This week my students worked on their bullying project and were making line plots and bar graphs to represent their data for their posters.
The students had explicit instruction on how to make line plots as we did an example as a class and were given the information necessary to make their graphs. However, one student (at a lower level) began making x and y axis, which a y is not required for that. The student then drew half x's and half bar graphs on their paper thinking that was the best way to represent this data.
It was evident that the student heard the two types of graphs that they would be making however, I think they misunderstood that the graphs were to be separate and not one graph. When the student was told to correct their mistake they went off on their way. When we got the papers back after the lesson was over and analyzed the paper again, the student had now made a line graph and not a line plot.
Looking at the paper I made a few conclusions, one this student does not understand the differences between these graphs, the kind of information each of these graphs show and finally, the way in which each of these graphs represents the information.
I think explaining the project altogether in the beginning threw the student off as they heard too many graph names and mixed them up. Adding that on top of their misconceptions of the graph did not help the student overall when it came to making the graph.
After seeing the students mistake my mentor and I decide it would be a good idea to sit with them next class and find out what they think they know about each graph and clarify and fix the misconceptions accordingly.
When you see students slavishly following conventions (i.e., drawing x and y axes) when they are not necessary, there is good reason to conclude that the student does not understand the reason for the convention. Making the task as open-ended as possible will help students express the data however they see fit, ultimately and hopefully leading them towards understanding why and when x and y axes are important and useful. Additionally, you as the teacher can choose very specific examples / problems / sets of data that speak specifically do when this might be useful. That is part of the importance of sequencing specific sets of problems, now that you know what students know.
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