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Using Lesson Study to Assess Student Thinking in Science SUMMARY for designing this assessment was the Assessments are process of Japanese lesson study opportunities to study student think- Teachers examine (Fernandez, 2002; Fernandez & ing and analyze teaching practices to fourth-grade students’ Yoshida, 2004; Lewis, 2002; Lewis, understandings of mag- best develop students’ ideas. Perry, & Hurd, 2004, 2009; Lewis, netism through the use Assessments, when tightly linked to Perry, & Murata, 2006; Stigler & of science notebooks. standards and instructional design, Decisions about student Hiebert, 1999). This process is provide information to evaluate: learning outcomes, lesson outlined below. design, and assessments (1) student learning, are derived from the use (2) teaching practice, Japanese lesson study process of a Japanese lesson study (3) the effectiveness of approach. Lesson study leads the team through a curriculum materials, and process which includes a (4) the standards upon live research lesson with which the lesson is observers who gather designed. extensive data on the les- son and outcomes. This forms a cycle of continu- The purpose of this arti- ous improvement in all cle is to describe our pro- aspects of teaching. cess for designing a for- mative assessment of fourth-grade students’ ideas about magnetism through the use of science notebooks. The context Sharon Dotger is an assistant professor of science education at Syracuse University, teaching pre-service teachers. F. Kevin Moquin is a fourth-grade teacher at Willow Field Elementary School in the Liverpool Central School District and a doctoral student at Syracuse University. Kathleen Hammond is a fourth-level teacher at Willow Field Elementary School in the Liverpool Central School District. E d u c a t o r ’ s V o i c e n V olume V n P age 2 2 Sharon Dotger, Syracuse University Using Lesson Study F. Kevin Moquin, United Liverpool Faculty Association Kathleen Hammond, United Liverpool Faculty Association to Assess Student Thinking in Science Lesson study begins as teachers work necessary or practical. Step Three together to articulate goals for student begins with one educator from the Lesson study learning. This begins with a broad, team teaching the lesson to a class of begins as non-subject-specific goal that describes students. The other members of the their students as learners. This broad team attend this lesson and observe the teachers work goal can then be framed for a subject students engaging in the task the group together to area, like science, then a unit, like designed. This is called a “live magnetism, and finally a lesson. To research lesson” (Lewis, 2002). articulate goals complete this step, teachers study for student standards and curriculum to determine Step Four occurs after the lesson existing good ideas that use methods implementation. The team meets as learning. that align with their goals and help stu- soon as possible to discuss the out- dents learn. The team in this descrip- come. After this, they go to Step Five: tion is a group of two fourth-grade redesigning the lesson based on the evi- teachers, a special education teacher, dence of student thinking they gathered and a science teacher educator. in Step Three and discussion they had in Step Four. The lesson can be re- In Step Two, the team writes a taught to a new group of students, detailed plan to guide students’ repeating steps Three through Five. learning and specify what observers should look for when they attend the For Step Six, teachers create a report lesson. In this approach, observers are that documents their learning. They invited to view the lesson. Observers can discuss what they know about stu- may be teachers and others who are dents’ ideas, what they know about invited. Examples of plans are available teaching that particular lesson in that from sources such as Lewis and Hurd particular unit, and how their under- (2011). standings relate to teaching generally and the goals and standards upon Steps Three through Five occur as which the lesson was based (see Lewis, many times as the team decides are 2010). continued on following page E d u c a t o r ’ s V o i c e n V olume V n P age 2 3 Using Lesson Study to Assess Student Thinking in Science We needed to Step One: Articulate Student n Magnetism is a force that may Learning Goals and Study attract or repel certain materials gather evidence in Standards (New York State Elementary Science the live research During our lesson study, we worked Core Curriculum, Standard 4, Key with other teachers in our school to Idea 5, Performance Indicator 5.1). lesson that articulate our broad goal: students were These descriptions of what students We will create an engaging should know about magnets are simi- engaged, learning environment to teach students a lar, but they are not identical. There core knowledge, core body of knowledge to become are specifics within each one that independent problem solvers and informed our planning. For example, problem-solving effective communicators. in the American Association for the independently, and Advancement of Science Benchmarks Thus, we needed to gather evidence in communicating for Science Literacy, the effect of a the live research lesson that students magnetic force over a distance is with one another were engaged, learning core knowl- stressed in the phrase “without touch- edge, problem-solving independently, effectively, both ing.” Also, they do not use the term and communicating with one another “force”; instead they describe the force orally and in writing. effectively, both orally and in writing. as a “push” or a “pull.” This resource also distinguishes magnet-to-magnet After establishing our broad goal, we interactions and magnet-to-iron-based studied the Benchmarks for Science object interactions. These distinctions Literacy (American Association for the are maintained in the National Science Advancement of Science, 1994), the Education Standards as well, but not National Science Education Standards in the NYS Elementary Science Core (National Academy of Sciences, 1996), Curriculum. and the New York State Elementary Science Core Curriculum (Grades K-4) to understand the indicators or out- comes of student learning for Step Two: Design Lesson magnetism: From our evaluation of these stan- dards, outcomes, and performance n Without touching them, a magnet indicators, we taught a series of lessons pulls on all things made of iron and about magnets from the unit either pushes or pulls on other mag- Magnetism & Electricity from the Full nets (AAAS, 1994). Option Science System (FOSS). FOSS n Magnets attract and repel each was developed originally by the other and certain kinds of other Lawrence Hall of Science at the materials (NAS, 1996). University of California at Berkeley in E d u c a t o r ’ s V o i c e n V olume V n P age 2 4 1993 and revised in 2001. (An over- we designed a note- view of the unit can be found at http:// book task in which www.fossweb.com.) students recorded this focus question: In the original unit, students were given magnets to investigate magnet What objects will interactions with objects in the class- stick to magnets? room. Then, students would explore how the magnet interacted with a set of We designed this other items in the kit. The original les- question after study- son called for students to predict first ing the teacher’s guide and discussing stu- by sorting these objects into two piles: F. Kevin Moquin uses a one pile of objects that they predict dents’ ideas from a previous lesson range of visual supports magnets would attract and one that about magnets. We were also con- to enhance student learning. would not. Students were then asked cerned that students were not recording to test the objects and re-sort them their predictions or their observations. based on their tests. Teachers engaged Therefore, we designed the notebook students in a discussion of what they task asking students to record: noticed. Students were then asked to n their predictions about each object, construct an explanation for why a paper clip can stick to a nail that is n the result of their test of that object already touching a magnet. In the orig- with the magnet, inal lesson, students were not asked to record their observations, only to gen- n a claim that identified a pattern in erate an explanation of a phenomenon their data, they might not have observed themselves. n support for their claim with evi- dence from their investigation, We used many of the materials and strategies described above, but we n a conclusion in their notebook that decided to modify the original design began with the statement, “Today I by using science notebook writing. We learned . .” and think of science notebooks as tools to n a reflection in their notebook to support students’ thinking as they extend their ideas by beginning learn in science and as tools for assess- with the statement, “I wonder what ment (Aschbacher & Alonzo, 2006; would happen if . .” Gilbert & Kotelman, 2005; McQuitty, Dotger, & Khan, 2010; Ruiz-Prino, Li, Ayala, & Shavelson, 2004). Thus, continued on following page E d u c a t o r ’ s V o i c e n V olume V n P age 2 5 Using Lesson Study to Assess Student Thinking in Science The science We taught the lesson to two other n Individual whiteboards to assist stu- groups of students before we arrived at dents with spelling new terms, and notebooks the final design we report on here. informed our During these lessons, we noticed that n Peer-to-peer discussion of ideas as students recorded their ideas, they before, during, and after writing.

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