I did box and whisker plots on Tuesday with my students, we didn't meet on Wednesday (it was a district wide thing that won't reoccur again until spring), so on Thursday I opened with "on the left side, under the example we did at the top of the page, draw a line. Beneath that line write any questions you have about box and whisker plots. If you aren't sure about what questions you have, look back at the right side. If you have no questions, write I have no questions."
Two of my classes did this well, with the most common questions being:
- What does the box represent?
- How do you make a box and whisker plot?
I revoiced the questions posed and as a class we discussed the responses. I did none of the explaining.
This third class, however, overwhelmingly wrote "I have no questions"
Below this they were to once again put a line and the instructions for the next part were:
- Make believe you are writing a recipe: Number and list out the steps necessary to make a box plot out of a set of data.
Students were also instructed to NOT simply make up a list of data and make the box and whisker.
I got plenty of hands! Primarily from students who had written they had no questions. I simply pointed out their previous note of having no questions needed to be re-evaluated. By asking them to list their questions I was able to walk around the room and quickly see who was confused and what issues they were having.
I want the ISN's to be a place where I could practice formative assessment and where the students could practice learning to speak math. I love that I managed to get, in one day, a chance to see both of these goals in action.
Now, how can I replicate that next week....
No comments:
Post a Comment