ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

3. Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability: 4. Measurement:

Needs Assessment/Rational

Assignment 1: Analysis of Instructional Need: In completing a needs assessment for this instructional unit, lack of organization, lack of motivation, common interests, and various academic levels are identified as major concerns. This school also has many students with chemical dependency, separation anxiety, depression, FAS, FAE, and other emotional and learning disabilities which result in a 80% special education population. In addition, the home support system is generally very weak with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and social services being many students’ only family. The returning student population is approximately 15% with 85% of the students transferring from other school around the country.
During the first few weeks of school, teacher made math tests and simple worksheets are given to confirm instructional levels indicated by STAR testing done the first week. Upon analyzing this data, the average level according to the STAR and additional math tests is at 3.5-grade equivalence (GE). The range is from 2.4 GE to 12+ GE. To compound the demands the classrooms face, the statewide CTBS Terra Nova assessment is now given in the fall. Understanding graphs are an important part of life as well as the North Dakota Standards and statewide testing. All math lessons can be taught from the foundational instruction of graphing. To help reach students from different parts of the country and at different levels of academic achievement an open ended, hands-project is taught. This project reaches North Dakota benchmark levels #3 and #12. It also and involves Tech Standards #1, #2 and #3. As students complete the basic requirements of the project, additional or adapted expectations can be created. For instance, some of the students will create their own templates or charts, and some will use existing templates or charts depending on their current level of achievement. Though creating a variety of the same graph, students analysis misleading components and discuss this at their instructional level. This hands-on activity puts all students at grade level for the standard of Data Analysis and Statistics.
This project is flexible and centers itself in Native American culture. It finds common ground for each student, identifying where and what tribe they are from, graphing the number of students from each tribe, and giving them an opportunity to relate to one-another. The project uses frequency tables, fractions, decimals and percents; it also uses the creative and visual and hands-on strengths many Native American students have, helping them learn to find, manipulate, and use information. It also encourages students’ internal motivation through the use of technology i.e. graphing programs, calculators, and activated board, Internet. To assess themselves, students are given a rubric and create a booklet of their work. Students are asked to use the rubric and grade their booklet before handing it in. Upon completing their graphs, students are asked to reflect on their understanding of real world graphs and how they may be misleading. A common thread found throughout self- assessments are what the student knows and still needs to learn.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: 1.  I want my students to understand that graphs can be misleading depending on how the information is presented.
Goal: Students will analyze graphs for misleading components.

Questions Answered

Essential Questions: 1. Why are the five essential parts of a graph important? 2. What effect does measurement markings have on reading a graph?  3. What effects does the information presented have on a graph? 4. How can reading different types of graphs make a better-informed citizen?
Objectives: 1. Students will explore graphs using multiple resources and determine the type of graph presented.  2. Students will describe the parts of a graph and the types of graphs. 3. Students will create and print a graph listing words in alphabetical order using a spreadsheet with 100% accuracy. 4. Students will discuss the components that lead to misleading graphical information.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
1. Students will list five parts to a graph. 2. Students will identify the location of the five parts to a graph. 3. Students will list the three main forms of graphs. What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
Students will be asked to compare two given graphs and determine which one is misleading and has missing components.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
1. Students will create a booklet of graphs they have created. 2. Students will submit a final journal entry to describe their learning outcomes. 3. Students will show evidence of work to inform others through various forms of graphing data.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
1. Students will journal their answer to guiding questions before the activity begins. 2. Special needs students will complete skeleton notes. 3. Students will assess their work in a rubric created on 4. Students will journal their understanding and involvement in this project of misleading graphs two weeks after the activity has been completed. 5. Students will discuss the importance of teams in working in groups.

Instructional Strategies

Teaching and Learning Strategies. Identify how one or more of the strategies discussed (inquiry-based, problem-based, and project-based) will help promote higher-order thinking and self-directedness with regard to your student learning objectives. Be Specific! Project based learning strategies will be used to involve students in investigating and solving the problems of creating and reading graphs. Rather than the instructor defining graphs, students will create, discuss and inquire about the components of graphs before reading graphs. Project based learning will also be useful as students synthesize their knowledge and determine what they can do with information as they read various forms of graphs. Planning for Improved Student Products. Student-learning activities and the resulting end products play a vital role toward increasing student achievement. An end product is generally the driving force and often dictates how the project is organized in an engaged learning activity. The production of the product requires specific content skills and the entire process is authentic, mirroring the real world. The process and the end product are both of critical importance. One cannot happen successfully without the other. You now have the ability to examine your student products and identify the types of instructional practices, learning uses, and student performances that are in greatest need of improvement in order to meet your Phase III building level goals.

Procedures

Students are identified by their tribal affiliation for this activity by keying in the tribe on the computer attached to an Acti - View Board. The students will compile a list of tribes represented in their classroom. From this list they will complete a frequency table given to them by their teacher. Then, the students respond to the question, “What is the largest number of tribal affiliations represented in this class?” and “What is the nation’s largest identified tribe?”
A video recorder will be used to document the discussion for later review by the class. After 5 to 10 minutes, students will break away from their team and rotate through the classroom computer to enter a paragraph in the class project database describing how the other team members treated them. The database is used through the project to record personal journal entries on various topics. The students read and discuss Edna Paisano, found in Creating a Scared Place for Students in Mathematics K-12. Students will use maps from Mapping CENSUS 2000 The Geography of US Diversity to Identify census of America Indians, Mobile GIS Data will be used with Arc Pad. http://www.ersi.com
After reading and class discussion, the students use word processing to write a paragraph describing various forms of data. Students will investigate population estimates for Indian people.