TP-14.4

www.teachwire.net | 73 2 | MAKING TABLES Whichever events you choose, the important thing is that the children are generating their own data to interrogate. This data should be recorded in a table and it’s important to take some time to explain how a table works. Before asking pupils to draw their own, take the time to look at a number of tables and clearly model how you are able to glean information from them. It can be very helpful to encourage children to identify the headings required for their tables by getting them to spot what variable is changing (who is throwing the potato) and what we are measuring (how far the potato went). Being able to read and draw a table is not an innate skill and if the time is not taken to explicitly teach it early on the whole of data handling is built on very shaky ground. 3 | BAR CHARTS Once you’ve got your data in a table, the time has come to turn it into a graph. Writing the headings from your table onto sticky notes can be a great trick for getting children to see how the labels from one way of presenting the data can be carried over to another. Take it slow with drawing a graph and heavily scaffold what you are expecting them to do. Start off with a bar chart that is already complete to which they just have to add one more bar, then move to one with the axes already drawn and labelled. Only once they have demonstrated the understanding of the building blocks of a bar chart should you consider asking pupils to draw their own (and even then, make sure you present them with a range of scales to help them choose the one that best fits their data). Ian Goldsworthy is a Y2 teacher at Manor Lodge School in Shenley, Hertfordshire. “Whichever events you choose, the important thing is that the children are generating their own data to interrogate” l If you need to present this lesson remotely, try recording a video of each of the events you’d like pupils to take part in. This will go a long way towards helping them understand what each event is. l Video yourself drawing charts and provide children with appropriate paper or templates for each step of the drawing to avoid any misconceptions. l When doing an event such as the potato shot put, line everyone up along one axis, mark out the other axis with some rope and paint everyone’s potato a different colour. Voila – instant bar chart. l Repeating the events across a number of days will allow pupils to get stacks of data. With careful modelling, students can be shown how the data from day two can be stacked on top of day one while using the same axes. EXTENDING THE LESSON l What is being changed in this event? l What is being measured? l If I had an additional value of x to put on your chart, how would you draw it? USEFUL QUESTIONS four together and you’ve got a competition to see whose eggs can withstand the greatest amount of weight (a big pile of books is great for this).