowels, if
you sit with the birthday girl, etc.
o I see a helper here
o The students are split up by groups ABCD, and shapes. Teacher uses this to tell who
to call out the number while filling in the number line. Also used in other subjects to
rotate through activities.
o Popsicles pulled to get guesses for numbers in Guess My Number
o Arrows attached to clothespins to they can be attached to the # line while students
make predictions. Both arrows on the # line so they know what the # is between.
o Writing # stories about other staff about eating healthy/nutrition.
o Snapping # for hours on clock.
Math Practice Standard 1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
o Signing in by predicting which leaf on the calendar for today. A lot of students
mentioned patterns and reasoned why they chose what they chose due to a
pattern.
o Using a tri-venn diagram with categories white pinnate and up. Using sign
language to give options for leaf colors.
o Predicting when the next down leaf will happen.
Math Practice Standard 2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively
o Singing to count up by multiples. Different songs for each.
o Filling in the # line by 10s
o By the teacher telling the student if the # was greater or less than their guesses the
students were able to solve what the # is.
o Using mathematics vocab to tell the greater than and less than symbols.
o Knowing what kind of foods the staff they are writing about will need to eat in order
to get what they want. I.E. yellow fruits and veggies for good eyesight.