ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the analysis of an hour-long introductory lesson taught by Jim Minstrell, a nationally known and highly regarded teacher-researcher. There are interesting differences and parallels between the lesson analyzed in this chapter and the lesson discussed in Chapter 4. The content of this lesson, involving issues of discretion in data analysis, is somewhat non-standard. The lesson was designed and taught by an experienced teacher who not only knows the material (as Nelson knew his) but also, by virtue of his experience, knows how students are likely to react to various parts of the lesson, and what he is likely to do in response. Minstrell’s classroom routines, which are discussed in detail, are much more complex than the IRE sequences employed by Nelson. Thus the two lessons reside in very different parts of the “teaching space.”
