Faculty of Education
Lesson Plan Template
Subject / Course: Math
Grade Level: Grade 7/8
Topic: Mean, Median, Mode
AT Name: Greg Foreman
TC Name: Steven Huynh
Date: October 27th
Time of Class: 30 minutes – 40 minutes
Room # / Location: 20
1. Instructional Expectations and Opportunities
a) Expectations:

“make and evaluate convincing arguments, based on the analysis of data” [mean, median, mode]
(Grade 7, pg 107)
 “apply a variety of data management tools and strategies to make convincing arguments about
data” [mean, median, mode] (Grade 8, pg 118)
b) Goal(s) for the lesson:
Students will understand how to calculate the mean, median, and mode.
Students will begin to understand the effectiveness of the mean, median, and mode.
2. Preassessment and Accommodations/Modifications
Preassessment:
Academic Needs:
Behavioural/Social/Emotional Needs: (Do you
have students who are easily distracted, have
short attention span, don’t participate or talk out
constantly?)
Accommodation/Modification:
7/8 class are all IEP (exceptional). Their end assignment
is different. These students require higher level
thinking questions:
 Who might favour using mode over median
and mean?
 When would changing one or two points of
data have a dramatic impact on the mean,
median, and mode? Give examples.
 Who might use the mean versus the median or
vice versa?
 Sometimes we talk about weighted averages.
What do you think that might mean? How
might you go about calculating it? When would
you use it?
A few students in 7/8 class require “real-world”
examples or else the math is not relevant. A theme that
is working is, “How companies use math to try to trick
you and/or take more of your money.”
Grade 7 students may benefit from writing keywords
on the board.
Many students have low reading comprehension
(difficulty reading and understanding word problems).
Two students are identified and work with
accommodations (S. and M.).
Physical Needs:
C. is easily distracted. During the lecturing part of the
lesson, ask him quick, simple questions to keep his
attention.
N. often asks unrelated questions. Be careful when he
answers and cut him off if needed.
Diversity Needs:
n/a
No ESL students.
Students are aware of the importance of diversity.
3. Learning Environment
Be prepared to write on the board. You will be using the following data set:
0, 0, 0, 0, 51, 51, 100, 100, 100
Mean: 44.667
Median: 51
Mode: 0
This set will change to: 0, 0, 0, 0, 51, 100, 100, 100, 100 (Mean = 50.11, median = 51)
4. The Overview (Agenda) for your lesson:
1. (Introduction) What are mean, median, and mode?
2. How do we calculate mean, median, and mode? And some tricky exceptions.
3. When do we use them?
4. Head nod if you got it/Assignment
5. Resources and Materials for your class
Text: Nelson Mathematics 7, Nelson Mathematics 8
Be prepared to write on the board.
6. Content, Teaching Strategies, for Lesson
Time
5
Teaching or
Assessment
Strategy
Introduction
Detailed Description
Have the numbers written on the board:
0, 0, 0, 0, 51, 51, 100, 100, 100
“At the beginning of this unit, I gave you the following numbers and I told you that
I could tell you three different numbers that would represent them all in a
mathematically and logical way.
Those three numbers are the mean, median, and mode.”
(0,51, 44.667)
10
Instruction
“The question now is, how did I get those? But much more importantly, I want to
talk about how we would use these numbers to make convincing arguments. Or,
said another way, I want to look at how other people and even companies can
use these numbers to try to sell you stuff or convince you of something.”
“So let’s start with the first part. Let’s calculate the mode because I think a lot of
you could pick it out when I first wrote it down. The mode is defined as the
number or entry that occurs most frequently.”
Write that down on the board.
If we look at my marks’ data, 0 is the most frequent entry (occurs four times). So
that’s the mode. Is everyone okay with that?”
“Side note, what happens when two things are both the mode? What would be
most fair? … … We usually quote both. It doesn’t happen that often but it can.”
“Now we’ll explore the median. Luckily for us, the word itself almost tells us what
we want: we want the middle number. Again, if we look at our data, we can see
that 51 is the middle one.
As a side note, one strategy that works for finding the median is to arrange the
numbers in order then eliminate the highest and lowest until you get to the
middle.”
Show them this strategy. Talk about Stem and Leaf plots. We covered that
yesterday.
“Now, what happens when two numbers are tied for the median? Now, you’d
think we’d just quote both numbers like we do for mode – and I thought that too
at first – but the traditional way we do it is that we take the two numbers, add
them together and divide by two. Basically what we’ve done is find the middle of
the two middle numbers.”
Write this down.
“Finally, we’re going to calculate the mean. Some people also call this the
“average” but some people also refer to the median as the average so if we want
to make sure someone knows what we’re talking about, we use the word mean.
The mean is calculated this way:
(Add all the numbers together)/(the number of entries)”
Write this down then show the example with the numbers. Do the long division
because the students would benefit from it.
5
Minds On
“But what we all really care about is how to use this information or when we
should use it. Now, let’s say that we have another set of data where instead of
marks, I have eye colour.”
Write: brown, brown, blue, green, brown, brown, blue, blue
“If I had to represent this data using just one entry, what would be the one I
would pick?”
“Why brown?” “Why couldn’t I pick the median or the mode?”
Go back to your other data set (marks).
“Now here’s a question. Let’s say that instead of our data that we had before, I
changed just one data point.”
Erase one of the 51’s and replace it with 100. It now reads: 0, 0, 0, 0, 51, 100, 100,
100, 100 (mean = 50.11)
“What is the median now? Will the mean be the same? Now, here’s the big
question: what can you say about the median vs. the mean when it comes to
numerical values? (If they need a hint, ask about how both are affected by
extreme values. Answer: mean is affected more by extreme values than median.”
If you have time, question: knowing that extreme values affect the mean more
than the median, who are what sort of company would rather use one or the
other?
5
5
Consolidation
Assignment
Side note: places like Sylvan learning centre and Everest College probably use the
mean to advertise because most people get okay marks, very few get low marks,
and a good amount get excellent marks, which means the “average” will look
higher.
“So that’s mean, median, and mode. Is that okay with everyone? Can I get a quick
nod yes or no?”
If no, check to see if they need a refresher on calculating the mean. That’s
probably it. If not, you can possibly just ask what they need a refresher on.
Grade 7F: pg 104-105, #4-6, 8,9, 11-13
Grade 7C: pg 104-105, #4-6, 10-12, 15-17
Grade 8C: pg110, #5, 7-8, 10
7. Reflections: To be completed after you have taught the lesson. (In this section,
you will assess the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of your lesson and of your teaching.
a) Effectiveness of your lesson.
Include 2 or 3 lesson elements that were effective/ineffective. What went well, what could have gone
better? How was the pacing of your lesson? Were your teaching strategies effective? Were all students
engaged? Did the students accomplish your goal? Did your assessment strategies work?
What do you need to learn more about? What do you need to work on when planning your next lesson?
Should you discuss something with your AT or your FA?
What was effective/ineffective
about your lesson
How do you know?
What steps will you take to
improve?
b) Effectiveness as a Teacher:
Include 2 or 3 comments about your effectiveness as a teacher or areas that could be improved. You
could comment on your ability to manage the class, use higher order questions, your questioning
technique and your ability to have the participation of all students. How effective was your oral and/or
written communication? Were you able to adjust your lesson plan as required?
What was effective/ineffective
about you as a teacher?
How do you know?
What steps will you take to
improve?