Final project reflection
Graphing with Colors
For
my final project of the semester my group and I decided to choose standards in
the area of Mathematics. Although
I do teach 3rd grade, I also decided to incorporate 2nd
grade standards (as well as 3rd) into my lesson. Since my class is at a lower level in
mathematics, I believed that these goals would better meet the goals of my
class as a whole. For this lesson
students focused on gathering data and representing it in a tally chart, as
well as a bar and pictograph. Once
students were finished with these products, they were asked a series of
questions based on their information.
Overall
I believe this project went well.
I chose to follow the Explicit Instruction model. While following this model, I first
game a teacher demonstration (I do), then guided practice (We do) and finally
Independent practice (You do).
Before I presented this lesson to my students, I felt it was important
and necessary to first gage where they were at in terms of understanding
graphs. To help with this, I had
them complete a Pre Test. The
results of the pretests indicated that students had a much easier time
identifying pictographs and tally charts.
The result also showed that near half of the class had a harder time identifying
a bar graph, X&Y axis’ as well as answering word problems pertaining to a
graph. With this data I was able
to better direct my Teacher Model to help teach and solidify missing gaps of
knowledge.
During
my Teacher Model I involved students in my data collection. The topic for my model was ‘favorite
Yupik food’. With this I had students vote on their favorite food (out of a
total of 5 different foods). I chose
to have students vote with their eyes closed, as I assumed I would get a better
accurate measurement. I did this,
since I know and have experienced in the past that if students see other
students voting a certain way, they end up voting the same. This worked out perfectly as we had at
least 1 person vote for each category.
Once I created the tally chart on the board I modeled how to create a
bar graph as well as a pictograph.
This went flawlessly.
In
my Guided Practice portion of the lesson I placed students in groups of 3. I did this in order to make it easier
to work in groups for this next section.
Before student entered the room I scattered colored tiles around the
room. Once they were in the
classroom I gave them 30 seconds to gather as many tiles as possible. Once 30 seconds were up-they were to go
to their groups. This part of the
lesson was both fun and engaging and I would definitely consider using this
activity again. Once students were
in groups they were instructed to create a tally chart combining all tiles from
all members of the group. Combing
and creating was the easy part. I
however came across the problem of groups being done way quicker than other
groups. I’m not sure how to
prevent this. I did not want them
to move on, since we were doing the project all together on the board. Once groups gathered their data, we
combined them on the board. After
which we create a bar graph and pictograph.
After
the Guided Practice portion of this lesson-it was time for the Independent
practice. I gave students the
option to work in a partner group or to work alone. For the lower students I gave them a partially filled out
Tally chart, bar graph and pictograph.
For the medium leveled students I gave them charts and graphs that were
less filled out and required them to come up with their own scaling system and
category names. For the
higher-level students I gave them blank charts and graph papers for them to
gather their own information on. By giving students the option to work in
partner pairs I believe I helped adhere to their comfort level, and it was
really great seeing how well they worked with each other. Each person in the partner pair had
their own Jellybeans; therefore they had their own set of numbers for their
charts and graphs. The benefit to
having them work in a partner pair was that they could bounce ideas off one
another. Once they were finished they had the option to present their data
using a program called ‘Photobooth’ or Prezi. The medium level students worked
independently on their slightly filled out charts and graphs and continue to
use the jellybeans as their source of data. A few high students completed their jellybean charts
quickly, and moved onto their own data collection of a topic they had chosen.
Overall
I think this project was completed very smoothly. It was amazing how the
student who finished early were so eager to create their own tally charts and
graphs. They enjoyed collecting
data on the class, whether it was people’s favorite colors, favorite animal or
favorite basketball team. The
partner pairs worked out great and everyone was able to finish their product in
a timely manner. At the conclusion
of this project students were given a post test-it was amazing see their mannerisms
change so much this time around (the first time the complained about not know the
material being asked). Overall students did much better on all aspects of the
test. The post test did however
still show me a portion of the standard in which I could focus a little more
detail on next time (or in further lessons). The question in which still ¼ of the students missed was the
one regarding X and Y-axis’. Knowing this provides insight and information on
what I could improve when presenting this lesson next time, and I look forward
to even better results!
2 of my students completed their presentations on a program called Prezi. A link to both presentations are below.
High student:
http://prezi.com/jukl-szwni5w/nikolais-graphs/?kw=view-jukl-szwni5w&rc=ref-38243443
Medium student:
http://prezi.com/qoeo0sjxg1tp/chases-jelly-bean-project/?kw=view-qoeo0sjxg1tp&rc=ref-38243443
Students were given an option to present their data on either a program called Prezi, or by recording themselves on photobook. One of my lower level students chose to present their data on photobooth, here is the recording. As you can see the charts are much more filled out than those of the previous examples.
Lower level student:
Here is the data collected from the pre and post tests:
These tests were given to 17 students, below represents the number of students who missed the question in each area. First in the Pretest, followed by the results of the Post Test
Pretest
Identifying bar graphs: 5
Identifying pictographs: 3
Identifying X & Y-axis: 10
Word problem: 7
Identifying Tally chart: 2
Post Test
Identifying bar graphs:0
Identifying pictographs:1
Identifying X & Y-axis: 5
Word problem:1
Identifying Tally chart:1
**The lesson plan in which i followed for this lesson is included in the Blog 12 post
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