Video Analysis 3

"Looking Behind the Numbers"

1.) Purpose of Activities:
The videos were taken in an 8th grade math classroom. The students were examining mean, median, mode, and range by using real life statistics. The students first were to find the statistics of a players on a basketball team and were to determine the MVP. They determined the MVP based off of the mean, median, mode, and range they calculate with their classmates. The students then wrote a letter to the basketball coach explaining statistically why that player deserved to be MVP. The second task the students were given was to calculate the mean, median, mode, and range of the hours spent watching the Olympics. Once the students completed that, they were given mystery sets of data to analyze and figure out various means, medians, modes, and ranges.
2.) Connections to Process Standards:
Throughout these videos, I saw several process standards being demonstrated. One standard that was used from the beginning task was reasoning and proof. The students has to mathematically reason why one player should be the MVP of the basketball team. The students has to use their statistics that they figured, to make a viable argument why that person should become MVP. Going along with the letters, another standard I saw being used was communication. Communication was demonstrated by the students writing letters to the coach to mathematically reason why the player should be MVP, as well as the students communicating by working together in pairs and as a class to construct the mean, median, mode, and ranges for various sets of data. The students had to communicate with one another, as well as the teacher, in order to solve the problems and communicate their individual data results. The students also were problem solving throughout the videos. They were given problems with sets of data and were required to solve the problem using various methods. During the ending tasks, the students used methods such as "guess and check" to solve their mystery problems. A main standard I saw being used during these videos was connections. The entire concept of this lesson was making outside connections  to the real world. By using real world data from a real basketball team and from Olympic data, the students could connect to the mathematics they were using. Also, by writing the letter to the coach and doing peer editing, the students were making interdisciplinary connections as well.
Connections to Standards of Mathematical Practice:
There were also quite a few standards of mathematical practice being demonstrated within these videos. One standard that is easy to see being used was constructing viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. The students demonstrated this standard by writing the letter to the coach about which player should be MVP and having to reasoning and construct a viable argument as to why. The students also peer edited each others letters, therefore they were critiquing one another. Another standard I saw being used was making sense of problems and persevering in solving them. Students demonstrated this when they were trying to solve the last task by using various mathematical techniques such as "guess and check" to solve the mystery problem. A third standard I saw being used was using tools appropriately, this was demonstrated when the students used their calculators to figure out the mean, median, mode, and range easier.
3.) Reflection:
I greatly enjoyed these videos. I thought making the connections to the real world by using basketball player statistics and using the Olympic data was a terrific idea. I can really see students being engaged and wanting to solve problems using this type of data. I also thought writing a letter to the coach and making interdisciplinary connections was fabulous, not only did they write the letter but the students peer edited it also. I particularly liked the Olympics activity, I am doing an Olympic unit in my novice teaching classroom. Although second graders cannot do this type of math, this would be wonderful for a middle school classroom. This would connect wonderfully to an Olympic unit, especially if the Winter Olympics were currently on.