The Three-Part Math Lesson

One of the greatest tools in your back pocket as a new teacher is the three-part lesson plan (see a basic plan here that is applicable to all subject areas). I know you were probably rolling your eyes as you read this last statement, but bear with me for a few minutes, as I lay out my argument for why the three-part lesson plan is your new best friend when it comes to planning your mathematics lessons. As part of an exercise for the recent Math Additional Qualification course I took, I was asked to compare and contrast the three-part lesson with the more traditional methods of teaching math. In many respects, the results were quite revealing about the ways in which we’ve tended to do things in the classroom. In the traditional lesson column I noticed that most aspects of the lesson were teacher-centric; that is, the teacher was the focus of the attention for students and was where they gathered the information they needed. In the more modern three-part lesson, it is the students who are more often in the driver’s seat, developing their own understanding through trial and error, the sharing of their work and teacher input and observation. Perhaps the hardest thing to get used to for teachers committed to the three-part lesson plan is the amount of time they spend away from the “front” of the classroom compared to the amount of time they spend in the trenches so to speak, among the students as they delve into mathematical problem solving head on. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see my comparison between three-part lessons and traditional teaching methods. 

This youtube video provides an excellent summary of what a three-part math lesson entails:

Here are the results of my comparison between a three-part math lesson and a traditional one:

Traditional Math Lesson	Three-Part Math Lesson
Teacher led from beginning to end.	Teacher leads in the beginning and wraps things up in the end.
Teacher has one or two way interactions with students, but rarely or never has the students interact with each other.	Depending on the lesson, students work in pairs or in small groups.
Students lesson to teacher lecture and then work independently.	Teacher sets up lesson, and then has students work in pairs, small groups or independently, depending on the nature of the lesson.
Students receive written feedback from the teacher.	Students give and receive verbal feedback from their peers and receive timely verbal feedback from their teachers.
Teacher spends the first part of the lesson, “setting up” the work students will do.	Teacher spends the first part of the lesson, “setting up” the work students will do.
Students work independently on the work their teacher has assigned.	Students work in different groupings depending on the work assigned. As well sometimes students will work in different combinations (pairs, groups, independently).
Once student has completed their work, they submit it to the teacher to be graded.	Students and teacher debrief the work at the end of the lesson (Reflecting and connecting), where students share ideas with each other, and solidify their understanding of the concept(s) that were focused on. As well, feedback is given while students are working. During this time the teacher observes and asks questions meant to keep students on track and help them to further develop their understanding.