Middle Level Lesson Plan (based on Danielson Framework)

Intern Name: Joseph Doner

Grade Level: 8th Grade Lit & Comp
School: Evans Junior High School
Lesson Date &
Time:

Instructions: In the boxes below, include the relevant information concerning your
planned lesson.

Purpose/ Students are working on Mean, Median and Mode in their math class. Students need
Rationale to be able to describe the data using a specific measure of center. Statistical
variance, mean, median, mode, and measure of center are all mathematical
vocabulary students need to be able to describe this data set effectively. To help
practice using specific vocabulary, students will write out formal descriptions of the
same problems they are doing in their math class

Objectives Students will use specific language both written and orally to describe a set of data by
a measure of center.

Academic Mean
Language Median
Mode
Vocabulary
Statistical variance
Measure of center
Data set

Standards Common Core State Standard ELA Literacy writing 6.2.d

Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform
about or explain the topic.

Assessmen Formative:
ts Exit slip- at the end of class students will receive one
Worksheet students will work together in pairs alternating to complete a
description for 16 data sets. Each will complete 4 number only data sets, and 4
with a specific title/word problem aspect to guide what is the best measure of
center

Summative:
No summative assessment

Resources Teacher Resources:

Powerpoint
Student Resources
Workheet
 ML Lesson Plan

Exit slip
Dictionary
Pencil
Step by step process handout

Opening - To start off, there will be a question on the board asking

Engagem students, What is the most important thing about writing
ent informational texts? The purpose of the standard is to take a
topic, and use specific content related vocabulary to explain
something.
Students may come up with a wide variety of answers. But the
key one to look for is knowledge of the topic. If the speaker does
not understand a topic, they will really struggle to speak about
it.
The next question for the class would be, how does a speaker
tell their audience they are a knowledgeable resource for that
content? One way is to use the correct terminology. If a doctor
uses words and phrases like that thing or if they are telling a
patient how to use a medicine by saying yeah you take a few of
these medicine things every once in a while and after some time
you get better does that help the audience of this doctor in any
way?

Instruction The class should understand at this point we are working on how to inform an
al audience. So like a doctor has notes and research, in math class the students have
Strategie their dot plots. They are being asked to describe a dot plot by their measure of
s center. So how would they do that?
(Procedur The example problem from lesson 2 is what I will use as my model. The first step
es) is defining what you are describing. Well, we are describing a data set. And the
data set is visually represented in a dot plot. So our description would start by
saying According to this data set represented in a dot plot The instructor what
would come next? Well we are measuring the dot plot based on what? A measure
of center. So our sentence would now read According to the data set represented
in a dot plot, the average number of windows in a room in this house according to
a measure of center would be
When would mean, median or mode be best? What is the best for this example?
Give students time to consider this question in their table groups. No more than 2
minutes.
The best measure of center for te average number of windows in a room would not
be median, because that does not show average for this context. What about mean
or mode? Well, mean is going to be a percentage, a true average. And mode would
be most common. What would be the best way to describe these windows? I would
say the mean, because it best describes the house as a whole.
How would this be different if we changed the numbers from windows in a house,
to pets in a classmates home? So 7 students have no pets, 12 students have one pet
and 7 students have two pets. What would be the best way to describe the data set
given this new title? Take two minutes in groups.
We can now see how different context makes a difference in how we describe a
 ML Lesson Plan

data set. But can you describe a data set by all three measures of center? Of course!
We will now start a worksheet that has data sets and dot plots similar to what you
have been working on in math that I would like you to work with a partner taking
turns describing the data set using the dot plot. Some questions will have specific
titles, some will not. Decide what would be the best way to describe the data set for
a certain title, and be sure to use precise language and vocabulary such as data set,
mean, median, mode, and measure of center.
The class will have 20-25 minutes to work on this. The instructor will walk around,
making sure to assist when necessary as this is a new concept being introduced.
Tell students that reading graphs is important for math, science, history and ELA.

Closure The exit slip will contain one problem with a title and one
without. Students will be asked to describe both precisely. This
will give firm data on whether or not an individual student is
grasping the concept or not since the worksheet was done in
pairs. It will be clear to the instructor who does not understand
and may need re-teaching/needs to do work on their own because
they did not participate I the partner activity.

Modificatio One way to differentiate this activity would be to give students

ns/ who have recently moved here from another culture examples
Differentia they will understand. Placing them with a partner who is strong in
tion both math and ELA would also provide support in both the math
and literacy comprehension of the language.
Providing handouts to remind students of the steps of describing
a data set would also be useful. This can be translated to any
language needed with the help of the internet/interpreter.