Line Graphs and the story

Today in math class I was using a program available on the coputer called gapminder. I thought this was the greatest program and coolest way to see graphs brought to life! I really like the idea of graphing information and telling the story behind the graph. I think this is a good way for kids to understand how the graph, the data, and the story are realted and what a graph is really reresenting.

I also had an oppportunity to observe a 6th grade science teacher work wirth her students about how to create a line graph. I thought it was an excrutiating experience. The teacher was eeexcited and engaged but the students were bored to tears they were litetrally pulling there eye lids off. I was thinking to myself man this is so boring does she really have to teach the kids to make a line graph like this. I just watched a video with a teacher that taught 6th graders to make a line graph and the students in his class did not seem to be bored. He allowed his students to create their own data and gave them paper and the kids had to create their own line graph. They had to decide what kinds of measurements they would and how they would set up their graph so that it made sense of the data.

I was also reminded of the teacher at Liberty Bell Elementary that used the man eating sugar video then had her students do graph work on gapminder. This teacher claims you cannot be to creative when teaching math. This teacher found a creative way to teach her students how to use, create, and interpret line graphs. Along with the graphing skills she taught or reinforced literacy skills. If you can interpret the graph then you are using literacy skills. Therefore when you ask students to collect, graph, and interpret data you are hitting every single standard: creating, reading, justifying, problem solving, this exercise hits all important literacy skills. Reading and interpreting data is going to be a very important skill for the 20th century.