Interpret Picture Graphs (IM Grade 2, Unit 1, Lesson 8, Activity 1)
Task
Lesson Purpose The purpose of this lesson is for students to read and interpret a picture graph, which is a standard way of representing data. Narrative In this lesson, students are introduced to a picture graph as a way to represent data. Throughout the lesson, students make sense of the structure and features of a picture graph as they consider what they can learn from a picture graph and the types of questions a picture graph can and cannot be used to answer. Students use picture graphs to answer questions about how many are in a category as well as questions that ask them to combine or compare categories. How Tuva Enhances the lesson Using Tuva allowed students to interact with the IM data set in a clear, visual way. Students could easily see how each data point contributed to the overall picture graph and use the features of Tuva to notice patterns and relationships among categories. Tuva supported students in making sense of the structure of a picture graph—helping them connect the symbols to the quantities they represent and interpret what each part of the graph shows. It also provided opportunities for students to discuss and reason about the data as they answered questions that required them to combine or compare categories.
Activity 1 “Sports People Love” You’ve seen that there are different ways to organize and show data. Data is information about the things or people in a group. We can organize data by making groups, lists, tally marks, or tables. In this activity, you’ll learn about another way to organize data — a picture graph! A picture graph is a way to show data using pictures of the objects or symbols to represent how many in each group or category. Graphs aren’t just numbers and lines — they tell a story! By looking closely at each part of a graph, you can discover what the story is about.
Topics and standards: Illustrative Math & Tuva, Grade 2, 2-MD-D-10, 2-E-18-1