ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Assignment 1 - Analysis of Instructional Need and Rationale

In completing an analysis of need for this instructional unit, I considered the results of a survey conducted in the Fessenden-Bowdon School District. In the spring of 2004, students in grades six through twelve, staff, parents, and community took a survey. The survey asked participants to identify two areas in the school’s curriculum they felt were in need of improvement. Math was strongly identified as one of the two core subjects participants thought needed improving.
The 2004-05 school year is the beginning of our next Five-Year School Improvement Plan. Math has been targeted as a specific curriculum area for improvement to help the Fessenden-Bowdon School reach the goals and standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act and thereby ensure that all students are proficient in math by the year 2014.
I then reviewed the Goals for Mathematics Programs found in the ND Standards and Benchmarks for Mathematics. It is clearly stated that the United States must improve mathematical achievement if our country is to continue its leadership in a technological world. The global challenges facing our civilization require that all students receive a rich mathematics curriculum enabling them to solve problems and respond to any circumstances.
I also reviewed data from the 2003-04 North Dakota State Assessment for Math. Fourth grade students in our school as well as statewide scored low in these standards:
Standard 1 – Number and operation
Benchmark 4.1.1 Construct and interpret number meanings through
real world experiences
Benchmark 4.1.3 Understand how arithmetic operations are
related to one another in addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division
Benchmark 4.1.7 Understand and communicate strategies to solve
a wide variety of problems

Standard 3 – Data, analysis, statistics, probability
Benchmark 4.3.2 Formulate and solve problems that involve data

This graphing unit will provide first graders with hands-on experiences, use of manipulatives, integrated use of appropriate technologies, and student inquiry opportunities. My focus is to have students take relevant information from authentic situations and use it mathematically. I want them to learn how graphs and resulting numbers can impact their ideas, opinions, and decisions inside and outside the classroom. First graders will practice applying learned math skills to the real world. Just like good mathematicians do. This graphing unit will allow students to improve upon the above mentioned standards and benchmarks and focus on attaining proficiency in math.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding:
Students will understand the importance of entering pertinent information into a graph for ease of interpretation and evaluation of researched information. Students will understand how to use specific mathematical information to form ideas and opinions, draw conclusions, and make decisions/problem solve.
Goal(s):
Students will understand how to research and record information into graphs and to evaluate and apply this information to form ideas and opinions, draw conclusions, make decisions, and solve problems. Students will understand how to communicate mathematical information. Students will be exposed to critical thinking and problem solving skills. Students will have opportunities to experience math for fun, interest, and life-long learning. Students will use technology to complete a variety of tasks.

Questions Answered

Essential questions:
What information do you wish to research?
How do you gather and record information?
What is a graph?
Why do you use a graph?
How do you construct a graph?
How do you read a graph?
What does it mean to predict?
By asking relevant questions, what information can you gain from a graph?
How can this mathematical information help you in the real world?
Objectives:
Students will be able to gather data about a specific topic (i.e. “How do first graders get to school?”) Students will be able to construct a graph and input this data. Students will be able to evaluate a graph to determine mathematical information. Students will be able to ask relevant questions about this information. Students will be able to apply this information for authentic purposes (form ideas and opinions, draw conclusions, make decisions, problem solve).

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
  I will use my math series (Scott Foresman/Addison Wesley) Practice, Reteach, and Enrichment workbook graphing pages and the graphing sections of test forms A & B that I do not use (I use test forms C & D for my chapter tests). Correct completion of these pages will show student understanding of how data is collected, organized into a picture/bar graph, and interpreted as well as how to answer and ask relevant questions about the information presented in the graph.

What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
  I will model and instruct first graders how to collect data, graph it, and to describe parts of the data and the set of data as a whole to determine what the data show. I will model and instruct first graders how to answer questions and form questions about the information presented in a picture/bar graph.

What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
  Students will choose a relevant topic about which to collect data. Students will enter this data into a picture/bar graph. Students will write 2 or 3 questions about the information presented in their graph. I have a scoring rubric: 4-Full Achievement, 3-Substantial Achievement, 2-Partial Achievement, and 1-Little Achievement.

What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
  Samples of students graphing projects. My math series Observation Checklist Group Skills form which has 7 criteria. Rubrics will be applied to these criteria: 6-7 criteria marked will receive a rubric score of 4, 4-5 criteria marked will receive a rubric score of 3, 2-3 criteria marked will receive a rubric score of 2, and 1 or less criteria marked will receive a rubric score of 1. My math series Student Self-Assessment Assignment form. A student writes about what he/she did and checks the sentences that describe his/her work. The student evaluates him/herself and puts a rubric score of 4, 3, 2, or 1 on the Student Self-Assessment Assignment form.

Instructional Strategies

Initially students will progress through various topics for graphing regarding personal attributes or favorite choices by physically graphing themselves or concrete items onto a floor graph. Secondly students will proceed with picture graphing to represent collected data followed by representing information into bar graphs. Inquiry-based and problem-based learning will assist students in exploring graphing concepts (e.g. what information do they want to know, plan how to collect, represent, and analyze the information, make predictions, answer/ask questions) and graphing outcomes (evaluate attributes, categorizing, comparing, how many, most, fewest, more than, less than). Project-based learning will engage students in developing graphs that reflect the data they collected, organized, and formulated questions about. Learning will be student-centered, cooperative, and cross-curricular. Students will develop real-life skills by working with others, making decisions, and solving problems. Graphs will mirror authentic results of information relevant to first graders’ interests. Graphing results will be shared with other classes/people involved in data collecting as well as posted on the first grade web page.