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Victor Brancati
Professor Rasmussen
LS 2000 Realities of Teaching
11/18/16
Lesson Study Essay 2
For our second lesson study we went to a public elementary school located in San Rafael.
Our class had the opportunity to see a male teacher at this lesson study. I really enjoy being able
to see how men teach in the classroom because it gives me an idea of how I can act in different
situations. The teacher we observed taught fourth grade and the lesson that he taught was about
fractions. While observing that lesson, the teacher incorporated Teacher Performance
Expectations (TPEs) into his class. He implemented TPE 3: Understanding and Organizing
Subject Matter for Students by using a warm up in the beginning and knowing his students, and
TPE 5: Assessing Student Learning by using the whole lesson as informal assessment. He also
incorporated Student Specific Pedagogy for Math by using real world examples and a work
packet with different styles of problems.
During the lesson on fractions the teacher used TPE 3: Understanding and Organizing
Subject Matter for Students by using a warm up in the beginning of class and by knowing his
students. To start the class, he gave the students a warm up question. By having them start out
with that, it gave the students a chance to start thinking about what they had learned in the
previous math lesson. The warm up also gave him a chance to use his knowledge of the students.
He called on one girl who did not have her hand raised to answer, and she seemed a little
nervous. Even though that was the case, he knew that she would be comfortable with going up to
the board and writing her answer there. Lastly, the teacher made accommodations to promote

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student access to the curriculum when the students were working on their packet by telling the
groups that they all must finish at the same time. Throughout the whole lesson it was evident that
the teacher clearly understood what he was teaching.
During the class, the teacher used TPE 5: Assessing Student Learning through informal
assessment. For most of the lesson, the teacher was circling the room looking over student work
and observing what steps the students went through to answer the questions. When he sees a
student struggling, he will help them, but if he can tell that they understand the material he will
let them be. Since most of the class consists of English Language Learners, that is something that
he constantly has to implement into his class too. One style of assessment that he uses for those
students is having them verbally state their answer. By doing that he can check that the students
are putting together the words that they are learning and what they are being taught. Lastly, he
works with students who need extra help with the material at a separate table. He knows those
low students from other teachers and testing. At this point in the semester though, he knows
who will need extra help with different subjects.
Finally, the teacher incorporated Student Specific Pedagogy for Math by using real world
examples and using a work packet with different styles of problems. One of the first things that I
noticed during the class was in the warm up. He used a question that asked the students to split
up pizza equally between two people. That was an example that will be able to help the class
relate the math that they are learning to the real world. The work packet that the students were
using had all different kinds of math problems in it and that is very important for students who
learn differently because they can solve the questions in different ways. While the students were
working on their packets, they used appropriate tools, which in this case were their round circle
pieces. The circle pieces were manipulatives for the fractions. The teacher used those to help the

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students understand the concept better. Whenever a student did not understand, since they were
working in groups, they would ask their neighbor for help. By doing that the students were able
to make sense of the problems and persevere in solving them.
By implementing TPE 3: Understanding and Organizing Subject Matter for Students the
teacher was able to have the students work together and by using a warm up in the beginning and
knowing his students he could push the children to do their best. By using TPE 5: Assessing
Student Learning the teacher was able to circle around the whole classroom and not just lecture.
He was able to help the students on more of a one on one level. That was successful because his
form of assessment was an informal assessment throughout the whole lesson. He also
incorporated Student Specific Pedagogy for Math by using real world examples and uses a work
packet with different styles of problems. I really felt that this lesson study was helpful for me
because I could see that even though we all learn the same techniques and strategies to be a
teacher, it is how you implement those strategies that make you a unique and successful one.