Get Your Students Choosing Their Graph Type
By: Kristin Hunter-Thomson
Looking for a way to help your students make their own choice in deciding what graph type to use?
Try using the “Creating Graph Type Key” activity!
STEPS TO PREPARING TO RUN THE ACTIVITY:
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Download the “Creating Graph Type Key” activity documents from the Graph Type Matrix Resources webpage.
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Make a set of the activity for each small/partner group within your class.
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A copy of the Graph Type cards (pg. 1), cut into individual cards.
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A copy of the Key worksheet (pg. 2).
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STEPS TO FACILITATING THE ACTIVITY:
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Review the Graph Types with your students ahead of time (depending on your students prior knowledge, you determine how much to review the graph types ahead of time).
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Challenge each small/partner group to complete their Keys by putting the Graph Type cards in each of the open boxes on their Key worksheet. As a note, there are 8 graph types and 10 open spots because two graph types (scatterplots and bubble charts) can be used for Comparison and Distribution questions.
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Once everyone has attempted to complete their Keys, have them share their Keys and explain their reasoning with another small/partner group. Make sure each group shares and that they come to a consensus together where each graph type should go within the open spots.
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After a few minutes, project the empty Key worksheet on your smart board or screen and have different small/partner groups make suggestions for each open spot. Encourage the students to share their explanation and reasoning behind their placement of each graph type within the Key. Use pg. 3 as an answer key to double check your students responses.
