6th-Grade Math Assignment

Focus
This assignment is partially aligned with sixth-grade standard 6.SP.B.5.C. Students are asked to calculate two measures of center (mean and median) and one measure of variability (mean absolute deviation), which is called for in the standard. To be fully aligned with the standard, however, the assignment should have asked students to describe patterns or deviations in the data. For example, students could have been asked what the values of the mean and mean absolute deviation tell us about the number of strawberries in the data set. 

Rigor
This assignment only focuses on procedural skill, but standard 6.SP.B.5.C targets both procedural skill and conceptual understanding. Students build their procedural skill in this assignment by calculating range, mean, median, and mean absolute deviation. But they don’t get to build their conceptual understanding because they aren’t asked to interpret and describe these measures of center and variability in the context of the specific data set. For example, students could have been asked to describe the distribution as symmetric or non-symmetric, and explain how that relates to the values of the mean and median, to reinforce their conceptual understanding of variability (the closer in value the mean and median, the more even or symmetric the distribution will be). 

Practice Standards
Students had a superficial opportunity to engage with Mathematical Practice Standard #6 (“Attend to precision”) through their definitions of range, mean, median, and mean absolute deviation, but they didn’t get a meaningful opportunity to communicate precisely because they were not asked to describe the measures of center and variability within the data set.