Creating Data Literate Students [Book Review]
By: Kristin Hunter-Thomson
Creating Data Literate Students (2017) Edited by Kristin Fontichiaro, Jo Angela Oehrli, and Amy Lennex
Data surround us and thus can/should be tackled across all of our subject areas. Creating Data Literate Students is a collection of essays from the field of tips, tricks, strategies, and lesson plans from High School Librarians across the U.S. who are working to build students’ data literacy skills. Kristin Fontichiaro, Jo Angela Oehrli, and Amy Lennex have edited and organized the collection of essays so that they can stand alone or be read as a packaged unit.
The insights center around 3 major areas of integrating data into our teaching:
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statistical literacy [Chapters 1 and 2]
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visual literacy with data [Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10]
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data in research [Chapters 3, 4, 11, and 12]
Each chapter is packed with real-world examples, samples for how to facilitate the activities, and responses from students. But my favorite part is the Appendix A for every chapter that clearly identifies suggestions for how to apply the concepts if you have: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, a whole class period, or multiple class periods. It is fantastic!
Visit their website at http://datalit.sites.uofmhosting.net/books/book/ to access free downloaded versions of each chapter or a link to purchase a paper copy of the book from Amazon.
