Attached below is a PDF of a worksheet that I created with my CT to do with the class on my last day. The teacher began with a discussion about what quartiles are and how we find them. Following this short discussion, we began to work through the worksheet as a class, writing on the version that was projected on the SMART Board.
The first section of the worksheet was meant as a bit of a review for what students had just learnt about quartiles, thus reinforcing their understanding of how to find the position of them. It then moves into guided examples to further develop students’ understanding of the concept and their mathematical abilities.
Aside from telling me what type of content to put on the worksheet, I was pretty much on my own to make it. The process allowed to learn about just how much work goes into making an effective worksheet, from finding “good” examples to include to formatting the document for a better experience for students. In addition to this, I also had to make the solutions for the worksheet to ensure that my examples were possible, logical, and not overly complicated.
I tried to include as many different kinds of example as possible with the goal of making the topic more interesting for students, using real Olympic race times for one example and made up numbers about test scores for others. I never did an example on this worksheet to show them how to go about finding quartiles; we worked through the first guided example together to push them to learn and use the process on their own since this typically allows students to better retain the information. I also felt that it was important to include a little bit of critical thinking in the questions (see questions 4 and 5); the cross-curricular aspect of mathematics is one that is often forgotten so I wanted to try to include it, at least a little bit.
Kevin Paquette 