Activity: In preparing for this activity, I had students do a couple of
worksheets to review the meaning of mean, median, mode, and range. They
were simple worksheets that were primarily computational procedures. Most
students were capable of completing the worksheets without any difficulties.
The day after the worksheet completion, I began the class session by asking
the students to participate in a dyad. The students, in pairs, were
instructed to share for 1/2 minute about the meanings of the words mean,
median, mode, and range. I asked them to decide who would be the speaker
and who would be the listener. I then gave them the signal to begin. After
1/2 minute, I signaled them to switch roles for the speaker to become the
listener. We shared as a whole class for about 1 minute, then I handed
out the data sheet. There were 6 sets of data as listed in the following
table:
| Mean = 10
Median = 8 n = 5 |
Median = 20
Mean = 25 Range = 10 |
| Mean = 9
Mode = 7 Range = 10 n = 6 |
Median = 10
Mode = 4 Range = 7 |
| Mean = 10
Median= 11 Mode = 6 |
Mean = 20
Median = 25 Range = 15 n = 3 |
The students then began explore the creation of data that would fit the given perameters. The students spent the remaining 55 minutes of classtime working on the sets.
Dyads
The
purpose of this activity is to have students access prior knowledge and
make a connection to the topic you would like to focus on. Give the students
a question or a topic that they will talk about. Don't have them talk about
it yet, however. Have the students pair up. Instruct students to decide
which partner will speak first. The other partner will be the listener.
Upon verifying this decision, give the students the signal to begin sharing.
The first person will speak for the prescribed amount of time (1/2 minute
is a good starting point with students new to this activity). Only this
studeent is to speak. The other student will listen, with head nods, smiles,
eye contact, etc., but no words. At the signal from the timekeeper (could
be the teacher or the odd-man out if there is an odd number of students
in the class), students change roles and the speaker becomes the listener.
Birthday
Line-Up
To get
students to interact with each other (and review the order of the months
of the year, HA), have them stand and get in a line in order of their birthday,
using only the month and date. This is a great mixer because they have
to talk to each other to find where to stand in line. If they ask for my
help, or tell me when their birthday is, I direct them back to the group
to find where they fit in the line. After they are in line, I have them
share their birthdates and place of birth. You could do a variety of other
things, such as having them talk to each other in pairs down the line to
find out the birth date and place and then introduce each other. I have
had them share a story of something they know about their birth or a story
about their very early childhood. Most often I have them break into groups
for a class activity by having them be in a group with the folks who are
in line beside them.
Furthest
Away
Another
activity to mix students is to have them line up in order of distance,
from shortest to longest, away from where they currently live. This
gives a good idea of the students' knowledge of distance and geography.
This activity gives students an opportunity to share about where they were
born and how they got to where they now live. I have them break into groups
for class activity according to the people around them in the line as in
the above line-up.
The first activity is a math activity that was successful with my students in that they had to think at more involved levels of thinking. The value of the other three activities, even though they don't directly involve mathematical questions, is that the students become familiar with each other. When they feel that they know the other students, have made connections with them, and have found things they have in common, the group work becomes much easier to attain. They have shared in areas that are not threatening to them, and they are much more willing to share in areas of mathematical questions.