Handouts are available below

Big Idea

Can students look at a graph and understand what’s going on? I explain to kids that this is an important skill to have because graphs aren’t just the boring ones we see in textbooks with the x and y axis. Graphs have become more visual, more sophisticated, especially when they’re published in newspapers, magazines, and online. But, how much time do we spend teaching students how to analyze a graph when one is put in front of them? 

Using “What’s Going on In This Graph?” by NYT

Before I begin, all the graphs I used for my workshop – including some of the discussion questions – is from the NYT activity known as “What’s Going On in This Graph?” – so, a big thanks to the NYT. If you’re looking for well produced graphs on relevant topics to use with your classes, the NYT’s activity is a good place to start. I also added some of my own leading questions to help students get started analyzing graphs – which I write about below.

As for graph analysis itself, I give students a handout that tells them the 3 big questions we’re answering when analyzing a graph (note: all 3 questions are from NYT’s WGOITG Activity):

1. What do you notice?
2. What do you wonder?
3. What’s going on in the graph? In other words, what is a catchy headline you can write for the graph?

To give them a little bit more structure in graph analysis, I give students a few more things to consider (found on the back of the handout):

1. What type of graph is it?
2. What is being represented on the x and y axis? What are the units?
3. What is the relationship between x and y?

Then, we go over a couple of examples together – both of which I have linked to in the handouts. We go over the questions above and come up with catchy headlines. It all takes about 10-15 minutes.

Then, I give them 4 graphs for them to work in groups to analyze and write a catchy headline for. I give them 10 minutes. After, I get 3 groups to share their headlines, going over each graph one at a time. During my workshop, I had teacher supervisors vote for the one headline out of the 3 that they thought was the catchiest. Group members got a Hershey kiss as a prize.

Kids enjoyed it – they liked figuring out what the graphs said, writing a catchy headline, and, of course, the candy. And, from a teacher’s perspective, it was a huge win because students were really engaged in looking at the graph and figuring out a relationship or story they can capture in a headline. And the idea of a catchy headline is also a very creative, less formal yet high impact way of having students work through a graph.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Ep45 Handouts – Graph Analysis using WGOITG by NYT

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!