Teachers in the Little Rock School District follow the Japanese Lesson Study Model as defined by Catherine C. Lewis in her book entitled, Lesson Study: A Handbook of Teacher-Led Instructional Change. This cycle is described below.


1. Goal-Setting and Planning 
Teachers form a lesson study team. They identify long-term and short-term goals for their students. These goals are brought to life in collaborative planning sessions in which teachers develop a detailed lesson plan based on a core unit of study. This detailed lesson plan is called the "Research Lesson".

2. Implement Research Lesson 
A member of the lesson study team volunteers to implement the collectively planned research lesson while the rest of the team carefully observe students and gather data.
 
3. Debrief the Lesson
The lesson study team meets to discuss the data collected on students.

4. Revise the Lesson 
The team revises the lesson based upon the data collected.

5. Implement Revised Lesson
The revised lesson is implemented with a different set of students. Members of the lesson study team and invited outside observers again collect data on students.

6. Debrief the Revised Lesson
The lesson study team and outside observers discuss the data and what they learned about how students respond to selected strategies and materials.

7. Final Report
The lesson study team writes a summary of what was learned about student thinking through the research lesson. This information is shared with others and contributes to the collective understanding of how our students learn.