California Department of Education
Taking Center Stage – Act II

Professional learning through lesson studies

Many PLC team members join fellow teams from their school, district, or county to conduct lesson studies—a process where teachers:

Systematically examine their practice, with the goal of becoming more effective. This examination centers on teachers working collaboratively on a small number of ‘study lessons’. Working on these study lessons involves planning, teaching, observing, and analyzing the lessons. To provide focus and direction to this work, the teachers select an overarching goal and related research question that they want to explore. This research question then serves to guide their work on all the study lessons.1

Teams wanting to do a lesson study usually start with an existing lesson—something easy for all members to understand. Steps in the lesson study are as follows:

  • Teachers work together to plan the lesson.
  • Team members help each other set up for the lesson.
  • One team member agrees to teach the lesson; others observe how well the students understand the main goal of the lesson.
  • Shortly after the teaching session, team members reflect on the lesson together and make needed changes.
  • Using the revised lesson plan, a second teacher conducts the lesson for a second class. Team members observe the lesson and then meet to discuss and refine it again.
  • Teams share the perfected lessons with others in their school, district, or county.
  • University partnerships can use the lesson to train new teachers.
  • To make time for lesson studies, most schools hire substitutes or use professional learning days to conduct the lesson.

The point of lesson study is to observe student learning, not to comment on teaching. Teachers who are observing the developing lesson ask questions about student learning. For example:

  • Are a majority of students staying engaged in the lesson?
  • If not, at what point do they disengage?
  • Is the vocabulary working for EL students?
  • What other words might convey the concept without confusing English learners?

The “5 E Lesson Plan” is one type of lesson study format. It leads participants through five levels of study: engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate. The Internet includes many sample 5 E lesson plan templates. For example, see the 5 E Lesson Plan for Long Lesson (DOC; Outside Source).

In the Spotlight

Kennedy Middle School, El Centro Elementary School District, a 2005 Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage 2005 Model School
Teachers at Kennedy Middle school make use of lesson studies to improve instruction for the school’s English learner population, which makes up 98 percent of the student body.

In his book, Results Now, Mike Schmoker gives a “pared down” version of the lesson study that he calls “The 20-Minute Team Meeting.” Using the shorter version, teachers become aware that even in a short time, they can collectively “craft fairly coherent, effective standards-based lessons and assessments.”2

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Footnotes
1What Is Lesson Study? (Outside Source), Lesson Study Research Group, Teachers College, Columbia University online (2002).
2Mike Schmoker, Results Now: How We Can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2006, 112.

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