Session 2 - Interpreting Shape, Center and Spread

Warm-Up Activity & Directions:

Warm-Up: Height Activity & Answers  

1. Students will use the Height Activity & Answers and finish the first part only. There is a stop sign to indicate where they should stop.  
2. This includes filling out the frequency table, graphing the histogram, and finding the mean, mode, and median.  
3. Detailed directions are included on the activity worksheet.
4. Students will not go over their answers, this is just for them to get “warmed up” and they will return to this assignment later.

Activity: Center of Action Activity & Answers and Data Sheet 

Directions for Giving the Task:

Focus: MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them and MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively

For this activity, begin by reading all of the information in this handout. When you are ready, you will use the data set to find the measures of the center.

1. Read how to calculate mean, median, and mode. Using the data set from page 1, find the mean, median & mode.
2. On the second page, think about why knowing these measures of center would be important.
3. Once students have completed Part 1 of the Height Activity, the  Center of Action Activity & Answers and Data Sheet the activity can then be reviewed with the class.
4. If you are doing this with a whole class: you can project the answers and discuss the procedures for answering the questions.
5. If you are doing this with an individual or a small group: go through the steps with the student to compute their answers.
6. If students get stuck understanding, here are some ideas for providing support for your students. These will intentionally lead them through the supported practice of the skill to grasp the learning and guide their thinking: 
   1. The mean is the average, median is the middle. 
   2. Median and Middle both have the letter “D” in them.

Collaborative Activity #1: (20 - 25 minutes)

Activity: Height Activity & Answers

Directions:

1. Students will use the Height Activity & Answers  and finish Part 1 
2. Detailed directions are included on the activity worksheet. 
3. When the students are doing this activity, they are tasked with noticing that there is one data point (190) that is very different from the rest. 
4. This is easily seen when looking at the histogram, and some students will notice this by looking at the data points. 
5. Students will then compute the mean and the median without the data point to observe how the mean changes, but the median stays the same.

Progress Monitoring

Directions:

1. As students are working on Part 1 of the Height Activity, be sure that they can accurately find the mean & median. Review the student’s answers before moving on to the next collaborative activity. If students are unable to accurately find these measures, give them feedback or extra work until they can do so without assistance.  
2. You can keep track of students’ work on a paper tracker.  This Progress Monitoring Tool #1 is a good document to help you keep track.