Inductive Inquiry Lesson Plan

Names: April Harvey, and Katie Law  

Date: February 12, 2004

Grade/Subject: Graphing for  2^nd and 3^rd graders

Time: 5:00-6:00 p.m.

 Classroom Structure:

The students were arranged around a table and were allowed to work together in one big cooperative group.  They could compare answers and compare graphs during the allotted working time.  We only had four students so it worked to have one big group. 

 Context:

This lesson was aimed towards reviewing a concept they already knew, but hadn’t yet mastered.  April and I weren’t sure if they could successfully graph the skittle colors, and without much help they all proved they could do it.

 Materials and Preparation:

Graph Posterboard

Pack of Skittles

Pens

Markers

Before we started, we reviewed what a graph was and what different kinds of graphs can be used.  They all named the four common graphs and knew how to construct them all.  Not much preparation was needed because they were all pretty aware of the graphing concepts.

 Objective:

The objective of this lesson was to assess the girls and see if they could successfully graph their skittles by certain colors.  Another objective was for the girls to label the graph and the information on the graph. 

 Assessment:

In this lesson, there were many assessment techniques that were distributed.  The students were given skittles and sorted them into categories of like colors.  They also labeled their graphs with the appropriate colors and amounts of the like color categories.  The final assessment planned was for the students to be able to read the graphs and explain them to the rest of the class and as they did that they compared with their neighbors how different their totals were and how their graphs looked.  

 Lesson

Introduction:

The students wanted to graph candy because Valentine’s Day was only a couple days away.  We thought that this would be an excellent time to find out if they knew how to group colors, label their graphs, and finally present them to the class.  The first day we had done a KWL chart and they said they wanted to learn multiplication and division.  We thought this activity would be a good one to introduce them to what we would be doing. With the information they presented on the graph, they were asked what the product of two or more colors was.  By the answers, we were able to assess what they knew and what they didn’t.

 Procedure:

We asked the students questions before they started graphing to see what they knew about graphing.  From what we found out, we were able to plan what we were going to do in the coming weeks.  They didn’t have much trouble graphing and they enjoyed it thoroughly. 

The hypotheses we had before the lesson was: The students will be able to graph the candy skittles and explain their skittle graphs to the class.

The data we collected was the graphing posters they made when counting the skittles and graphing them.  They labeled the graphs and some of them even made creative names for their graphs. 

The data we collected from the students was very legible and understandable to read.  They explained it well and knew what they were doing.  They were able to stand up and explain their graphs to the class.  We thought the students knew what they were doing from the graphs they made.

Tentative conclusions that we had were that the students would be able to graph, the students wouldn’t make the graphs legible and would have no idea how to present them or label them, and that the students would know what they were doing and be able to answer the multiplication questions.

No replications.

 Closing:

The graphing was a success and we talked about the graphs they made.  The students were excited to share their graphs and then eat their skittles.  We talked about when the students would use graphs and why they would use them in the future.  We came up with quite a few ideas.

We encouraged the students to look for other ways to graph and to graph when they need to compare things.  They took the information and we hope they applied and continue to apply it in their everyday life.  We stressed how important graphing is and gave them examples of how we use it in life.

 Extension:

The girls could use this at any age because the type of graphs and the information could be advanced or diminished.  They could make more complicated problems out of it for the older grades or just use it for counting techniques in the lower grades.

 Student Assessment Results:

The students were able to do the activities and enjoyed them too.  They found out what they knew and so did we. 

 Self Assessment: 

The activity we did occurred at the beginning of SMART.  We chose to do it at this time because we wanted to finish it and wanted to get it done before more students dropped out.  We did this because last semester we noticed that by the end of SMART many students had dropped out.  We wanted to make sure we did this with at least four students.  We also felt this assignment was one to test the ability of the students that were in our class.