Concept Lesson: Data Analysis

I know, super boring title right?  But it is quick and to the point, which is what I hope this post will be (fingers crossed...as you all know, I am not so good at that ;) )

My students just finished their Quarter 3 Math Assessment, so I thought we could bring all of that knowledge together for a new concept lesson.  I have written about concept lessons before (fractions here and surface area here). I love doing them, as they help to cement so much learning.  I usually do these types of lessons as an introduction to a concept, however this time, I used an actual real life task for the students that required them to use the knowledge they have about data and statistics.

I gave them the class results from the Quarter Assessment.  Each question that was missed was tallied up, so that the students had a record of how many students missed each standard.  I also gave them the standard that went with each question.  The students, working in groups, then calculated the fraction, simplest form, and percentage of questions missed (we happen to have 30 students in the class, so that worked out very nicely for this)

Honestly, that part was easy for the kids.  I mean, it did take time (there were 30 problems on the test!) but it wasn't all that difficult.  What was interesting was seeing the different strategy each group used to tackle the problems.  Some noticed that there were repeats (ie: #3 and #7 might have both had 9 people get it wrong, so the math is the same)  Others did all the fractions first.  Those different plans of attacks were interesting to watch. But, like I said, it wasn't difficult math for them.  It was part two that was the doozy for them.

I asked them to look at the results and 'help" me form remediation groups.  They were to decide, based on the data that was present, which standards the class had mastered, which standards should be taught in small groups, and which needed a whole class reteach.   They had to look at all of the standards, some of which were assessed multiple times on the test, and come up with a strategy to decide which were the most important standards to revisit and why.

The students really got into this.  They were very serious when it came to forming the groups.  For me, it really helped me to see who understood what data actually meant.   Some of them got so into the task they wanted to look at the actual test to see which problems were missed and why!  What also was eye opening was to see how the kids worked in groups.  Even after all this time in class, getting them to do group work was a bit of a task!

OK...so that is it!  Short and sweet :) (well, for me at least!)

Here are the documents I used.  I made them generic so you can adapt them into your own class.  Enjoy!