Gregory_Math_Lesson

Math Lesson: [|K.Gregory_mathlesson.doc]

Assessments: [|Gregory Probability WS.doc], [|K.Gregory_journal.doc], [|Gregory_mathrubric.doc]

A sample of students' work: [|Gregory_mathlow.doc], [|Gregory_mathhigh.doc]

**Recommendations for future instruction for the students you sampled:** For the low performing student, Karli, I would recommend that she give reasons to support her answers. Giving her opportunities to gain confidence in math would allow her to feel more comfortable supporting her answers. Morgan, however, needs an opportunity to explore applications of probability that could be useful in real world situations.
 * Grade Level:** 4
 * Content of Lesson:** Introduction to Probability
 * Assessment Criteria and instrument:** Students filled out a worksheet that was graded based on a rubric. Both are attached. I had hoped the students would have been able to write a journal, but time did not allow for the students to complete it. The journal document is attached, but there is no student work to go along with it.
 * An analysis of the data:** All students enjoyed completing this activity. Because this was an introduction to probability, I chose a simple but engaging way for students to become involved with probability for what might have been the first time discussing it mathematically. The two students' work that I chose to attach include one low-performing and one high-performing worksheet. Both students were able to do the majority of the activity in the time allowed; however it was the answers to why they had chosen their predictions that made the students' work much different. The high performing student, Morgan, used mathematical language to describe her reasoning, while the low performing student, Karli, could not support her predictions. Karli, for example, said that she predicted blue during the last part of the experiment because blue is her favorite color. I would have hoped that she would have said blue because there were more blue cubes in the bag than red. Morgan's reasoning surprised me, but in a good way. She was able to relate fractions to probability on the introductory lesson to probability.
 * A sample of student work:** See attached links above.
 * Recommendations for future instruction for the entire class:**  Next time, I would like the students to have a worksheet that is less confusing for them to fill out. After I explained how to fill out the chart, students still had questions. The biggest concern was when students looked at the row where they were to record their predictions and outcomes of 5 red cubes and 5 blue cubes, but there were only five slots to put the responses in. Students didn’t initially realize that the following line gave them another five slots to fill in their responses. Something that also confused the students was the location of their explanations. Because I had made a chart to record their data, I decided to put their explanations of their predictions underneath the chart, but students had a lot of difficulty remembering that they had to include their explanation. Thinking about it now, I can understand why students would have had confusions, because they always start at the top of a worksheet and work their way down. Next time, I would make a small chart for each experiment for the students to fill in, so they can predict, explain their prediction, and record their outcomes all in the same spot.  I would also change the experiment by making the decision for combinations more student centered. It was necessary for them to start out with ten cubes of the same color, and then go to five of one color and five of another color, but the next part of the experiment could have been that they chose their own combination. The students were excited to do their own combination and were looking forward to it, so when I told them it was time to clean up, they were disappointed.