Characteristic #5:We believe that the novice teacher should have in-depth knowledge of pedagogy.

This lesson plan entitled Organizing Data was created for Algebra 1 to introduce the Statistics menu on the TI-83 Plus graphing calculator.  The lesson reviewed finding an average, but using the calculators helped enriched the review.  Students got a chance to use the calculators to quickly find an average along with other statistical important information.

For this lesson, I wanted to make it as hands-on as possible.  Every student had a calculator to use, and every student was given an opportunity to explore the calculator before the lesson began.  I gave students this time because I realize how curious students are about new technology.  For this lesson, I used a television interface so that students could see exactly what my display screen on the calculator looked like.  This strategy was very beneficial to the students and helped everyone to stay at the same point in the lesson.  I believe that having visual guidance helped keep students engaged and excited about the lesson.  Next time I use this lesson, I plan to draw it out over two or three days so that students will spend more time working with the different functions of the calculators.  I hope this extra time will increase students’ retention rate for remembering where to find different functions on the calculator.

See My Artifact:  Lesson Plan - Organizing Data

See My Artifact: Applied Math 1 - Chapter 1 Test