Stacey Hembree and Casey York
Grade level: 3
 

Teacher materials needed:
-transparency with types of music to choose from
-transparency of a blank  graph on a thirty point scale

Student materials needed:
-(optional) ruler

My mathematical goals for this lesson:
-teach students to read a bar graph
-introduce vocabulary needed to understand bar graphs: scale, bar graph
-review whole numbers
-begin to asses whether or not students understand the use of graphs

Related to NC Standard Course of Study

Launch
Today we are going to continue our work with graphs. Yesterday we learned how to read a pictograph. Today we are going to learn how to read a bar graph.

Here is what we have to do first. We are going to vote on what our favorite type of music is. Our choices are: Pop, Rock, Jazz, Soul, Classical, Rap, and Country. Be thinking about what your favorite is .

Review whole number. Ask students to identify the whole number between two numbers.  What whole number is between 12 and 14, (13). What whole number is between 26 and 28, (27).

Have students predict which type of music will have the least/most votes.

Explore
Have students vote on their favorite type of music and record on the overhead transparency.  Put up blank graph. Ask students why they think it is on a thirty point scale. Graph  one of the types of music on the overhead and have students complete individually.

Have students read graphs to see which type of music had the most/least amount of votes. Ask students to identify which type of music had a specific number of votes.

Have each student color his or her graph, title and write the type that was most favorite and the type that was least favorite.
 

Summarize
-Did all students determine that the same types  of music had most/least votes?
-Did all students have the same amount of votes for each type of music?
-Do students understand scale?
-Can the students understand how information can go from written form to bar graph form and mean the same?