Bar Graphs

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Website:  CK-12 Foundation Bar Graphs

Bar Graphs

Have you ever tried to display data in a bar graph? Take a look at this dilemma.

The students in Mr. Hawkins’ class have continued to learn about the Iditarod. . . .

Kershaw, J. (2014, November 26). Bar Graphs. CK-12 Foundation.

Retrieved from http://www.ck12.org/statistics/Bar-Graphs/lesson/Bar-Graphs-Grade-7/

Web Link

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Summary

This bar graph website begins by stating a dilemma students have in Mr. Hawkins' class about the Iditarod. The students have already gathered information about the Iditarod teams, specifically where they come from and how many teams have entered the race in the past few years. His students now need to put this information into a bar graph or line graph (essentially a bar graph, just shown horizontally). However, before students are asked to present the answer to the posed dilemma, the website offers a "Guidance" section which plainly describes the attributes of a bar graph. Next, students are walked through a step-by-step process to learn how to take a set of data and create a bar graph. Once they have completed two examples using this step-by-step process, students are shown how to draw conclusions about the data by examining the created bar graphs. Now the students are prepared to tackle the original dilemma from Mr. Hawkins' class regarding the Iditarod. The website walks the students through these problems, providing key points on how to develop these bar graphs. Finally, the website ends with an independent practice section where students are to analyze a given bar graph.

This is an extremely thorough website. It covers everything my 5th grade students need to know about developing a bar graph from information they have collected. It even includes a Khan Academy video on reading a 2-column bar graph.

Teaching Idea:  Definition Poems

To begin this lesson, my students will first work through the entire website with a partner, making sure to pause and examine each bar graph example for understanding. Once they complete the website work, they will create a Definition Poem, titled, "What are Bar Graphs?" in order to summarize and review what they now know about this topic. I will ask them to consider how bar graphs relate to their lives as they create their poems. In addition to their poems, partners will be responsible for developing a real world application of a bar graph, showing the math steps they use to create this particular graph. They will include this application on the back of their Definition Poem sheet. When students are finished, they will share their poem and bar graph application with their peers in small groups.

This lesson corresponds to Math TEKS 5.1(A), (D), (E), (F); 5.3(A); 5.9(A), (C).

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