On Monday, October 1. my mentor teacher let me teach the math lesson to the third graders. With the crazy schedule that we have as a class and the sometimes hectic-ness of my classroom, I haven't had a chance to teach anything yet. When my Mentor Teacher asked me if I would be comfortable teaching the lesson I was more than happy to do so. I taught the third graders lesson 1.7 from the Everyday Math Curriculum which was introducing them to probability. More specifically being able to describe an event and distinguish between things they were sure would happen, things they were sure would not happen, and things that might happen. The lesson went very well. I first introduced students to the terms probability and events. I had them say what they thought the words meant then we went over those words as a class. The students gave great examples of things that were certain would happen and things they were certain would not happen. Some of the examples were "I am sure I will have a birthday" and "I am sure I will not light the candles on my mothers birthday cake". The students were successful at identifying what an event was and explaining to me what certain and uncertain meant. They students also gave examples of things were uncertain about using the word might. Might is directly linked to chance which is directly linked to probability.
After my mini lesson and whole group discussion, the students worked in the Math Journal (their workbooks). In their Math Journals they had to answer 3 questions. The three questions asked them to identify things they were sure would happen, things they were sure would not happen and things they think might happen. After about 10 minutes of working, students bean to finish their work. After reviewing the work that some students showed me, it was clear that they understood how to identify things they are sure would happen and things they are sure wouldn't happen. The thing that slightly confused some students was the term "might' because of way it was worded in the question. When I spoke to one student and asked what was confusing about the wording, he said " aren't "sure won't happen" and "might happen" the same things so why am I answering the same question twice?" I told him "sure will not happen" and "might happen" are not the same because when you are certain that something will not happen they is no chance of it happening ever but if something might happen there is a chance that it may or may not happen.
Tasks and/or lessons that may be beneficial in the future to enhance this lesson would be to have students discuss in small groups chance events. By discussing chance events they can help each other talk through probability terms and help each other further understand the language of probability.
I agree. You provide a good example of your encounter here, and it sounds like the most logical thing to do would be to let students share their results and share their reasoning. Indeed, the interpretation of these phrases can be vague, so only by discussing it with other will the students be able to actually engage with the "big idea" that underlies this task.
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