Best School for Kevin

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  Model Eliciting Activity (MEA)

• Formative Assessment

  
  

  The comprehension questions/readiness questions and reflection questions can be used as formative assessment (for questions, see the Readiness questions section). Comprehension and readiness questions will indicate whether the students understand the problem and the problem context, and reflection questions are meant to elicit students' thinking as they are working through the problem. The comprehension/readiness questions are asked of students after they read the first client letter (see Reading Passage 1).
  
  The teacher can ask the class to respond to these questions and ensure understanding before students begin working with the data. Students' responses to the reflective questions can also indicate whether scaffolding is needed. The reflection questions are asked by the teacher as students are working in their groups on parts 1 and 2 of the MEA. These questions can reveal any misunderstanding or issues that students have as well as guide them to think about what they are doing.

• Feedback to Students

  
  

  The teacher will provide students with feedback throughout the lesson. Sample Questions:

  • How did you come up with your process?
  • Would this work with any data?

• Summative Assessment

  
  

  Best School MEA Rubric.docx

• Learning Objectives

  
  

  The students will be able to

  • analyze a set of data and create a ranking process about said data
  • explain how they came up with ranking process
  • create a histogram of the data they produce

• Prior Knowledge

  
  

  The students should be able to read and interpret data on tables.
  
  

  MAFS.6.SP.1.2

• Instructional Suggestions

  
  

  Part 1 (Days 1 and 2)

  1. Ask students the formative assessment questions (see Formative Assessment) and provide a review if needed.
  2. Students receive client letter 1 (Reading passage 1) and dataset 1, (provided in the Dataset 1 section).
  3. The teacher can ask the readiness/comprehension questions (see Readiness questions) to the class or have students complete them individually on paper. After students understand the task, they can begin to work in teams of approximately 3-4.
  4. In teams, students work on the problem and respond to the client with therequesteddeliverables.
     • As students are working, the teacher circulates to each team to ask the first set of Guiding/Reflective Questions and address any issues that may arise.
     • Teachers can provide guidance using the reflective questions to help students determine the important factors and start thinking about how they can present their solution.

  Part 2 (Day 3)

  5. Students receive the client letter 2 (Reading Passage 2) and dataset 2. (found in the Dataset 2 section), along with their work from part 1.
  6. Teams test, evaluate, and revise their first procedure as necessary with theseconddataset and provide therequesteddeliverables as specified in the second letter.
     • If teams finish early, they can begin preparing their presentations.
  7. After all of the teams have completed their second letters to the client, the teams will present their results to the rest of the class and classroom discussion will follow. Best School Rubric

• Guiding/reflective Questions

  
  
  1. Why do you think that?
  2. How do you know if you have an answer to the problem?
  3. Would your selection work in a different situation?
  4. What are the most important things to consider in your procedure?
  5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

• Reading Passage 1

  
  

  Dear Team,
  
  My husband and I have just moved into the neighborhood. I have a 12 year old son named Kevin who is entering the seventh grade. It is very important to us that Kevin continue to do well on his studies and that he is in the best school available for him. I have collected some data on the surrounding schools and would love to have your team look over it and develop a ranking system. Using this data, rank the schools in the order that we should consider, so that we can register Kevin.
  
  Please respond with both the rankings and the procedure that you used to make your decisions so that we can use it in the future when we register Kevin and as any other schools become available.
  
  My husband is not that savvy with numbers and statistics so please summarize and organize the data (using a histogram) so someone who is not familiar with it can quickly and easily understand. We hope to use your findings to find the best school for Kevin. Thank you for your help!
  
  Sincerely,
  Mrs. Thankful
  
  
  
  Letter 1 Best School For Kevin.docx

• Readiness Questions

  
  
  1. What is the problem?
  2. Who is the client in this problem?
  3. What does the client need?
  4. What do you need to include in your letter?
  5. Why is the client asking for a procedure to select the best school?

• Data Set 1

  
  

  Data Set 1 School For Kevin

• Letter Template 1

  
  

  Dear __________________,
  
  Our team _______________, has determined that you should send Kevin to ______________.
  
  Our procedure for ranking them is as follows:
  
  
  
  
  
  The ranking is as follows:
  
  
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  _______________

• Comprehension/readiness questions

  
  
  1. What is the problem?
  2. Who is the client in this problem?
  3. What does the client need?
  4. What do you need to include in your letter?
  5. Why is the client asking for a procedure to select the best school?

• Reading Passage 2

  
  

  Dear Team,
  
  Thank you for all of your hard work helping to create a procedure for ranking the schools from best to worst. The same day we received your letter, we finished researching a nearby charter school. We have also included information about the total population of each school. We would like for you to help us by making sure that the procedure still works with these new data and any additional data we might receive. Feel free to add any other data about each school that you may consider useful.
  
  Please write us back and tell us the order in which you ranked the schools and why. Also, provide us with a summary and graphical representation (histogram) of the data. If your team had to make any changes to your first procedure, please explain what you changed and why each change was needed.
  
  Thank you again for all of your hard work! We look forward to hearing back from you so that we can make our final selection.
  
  Sincerely,
  Mrs. Thankful
  
  
  
  Letter 2 Best School For Kevin.docx

• Data Set 2

  
  

  Data Set 2 School For Kevin

• Letter Template 2

  
  

  Dear __________________,
  
  Our team _______________, has determined that you should send Kevin to ______________.
  
  Our procedure for ranking them is as follows:
  
  
  
  
  
  Our procedure for ranking (did/ did not) change. (If procedure changed, explain how and why. If procedure did not change, explain why not).
  
  The ranking is as follows:
  
  
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  _______________

• Reflection question 2

  
  

  .