Article Discussion #2

Thinking through a Lesson: Successfully Implementing High-Level Tasks
by Margaret Schwan Smith, Victoria Bill, & Elizabeth K. Hughes

In mathematics education today, the importance of creating higher-level, meaningful tasks for student use has become a topic of great discussion. Many teachers plan extensively to create high-level tasks that they believe students will greatly benefit from and take meaning away from. However, research has shown that once these tasks are actually implemented in the classroom, a lot of the higher-level thinking is lost. Once this occurs, no meaning is taken away from the task. It is no secret that planning for and actually carrying out higher-level mathematical tasks is difficult. So, how is it that teachers can work to do this successfully? This article discussed the TTLP, or the Thinking through a Lesson Protocol. In short, this is a framework for teachers to use when creating math lessons that utilize a high amount of student thinking in order to further promote understanding. In addition the TTLP calls on teachers to think much more deeply about their planning and the content that they are presenting to their students. There are three overall parts to the TTLP: devising the task, student exploration of the task, and sharing of results and discussion of the task. All three of these parts take a lot of planning time in order to be carried out successfully. The article recommended some suggestions for implementing the TTLP. First, working collaboratively with colleagues may be beneficial. A high-quality task should first be selected, and then an overarching goal should be devised. What are the students going to be taking away from the task, specifically? Next, potential student responses should be anticipated ahead of time. The group should think about all of the approaches to solving the task. Finally, the group should write questions that can both gauge student thinking and understanding of the task, and help students to take their results from the task further.

The TTLP is an interesting and effective way to create and implement mathematics lessons, from what I have learned about it. It is very evident that a lot of time and preparation goes into planning the lessons, but the benefits seem really great. The article described that many teachers reported that they felt much more prepared for their lessons by using this framework. Additionally, some teachers felt that the questions they asked their students throughout the lessons were much more meaningful and well structured, since they created them ahead of time and not on the spot. Many teachers also reported that they were able to take key elements of the TTLP and integrate them into other subjects that they taught. I found it interesting that one teacher said that after she had written quite a few lesson plans using the TTLP, she found herself actually internalizing the process and framework. This, in turn, saved her time in actually writing the lesson plans using the framework. I think the TTLP may definitely be a useful tool for me in the future when creating mathematics lessons that are meaningful to students, and can help me to better be prepared and gauge student understanding.

Discussion Questions:
- The article suggested to collaboratively use the TTLP for creating lessons. Why might this be?

- All three parts of the TTLP are critical, but which do you think is the most important? Why?

References:
Smith, M. S., Bill, V. Hughes, E.K. (n.d.) Thinking through a lesson: Successfully implementing high-level tasks. Designing and Enacting Rich Instructional Experiences. p. 11-18.