Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  General Lesson Plan

• Learning Objectives: What should students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?

  
  
  1. Students will be able to calculate mean, median, and standard deviation.
  2. Students will be able to plot data on a dot plot.
  3. Students will identify similarities and differences in shape, center, and spread when given two or more sets of data.

• Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?

  
  

  Students should know the definition, examples, non-examples, and how to calculate the following:

  • Mean, Median, Mode
  • Center of Data Sets
  • Shape of Data Sets
  • Spread of Data Sets
  • Standard Deviation
  • Dot Plot
  • Variables
  • Hypothesis

  
  You may have students complete a Freyer Model prior to the lesson for all the prior knowledge terms. This may done in small groups or individually. For more information on the Freyer model, see http://www.adlit.org/strategies/22369/

• Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?

  
  

  How can we use statistics to determine if boys or girls are better at texting?

• Teaching Phase: How will the teacher present the concept or skill to students?

  
  

  Opener - Ask the following questions:

  • Whoisbestattexting, boys or girls?
    • Collect 3-5 student responses
    • Sample Answer: boys (or girls)
      
      
  • How can we define "best"?
    • Collect 3-5 student responses; ensure that one response includes time
    • Sample Answer: measure speed they text, measure the accuracy of their texting
      
      
  • How could we determine who is best (fastest)?
    • Collect 3-5 student responses
    • Sample Answer: Measure time to write a text, measure number of trials to write a text.
      
      
  • What variables or factors could influence our testing and how can we control them?
    • Collect 3-5 student responses
    • Ensure student responses include length of test, type of phone, type of entry (voice or typing), spelling
    • Sample Answer: type of phone, text message, type of entry
      
      
  • What can we do with the data (times) we collect?
    • Collect 3-5 student responses
    • Ensure they include mean, median, mode, graph, and standard deviation
    • Sample Answer: mean, median, mode, graph, and standard deviation
      
      
  • What would mean indicate?
    • Sample Answer: The average
      
      
  • What would median indicate? What if it is far from the mean?
    • Sample Answer: Median indicates the middle value. If the mean is far from the median then the data is skewed.
      
      
  • What would mode indicate? What if is there is no mode?
    • Sample Answer: The most frequent data point; the data has a larger spread.
      
      
  • What is an advantage/disadvantage of using a dot plot?
    • Sample Answer: An advantage is allows you to visually represent data. A disadvantage is that it difficult to compare two or more sets of data.
      
      
  • What does standard deviation indicate? High vs. low?
    • Sample Answer: Standard deviation is a measure that is used to quantify the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of data values. The higher the standard the deviation, the greater the value is from the mean.

• Guided Practice: What activities or exercises will the students complete with teacher guidance?

  
  

  Students will work with a partner to record the speed at which they type the same message on a phone. (If possible, use only one type of phone). The time only counts if the text is accurate including spelling and punctuation. Students record the number of trials required to get an accurate text and the time for the accurate trial.

  The attached Sample Texting Data spreadsheet has sample data students may use if time does not permit data collection. Students may also replace the given results with their own class results, allowing the spreadsheet to calculate the mean, median, and standard deviation for them.

  Text Message:
  My math teacher, Mrs. Ruwe, is the best teacher ever. She is using texting to teach standard deviation and central tendency. Are you having as much fun in your math class?

• Independent Practice: What activities or exercises will students complete to reinforce the concepts and skills developed in the lesson?

  
  

  Students will create dot plots and then find median, mean, range, standard deviation, and shape for the set of class data. They will only manually calculate the standard deviation for either the boys' times or the girls' times (student choice), use the Excel worksheet to calculate standard deviation for other data. Students will complete the data table comparing the results of boys vs. girls. Then students will answer the interpreting results questions. See the attached Student Sheet; the answer key is based on the sample data.

• Closure: How will the teacher assist students in organizing the knowledge gained in the lesson?

  
  

  The teacher will review the interpreting results answers with students. The teacher may choose to collect the sheets and then review the answers, or they may have students share their answers in a whole group discussion.

  The teacher will then return the formative assessment sheet to students. Students will complete the "after" section and return the sheets to the teacher. Based on students' scores, the teacher will reteach any necessary content prior to administering the summative assessment.

• Summative Assessment

  
  

  The summative assessment requires students to compare the center and spread of two sets of data and is scored with a rubric. The assessment also has a written portion. There is a sample writing template if students need it.

• Formative Assessment

  
  

  Students will be given the formative assessment "before and after" statements at least a day prior to the lesson. Students will mark if they agree or disagree with the statement. The teacher will review the formative assessment to determine students' understanding of mean, median, and standard deviation. Based on the feedback on the before column, the teacher may need to review mean, median, and standard deviation briefly prior to the lesson. The the summative assessment is returned to the students after the lesson but prior to the summative assessment. Students circle if they agree or disagree with the statements. Based on this feedback, the teacher will proceed to the summative assessment or provide opportunity for remediation/enrichment.

  Throughout the lesson, the teacher will walk around the room monitoring student discussion and provide feedback based on those discussions. There also is a worksheet that will be used during the lesson as formative assessment.

• Feedback to Students

  
  

  The teacher starts off the lesson by introducing the objectives with students. There will be a period of whole-group guided discussion (refer to the teaching phase). During this discussion, the teacher will provide immediate verbal feedback. Next, there will be a period of small group data collection and math calculations. Students will collect data on text timing, and then will calculate mean, dot plots, median, and standard deviation. The teacher will monitor students by walking from group to group. Then there will be a period of whole-group guided discussion where the teacher will provide verbal feedback.