Lesson 9

Interpret Bar Graphs

Lesson Purpose

The purpose of this lesson is for students to interpret data in a bar graph in order to answer questions.

Lesson Narrative

In previous lessons, students learned how to interpret categorical data represented in picture graphs and other displays. In this lesson, bar graphs are introduced as another way to represent categorical data. Students compare the features of bar graphs to picture graphs and use the unique features of bar graphs to interpret data and answer questions. When students relate the data to the context it represents and carefully interpret the elements of a graph, they reason abstractly and quantitatively and attend to precision (MP2, MP6).

  • Action and Expression

Activity 1: Field Trip Choices

Learning Goals

Teacher Facing

  • Answer questions based on a bar graph.
  • Interpret data represented in a bar graph.

Student Facing

  • Let’s interpret data in bar graphs.

Required Preparation

CCSS Standards

Addressing

Building Towards

Lesson Timeline

Warm-up 10 min
Activity 1 15 min
Activity 2 20 min
Lesson Synthesis 10 min
Cool-down 5 min

Teacher Reflection Questions

The scale of the bar graph will be important as students solve problems based on data. How did you see students using the scale on the bar graph today?

Suggested Centers

  • How Close? (1–5), Stage 3: Add to 100 (Addressing)
  • Sort and Display (1–3), Stage 1: Any Way (Supporting)

Print Formatted Materials

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Additional Resources

Google Slides

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PowerPoint Slides

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