Sentence lengths

Sentence lengths

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about collecting and interpreting data.
For this task you will need a piece of your own writing with at least 10 sentences in it.
 
a)
Count how many words there are in each of the first 10 sentences of your piece of writing.
Enter your results in this table.
 
Length of sentences in my writing
 
Sentence Number Number of words
1  
2  
3  
4  
5  
6  
7  
8  
9  
10  

b)		  
Altogether, how many words are there in the 10 sentences? __________
 
c)
i)
 
ii)
The shortest of these sentences is sentence number __________
 
The longest of these sentences is sentence number __________
 
d) What is the average length of the 10 sentences? __________
 
e) What is the range of the 10 sentence lengths? __________
Task administration: 
This task is completed with pencil and paper only.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
Maths, Statistics, Statistical investigations
Keywords: 
mean, range
Description of task: 
Using a piece of their own writing students calculate the average and range of the sentence lengths.
Curriculum Links: 
This resource can be used to help to identify students' ability to collect and interpret data.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Statistical investigations, set 5
within the Mathematics Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 

a)

  

Do not mark (check only if the answers seem unrealistic).

b)

  

Correct total given from table in a).

c)

i)
ii)

Correct minimum given from table in a).
Correct maximum given from table in a).
NOTE: If there is more than one maximum or minimum, accept either (or both) of them.
[Accept if the sentence length is given rather than the sentence number.]

d)

  

Answer to b) divided by 10.

e)

  

Answer to c) ii) – answer to c) i).
Diagnostic and formative information: 
Common errors

Many students make errors in part a) either combining sentences, miscounting them, or missing a whole sentence.