Lesson 6

Survey the Class, Survey the School

Warm-up: Notice and Wonder: Survey (10 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this warm-up is to elicit the idea that each bar on the bar graph represents a category, which will be useful when students use survey data to create a bar graph in a later activity.

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Display the graph.
  • “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
  • 1 minute: quiet think time

Activity

  • “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
  • 1 minute: partner discussion
  • Share and record responses.

Student Facing

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

Student Response

For access, consult one of our IM Certified Partners.

Activity Synthesis

  • “This is a graph about students’ favorite science topic. What are some possible categories for the graph?” (living things, space, ecosystems, weather, energy)

Activity 1: Create a Survey (10 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to decide on a question and answer choices that they will use to survey a group of students.

Launch

  • Groups of 4
  • “Think about some topics you could survey students in the class about.” (favorite sport, favorite food, favorite subject)
  • 1 minute: quiet think time
  • Share and record responses.

Activity

  • “Work with your group to choose a topic and create your survey. It should include a question and up to 6 answer choices.”
  • 5–7 minutes: group work time

Student Facing

Create a survey that you’ll use with a large group of students. It should include:

  • a question
  • up to 6 answer choices

Student Response

For access, consult one of our IM Certified Partners.

Activity Synthesis

  • Invite each group to share their questions and answer choices.
  • “Does anyone want to revise their answer choices after hearing ideas from other groups?”
  • Give students time to revise their survey, if needed.

Activity 2: Survey a Large Group (25 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to survey a large group of students. This data set will be used in the next lesson to make a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph. This process could take 2–3 days depending on how many students in your school are surveyed.

A blank table for recording survey results is included in the blackline master, but students can also use lined paper. Here is a partial image of the table for reference:

Blank Survey Results Table.
MLR8 Discussion Supports. Synthesis: Provide students with the opportunity to rehearse what they will say with a partner before they share with the whole class.
Advances: Speaking
Engagement: Develop Effort and Persistence. Invite students to generate a list of shared expectations for group work. Record responses on a display and keep visible during the activity.
Supports accessibility for: Social-Emotional Functioning

Required Materials

Materials to Copy

  • Survey a Large Group

Required Preparation

  • A blackline master is provided to record students’ survey results, but they could also record their results using lined paper.

Launch

  • Groups of 4
  • “You will be asking your survey question to a lot of students. Let’s think about ways to prepare for it so that you could collect data smoothly.”
  • “Discuss the questions in the activity with your group.”
  • 3–5 minutes: group work time
  • Share responses.
  • Consider giving each group a copy of the table to record their survey results.
  • Students may wish to create a display that shows their question and answer choices. Provide access to tools for creating a visual display, in case requested.

Activity

  • 15 minutes: in-class survey time
  • Give students additional time if surveying students in another class.

Student Facing

Your group will be surveying a lot of people. This means asking your survey question and giving the answer choices repeatedly.

To prepare for the work ahead, discuss these questions with your group:

  • How will you present the survey question and answer choices? Who will present them?
  • How will you record and organize the responses? Who will record them?
  • How will you make sure you don't record a response from the same student multiple times?

Student Response

For access, consult one of our IM Certified Partners.

Activity Synthesis

  • See lesson synthesis.

Lesson Synthesis

Lesson Synthesis

“Today we used a survey to create a set of data.”

“What was the most interesting part of making a survey and surveying other students?” (I got to hear lots of opinions about a topic. I didn’t expect some of the responses. The results were what I expected.)

“What was most surprising as you surveyed students today? Why?” (I didn’t think so many students would have blue as their favorite color. I didn’t realize there were so many third grade students.)

Cool-down: Reflect on Collecting Data (5 minutes)

Cool-Down

For access, consult one of our IM Certified Partners.