MFM1P 4Si Lesson Study Reflection

LESSON STUDY: MFM1P - Where’s the Math? Data Management Investigation

SYNOPSIS:          

Student groups will examine items at 5 different stations and come up with possible experiment ideas they can conduct with the item(s). Every groups’ ideas will be evaluated to determine the criteria needed to select a “good” experiment idea, to be later conducted.

MFM1P EXPECTATIONS:

Apply data-management techniques to investigate relationships between two variables.

-Create and Interpret scatter plots

-Pose problems, identify variables, and formulate hypotheses associated with relationships between two variables.

-Carry out an investigation or experiment involving relationships between two variables

-Describe trends and relationships observed in data, make inferences with hypotheses about data, and explain any differences between the inferences and the hypotheses.

SSSSI GOALS:

Working in Groups

-Accountable Talk (explaining/clarifying, paraphrasing, asking questions, feedback, critiquing)

-Roles in the groups (Facilitator, Secretary & Active Participant)

-Communication (verbal and written)

-Critical Thinking

    -Connecting prior knowledge and experience

    -Using creativity and thinking beyond their knowledge and experiences

    -Brainstorm, categorize, analyze & evaluate, reflect and justify decisions

-Differentiation & Engagement

-Entry points for all student ability

-Grouping allows for learning

-Opportunities for rich discussion & questioning

CLASS MAKEUP:

            15 students (6 males/9 females)

10 students with IEP (5 LD, 3 Anxiety/Depression, 1 Behaviour, 1 Downs Syndrome)
The class was created 1 week prior to the lesson study. Half the students were taken from a high needs Academic class and the other half from an over-sized Applied class.

               

REFLECTION:

New to 4Si team (but not new to the lesson study experience) and working with the other teachers and my principal, I placed a lot of expectations on the development and plan of my lesson study, as I wanted to prove my assets to the team who had already been working together and shown results for a year now. This and also having to follow two successfully inspiring lessons studies by the team.

The planning of the lesson proved challenging for my current teaching practices as I had to mesh them with the strategies the team had found successful. Being a teacher who needs a lot of time to process new ideas, and have things prepared and planned in great detail from one moment to the next, we discussed how the 4Si goals could be implemented each step of my lesson. I incorporated the strategies my colleagues found successful in their lessons - ability groupings, activity stations, snowballing, anonymous ideas/comments/feedback, categorize by criteria, and consolidation. I left the meeting with a lesson plan idea...but also feelings of excitement and overwhelmingness.

On my own with less than one week to prepare my newly formed class of 1Ps, I felt that the structure on my lesson needed to be detailed and well drawn out for my students. I made worksheets with explicit questions, comment cards requiring explicit feedback, anchor charts with headings for the students to fill out. I informed my students of what they should expect the day prior, I felt really prepared.

The day of the lesson study. There are more adults in the room than originally expected - a student teacher, guest teacher and my principal’s supervisor. The first bell doesn't ring, there’s no music, no anthem, and no announcements. The computer in the room doesn't have the program I planned to use for a timer and I forgot my cell phone. Not a great start - Can it get worse?

Students are grouped by their choosing, which was decided because the class was newly formed and they were still getting use to each other. I explain the details of the activity and what needed to be done at the 5 different stations. Each station had a set of items. They had to brainstorm ideas of experiments they could conduct using those items. Write them down on paper and place them inside a box. The plan was for the groups to visit all 5 stations in 25 minutes. After starting late and the students trying to figure the activity out, they spent 15 minutes just at the first station! As the students moved from station to station, I was able to walk around, talk to and prompt each group to move things along faster. We had enough time for the groups to get back to their home station, categorize and evaluate all the ideas. This ended up being the most engaging part of the activity. The students enjoyed pulling out all the slips from the box and reading each other’s ideas and discussing which their favourite ideas were. Unfortunately the class ended before we could begin to consolidate their criteria of what made for a good experimental idea.

An important aspect in the lesson study approach is to reflect on the lesson right after it occurred, which in the back of my mind, I was dreading the whole period. My impressions during the lesson were that the students were engaged, but more disengaged because I placed too many expectations on them and they withdrew. I felt I was constantly on the move putting out fires to try to keep the students engaged. The essential piece of the lesson, the categorizing of ideas, was so rushed that I didn’t think the students really got it.

The feedback from the other 4Si members as well as the observers were exactly in line with my observations during the lesson; students were initially engaged but lost interest, they came up with ideas they were unable to communicate on paper, they enjoyed sorting through, examining and rating everyone's responses, but the one which resonated with me was how the kids were playing with the items while trying to think of experimental ideas. For example, the balloon station had different sized balloons and one group stretched the balloon and used it to hit the box of ideas to watch it slide across the table, another table tried to hook all the weights together similar the the game Barrel of Monkeys. This struck a chord with me because I pride on trying to make my activities fun for my students, and this lesson just wasn't that fun for them - but they found ways to make it fun.

For the remainder of the day and all of that night I couldn't stop thinking about the lesson and the changes I needed to make in my teaching practices. The idea of student using the balloon to essentially create a game, sparked the idea that that should have been the approach I need to take. The next day, I brought in bags of popped popcorn. I gave each group a bag and asked them to come up with a game using the popcorn. Student came up with “Who can eat the most with or without your hands?”, “Try to eat the whole bag in 1 minute”, “How many can you throw in your mouth?”, “How many can you throw into your partner’s mouth?”, “How high of stack can you make?”, and “If you line up the popcorn, who can hoover them into their mouth the fastest?”. Then we actually tried a few of the games. Then we discussed if these were carnival games and we charged money to participate and gave out prizes, which games would be good to use and why. This became the class discussion and task over the next 2 days. The discussion that came out of this was very rich. We talked about their experiences playing games at fairs, odds of winning and losing and how these were determined,  the cost of the games versus the prizes, the profits of the games, and how all these needed to be considered when creating their games. Students then experimented to determine the scores which could win prizes, but still be profitable. In the end the students got to play their games and determine if they were profitable. As this activity occurred near the end of the semester and we had limited time to prepare for EQAO, we did not get a chance to consolidate or extend our learning of this activity. In the future, when I get the opportunity to do this again, I would follow up with discussing their outcomes, the factors which could make it more profitable, and how this would affect their data in the various representations.

In conclusion, this experience has highlighted the realization of the importance of students taking ownership of the activity is crucial to the success of their engagement, creativity, risk-taking, and learning. I planned to use my revised lesson study and incorporate these ideas in my next 4Si lesson study.