In my lesson plan titled ‘What Does ‘Mean’ Mean?‘ a selection of five adults explored the terms mean, median, mode and range through an online game called Bamzooki at BBC.com. The lesson is aimed at 3rd Grade students but is adaptable for upper grades. The lesson in class would take two 45-60 minute class periods however, I taught this lesson online. Some of my students in this trial lesson completed the lesson in one sitting, while others needed more time because they were unfamiliar with Google Docs and the website at BBC.com.
The object of my lesson shifted slightly because of the change in audience. Instead of reinforcing understanding of the terms the lesson became more about recalling these terms and expressing understanding.
Through the Google Doc & Forms in the lesson students learned about and showed their understanding of these essential questions:
· What is data? (addressed through the game)
· What are the similarities and differences between mean, median and mode? (addressed through the Google Form)
· What ways might you use mean in your life? (addressed on the Google Doc)
Via email I asked the students to access the Google Doc and answer the initial question, What does “mean” mean? and then take the Google Form quiz before trying the online game. After the game, they were requested to revisit the Google Form and take the quiz a second time to show learning.
One major change to the lesson is the final activity. Due to the online nature of delivering this lesson and the technology access and/or knowledge that my family members have (my elementary students would have this prior knowledge) I simplified the lesson by omitting the final activity (create a visual definition of one of the terms). Instead, I ended the lesson having the students only revisit the Google Form to clarify their understanding.
Narrative
For this lesson I aimed to teach 3rd Graders about the data terms mean, median, mode and range using Bamzooki’s online game as the main focus of the lesson. I substituted family members for 3rd Graders since it is summer break. At first I did not think this would work well because my family members are all adults and I thought most would understand these terms without hesitation. However, I found that there was a variety of understanding and confidence among the five adults that participated in the lesson.
Some, like my husband who is a high school math teacher, didn’t need to play the game and could have taught this lesson to high school students on a deeper level. While others have never used Google Drive before and were not sure how to access these tech tools. This necessary prior knowledge is an issue that would not have been as extreme in my 3rd Grade classroom because we would use this technology on a regular basis during the school year before it was time to implement this lesson.
Other than this, the lesson went well and these students showed a better understanding of the terms. Most knew mean right away and expressed ways they use it in their everyday life. Others found some of the terms harder to recall but the game proved to assist them in remembering the words
Reflection
The goal of this lesson was met and students were able to show a better understanding of the data terms after using the Google Doc and Form and playing the online game.
One affordance of this lesson is the multiple learning styles that can be reached with the variety of activities the lesson presents. Students were not only able to watch/play an engaging online game but they also listened to the narrator’s description of the terms and they read the definitions.
Cognitive learning was also apparent in this lesson because these students have many life experiences with the terms, however, they don’t always identify the use of the terms with the name. By going through the lesson the students recalled the names and some even learned the terms for the first time, in essence, giving a name to something they already do. This was communicated to me via email when two participants read through the lesson prior to trying the activities and expressed a lack of confidence with the topic but they were then able to successfully answer the quiz at the end of the lesson.
Another affordance of this lesson was the accessibility. In the case of this initial implementation, students were not in a traditional classroom so using a web-based game and Google Drive allowed them to access the material at their own pace. This affordance would work well in my regular classroom as well students could access this lesson while away from school reinforcing their learning.
A constraint in the lesson exists in accessibility of technology for the students in this trial lesson. This would not be the case in the regular school year.
A Google Form was used to test whether students understood the terms better after playing the game. It was apparent that learning took place when I compared the results of the first quiz and the final quiz. They were held accountable because the quiz gave real-time results and the results are accessible online.
Two of the five students were unsure of how to access the Google Docs however I was able to show them how with a few simple directions restated for their understanding. Other than this, the technology worked well.
This technology allowed for users to be more engaged in the topic and have fun while learning. I was aiming to help the students remember these terms more deeply than a traditional lecture might result allow. This lesson could be taught without the use of technology however the level of engagement and excitement for the topic would likely be less, as I have seen in the past. Students enjoyed playing the game and reflecting using the Google Doc and Form.