6th Grade Mathematics: Statistics
Unit of Study: Interpretation of Data
These three texts and two websites all provide opportunities for students to understand real data. This unit will provide students with the opportunity to examine real data in circle graphs, frequency tables, and stem and leaf plots. By the end of this unit, students will be able to interpret frequency tables, read and analyze circle graphs, interpret data from a stem-and-leaf plot, and describe a set of data using mean, median, and mode.
1. Tradebook: Graphing in the Desert
ISBN-13: 9780761422624
Flesch Kincaid Readability estimate from Word ’07: Ranging from 3.5 to 4
Roy, Jennifer and Roy, Gregory (2006). Graphing in the Desert. Cavendish, Marchall Corporation.
This tradebook is provides a plethora of information about animals and plant-life in the desert. This non-fiction text is filled with a variety of text features to help students understand and visualize various aspects of a desert. As the title depicts, this text focuses on statistics by using real life examples. The pictures are bright and help to “draw” the reader into the text.
Students are exposed to graphs such as line graphs, pictographs, circle graphs, and bar graphs. This text provides review of statistics taught in earlier years and can be used as an excellent introduction to the unit while determining a level of background knowledge for students. The readability estimate of this text is between 3.5 and 5. This will be beneficial for students who are not reading on grade level.
As stated earlier, I would use this text as an introduction to the unit. I would allow students to examine the graphs in this text discuss their previous exposure to these graphs. I may even put my students in groups to examine one graph and compare their findings as a whole class. It would also be beneficial to do a quick piece about the desert before using this tradebook; perhaps a KWL chart or a quick video clip.
2. Tradebook: MEGAstructures: The Biggest Thrill Rides
ISBN-13: 9780836883619
Lexile: 960L (6th grade readability estimate)
Mitchell, Susan K. (2008). MEGAstructures: The Biggest Thrill Rides. New York: Gareth Stevens Publishing.
This tradebook is takes readers into an exciting world thrills and screams as we learn about the history, excitement, and current news on roller coasters throughout the world. This non-fiction text provides students will radiant pictures, captions, diagrams, and a variety of data on heights, speed, and lengths of roller coasters.
This tradebook would be an exceptional supplement to the interpretation of data unit in my 6th grade Math class. Students would have an opportunity to learn about roller coasters and compare data given on different roller coasters in each chapter. According to the Lexile Measures, this book is a 6th grade readability. This would be beneficial for most students and could be used as instructional material for some of the students reading on lower levels.
I would use this book towards the end of the unit. There are little graphs to be examined in this book. Therefore, I would want students to be able to pull the data out of the book and place it in the graphs that we have learned about. This would also be beneficial to illustrate how graphs are an important text feature to help us understand non-fiction texts. I would model that I would like to see an actual graph to show the difference in heights of roller coasters as well as various speeds. This book would be beneficial for higher-performing Math students. As an independent reading assignment, students would be required to really analyze what is being provided in this text.
3. Tradebook: Oil Spill Disaster
ISBN-13: 9780531120682
Flesch Kincaid Readability estimate from Word ’07: 8.2
Chiang, Mona, Crane, cody, Hamalainen, Karina & Jones, Lynda. (2010). Oil Spill Disaster. New York: Scholastic Library Publishing.
This tradebook is a current non-fiction text that provides students with up-to-date information about oil spills in the United States of America. It begins by providing students with the most recent and disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This is an excellent way to tap into students’ background knowledge of the topic and hopefully engage students. The text continues by illustrating several other severe oil spills. Students are exposed to a variety of graphs demonstrating the five words oil spills, top 10 oil-consuming nations, where oil comes from, how much is produced each day and where, and where Americans get their energy supply.
This tradebook will be a great supplement to my unit on Interpretation of Data. It provides current data that should be familiar to students. The data is displayed in a variety of graphs and organizers that will hopefully be of interest to the students. The readability estimate is a bit higher for 6th grade students. Therefore, this text will be beneficial if used during instruction and modeling.
This text is rather lengthy and will not be used in full for the purpose of the unit. After introduction to the unit, I will use this text to model some examples of graphs and how we can interpret and analyze the data. I will guide students through a bit of background knowledge on the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. I will the circle graph found on page 11 to illustrate how we can learn where oil is being produced in the United States and how much in each location. I will also use the circle graph on page 30 to demonstrate how we can learn where most of the American energy supply comes from. After using this text for modeling purposes, I will move on the more of a guided approach with students. As we continue the unit, I may allow students to go back to this text for independent reading or groupwork.
4. Website: brightstorm
Public. Retrieved from http://www. Brightstorm.com/
This website would be a great supplement for my unit on Interpretation of Data. It provides free on-line video tutorials for secondary students in Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry, Statistics, Precalculus, Algebra 2, and Calculus. There are also videos for Science and Text Prep. There are homework help videos and forums for students that have questions. There is a Math homework checker that provides answers for students’ math problems.
I would use this website in the classroom for whole group and independent instruction. I would also provide it to students to help them with their homework. This is a great resource for students to continue to use as they advance in grades and mathematically.
5. Website: Khan Academy
Retrieved from http://www.khanacademy.org
I can speak from experience when saying this website is very beneficial to an individual learner seeking more help on a particular math concept or concepts. This website is created by a non-profit organization with a goal to "provide free world-class education to anyone anywhere." I used this website to study for an Algebra CLEP (College Level Examination Program) exam just two years ago! It was beyond helpful! This website provides a video library with skills ranging from elementary to adult level for all standards of mathematics. There are also topics for biology, chemistry, history, and more. Students are able to complete exercises at their own pace to get the practice needed to help them succed. Data is kept to help keep track of what students are learning and whether or not they hit their goals. Teachers can view student data and get summaries of their class performance as a whole. Students can also earn badges and points for progress. There are also fun brainteasers for students seeking an enjoyable challenge.
Most of the videos provided on this website are posted on YouTube. I have found it difficult to access videos like this at my school because of the firewall. However, I would definitely use this website to provide additional at-home instruction for my students. I would set goals with students and assign homework assignments and long-term assignments. I may also talk to the internet support at my school to see if I can override the firewall for this particular site and use it as extra classwork or independent work.
Most of the videos provided on this website are posted on YouTube. I have found it difficult to access videos like this at my school because of the firewall. However, I would definitely use this website to provide additional at-home instruction for my students. I would set goals with students and assign homework assignments and long-term assignments. I may also talk to the internet support at my school to see if I can override the firewall for this particular site and use it as extra classwork or independent work.
“I hereby affirm that I have neither given nor received help on this work.”
No comments:
Post a Comment