WSE Lesson Plan

Teacher: Stephen Frederick

Date: February 8-9, 2016

Subject: Math (Range, Mean, Median, and Mode/Box-and-Whisker Plots)

Common Core Standard: Statistics and Probability (6.SP) 6.SP.5c-Giving quantitative
measures of center (median and/or mean) and variability (interquartile range and/or mean
absolute deviation), as well as describing any overall pattern and any striking deviations
from the overall pattern with reference to the context in which the data were gathered.
Essential Question: Students will learn to use tables to record and organize data.
Warm up (Link and Hook): Problem of the Day-Stephen forgot his locker number, but he
remembered that the sum of the digits is 11 and that the digits are all odd numbers. The
locker numbers are from 1 to 120. What is Stephens locker number?
Materials and Time: Epson Projector and (motivate) warm up question (5-7 minutes),
White Boards (40-45 minutes), Math Journal (10 minutes)
Description of Activities and Setting:
Motivate: To give students a meaningful context for studying data, discuss how report
card grades are figured. Explain that when teachers add a students scores and divide by
the number of scores, they are finding the average, or mean, score for that student. Tell
students that range, median, and mode are other statistics that can be used to help
describe data such as test scores.
It is easier to compare data sets if the data sets are represented graphically. The box-andwhisker plot is a good method of showing how data is distributed.
Guided Instructions: In this lesson, students learn to find the range, mean, median, and
mode of a set of data. First teach them to find these values for a set containing an odd
number of items, and then teach them to find the median for a set containing an even
number of items. Be sure to discuss the three possibilities for mode: one, more than one,
and none. Help students to understand that range, mean, median, and mode are ways to
summarize or describe a data set.
In this lesson, students make and read box-and-whisker plots. Teach students the fivevalue summary of a data set: the lower extreme, the lower quartile, the median, the upper
quartile, and the upper extreme. Teach students to find the five values and to use those
values to make a box-and-whisker plot. Lastly, discuss with students the range and
interquartile range.
*Remind students that the data should be ordered from least to greatest or from greatest
to least when finding the five values.
Reaching All Learners: Have students gather data related to other subject areas and find
range, mean, median, and mode for the data. For example, science: heights and weights
of a certain species of animal; social studies: sizes of states or counties; language arts:
ages of famous authors.

Summarize: Have students write brief definitions of new vocabulary in the lesson: range,
mean, median, and mode.
Math Journal: Have students explain and give an example of how data is used in their
everyday life. How does this data benefit them in their everyday lives?
Assess the lesson (Exit question): Use the following data set: 18, 20, 56, 47, 30, 18, 21.
1) Find the range.
2) Find the mean.
3) Find the median.
4) Find the mode.
5) Bonnie ran a mile in 8 minutes, 8 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes, and 8 minutes.
What was her mean time?
Have a student volunteer explain how to make a box-and-whisker plot of the following
data set: 7, 8, 3, 9, 6, 5, 1, 2, and 4.

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What will I do differently next time?