Ms. Yorke's
Standard #4: Content Knowledge
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners.
Summary: In order for me to effectively reach my students and create meaningful lessons, I must have a deep understanding of the content and patterns within the content. Building lessons that are representative of the nature of the discipline are critical in developing students’ mentalities toward it. In addition, by having a deep understanding of my discipline, I am able to offer appropriate extensions, modifications, and accommodations that still target the objectives.
Artifact 1: Bottle Flipping Activity
Essential Knowledge: 4 (m) Knows how to integrate culturally relevant content to build on learners' background knowledge.
Description: Students were assigned a task in which they had to figure out the optimal water level for bottle flipping. Each student was given a water bottle with 6 pre-marked levels. Students had to flip the bottle 25 times at each water level and record how many successful flips they had. Students then shared their results in a Google doc and completed the worksheet. They made a bar graph and box plot from their data and interpreted their results to determine the best water level.
Rationale: This activity created a learning experience that engaged all students and had them interested in their learning. "Bottle flipping" was a popular challenge during this time that my students loved to do. By taking something that they were interested in and involving it with the content, the activity was immediately accessible and meaningful to them. Prior to the activity, they were uninterested in the real world uses of statistics, and though they generally will not be collecting data for bottle flipping in their futures, they were able to see a real use for statistics to answer a question.
Artifact 2: Correlation Lesson
Performance 4: (d) Stimulates student reflection on prior content knowledge, links new concepts to familiar concepts, and makes connections to learners' experiences.
Description: In this lesson, students were taught how to construct a scatter plot and what they were used for. Students also had to predict what type of correlation exists between two variables. To help them, I modeled a method of inquiry in which I identified the two variables, and as one variable increased, I asked myself what is happening to the other variable. I did this with a few examples, then asked students to do this on their own.
Rationale: In this lesson, I drew upon students' prior understandings of constructing graphs to make the creation of scatter plots easier. I also came up with correlation examples that the students could relate to. For example, I asked students to determine the correlation between miles driven on a snowmobile and the amount of gas left in the tank. I also asked students to determine the correlation between how many hours they work and how much money they make. There were several examples that related to students' interests and made the concept of correlation easier for them to understand.