My group were instructed to create a questionnaire to find out what the most popular flavour of crisps were in the class. This is a very easy and common way to practice data analysis in the classroom. We had to decide what questions we were going to ask, how we were going to record the answers and how are we going to display the results. It was fun to put ourselves in our pupils shoes for a change! We decided to ask “What is your favourite flavour of walkers crisps?” and record the answers using a tally table with pre decided flavours. We would then display the results using a graph!

However, Tara made us consider the different abilities in the class and how we would differentiate to suit these. We decided that as teachers we would hand out pre-made tables to the lower stage workers, where higher groups would design their own. We also decided that we may pair a less able pupil with a more able pupil to work together, so they can learn from each other, as well as the option of group work and working alone. For the lower stage pupils, they may want to record data using forms other than tally marks, for example bullet points, or whatever they feel comfortable with. For displaying the results, the children could choose between a list of various means of displaying data. Starting with a bar graph, up to line graphs and even further. We made a list of all the different types of graph and put them in the order we would teach them.

As a teacher we could also provide a pre made axes for the graphs to the pupils who required it. For others, squared paper and rulers. Also, for the pupils working at a higher stage, they could covert their answers into percentages if I gave them a list of questions. For example, “what percentage of people preferred ready salted crisps?”.

It is always important to consider every one of your pupils needs in every aspect of their learning. Even in a simple lesson like this 🙂