3 Part Lessons for Teachers in the Classroom

What is a 3-Part Lesson?

These are typically the parts of a 3 part lesson:

1. BEFORE – ACTIVATION, MINDS-ON The purpose of the first part of the lesson is to get the students cognitively prepared for the lesson problem by having them think about ideas and strategies that they have previously learned and used. The teacher might also ask students to solve a smaller problem in order to evoke prior knowledge and familiar skills and strategies. Through questioning, teachers seek to establish what students already know about the content and the context of the problem. Teachers listen for an indication of students’ level of readiness. Careful observation during this stage will allow teachers to pose further questions and prompts that provoke deeper thinking throughout the lesson. It is during the activation phase that students will recall previous learning and be prepared to apply it to the lesson problem and discussion. This is a good opportunity for students to ask questions of each other that are similar to those modelled by their teachers.  2. DURING – WORKING ON IT, ACTION During this part of the lesson, students are working on solving a problem and communicating and representing their mathematical thinking. This phase of the lesson provides multiple observational assessment opportunities, which may be captured as anecdotal or digital records. As students work to make sense of the mathematical ideas embedded in the problem, both teachers and students use questions to develop and clarify their mathematical thinking. Solving the problem during the planning phase helps teachers to anticipate some of the challenges that students may encounter and informs their questioning. By listening closely to students as they discuss their emerging solutions, teachers occasionally pose questions and use the information they glean to inform their in-the-moment instructional decisions. This information may also be used as assessment-for-learning data for planning purposes, including the planning of questions for lesson consolidation. Both correct and incorrect solutions can be probed, since questioning promotes the thinking necessary to build, construct and consolidate understanding.At times, however, questioning may not be appropriate, since the students need time to persevere through their thinking without interruption. 3. AFTER – CONSOLIDATION, HIGHLIGHTS AND SUMMARY, AND PRACTICE In this phase of the three-part lesson, the teacher strategically coordinates student sharing of their solutions to the lesson problem, using a mathematical instructional strategy like bansho, math congress or a gallery walk. During consolidation, teachers and students ask questions that help to summarize the mathematical ideas embedded in the class solutions. They support students in establishing explicit connections between solutions, concepts and strategies. As students analyze other students’ solutions, they question their own ideas and the ideas of others. They examine mathematical thinking, engage in metacognition and make generalizations related to the learning goal. By seeing other ways to solve the problem, they may adopt new strategies when they solve subsequent problems.