Mini-Lesson: Probability

Happy birthday to me

Today I taught probability

Today in class, I had to teach a lesson that I planned with a partner. I chose the topic and was the only one in the class to choose probability and am quite proud to have contributed to making the mini-lesson experience more well-rounded.

The planning phase was smooth. After we each looked at the curriculum guides we both wanted to do the grade five curriculum, a simple introduction to probability without worrying about specific numbers. The suggested resources included coloured objects, dice, spinners, and coins. We were unable to locate a spinner. We considered using coins but that did not make it into our lesson. Fortunately, Matt had an excellent collection of dice with different numbers of sides, which we based an activity on. We also based an activity on coloured objects, which were available in the classroom. Matt planned a lot of the specifics but I also made contributions, including the idea to use a visual spectrum of likeliness like the curriculum guide showed. We used a book suggested by the curriculum guide, but pad attention to timing by deciding to read only part of it. We had a good handle on the knowledge, as shown by our integration of it into all the activities. We introduced the lesson with guiding a discussion on the vocabulary, the foundation for understanding probability. We didn't have much of a conclusion, we ended with discussing results of the dice worksheet. I was prepared for varying numbers of students. The first time I had six students and assigned three bag-assemblng tasks. The next time I had eight and assigned four tasks. {one per pair}. I had a fifth one in the plan in case of five or ten people.

The lesson gave many opportunities for students to construct their understanding. Instead of defining the vocabulary ourselves, we had students define the words and give examples. The activities allowed them to think about what the content meant by constructing their own examples with coloured objects and thinking independently about the likelihood of outcomes on a die. I was able to answer questions on it as well. I was able to gauge understanding of the material by the students performance in the activities and discussion of them. If I were doing this in a real classroom, I would collect the dice worksheets to assess the students' understanding. I also knew they had learned something based on feedback I got. One person said they'd be less intimidated by probability if they had learned this way. Hopefully they will go on to teach it to their students in this way.

The lesson incorporated all the process standards. The one we focused most heavily on was communication. The lesson revolved around understanding the vocabulary associated with probability. Not only did we teach the words, but also ways of representing the words through manipulatives. This also brought in technology and visualization. Visualization was also achieved through showing a spectrum of likelihood. Estimation was loosely used in judging the levels of likelihood. Problem solving was used in creating bags of objects with varying likelihoods. Reasoning was used to determine likelihoods of certain outcomes with the dice. Connections to daily life were made during the initial discussion of terms and through reading the book It's Probably Penny. More connections would have been made had we had time to read the whole book.

Overall, I am quite proud of the lesson and the way I taught it. I just wish I'd been less nervous the first time.