TEKS 3.8A · Grade 3

Reading and building graphs

Pulling numbers out of a pictograph, bar graph, dot plot or frequency table, where one picture or one line can stand for more than one.

The standard itself reads: “3.8A: summarize a data set with multiple categories using a frequency table, dot plot, pictograph, or bar graph with scaled intervals”

One of them, worked all the way through

1. Read the key before the picture. Each circle means 4 votes, so half a circle means 2.
2. Fish has three whole circles and a half: (3 x 4) + 2 = 14.
3. Every row goes the same way: Hamster 5 x 4 = 20, Turtle 2 x 4 = 8, Rabbit (4 x 4) + 2 = 18.

This is one way, not the only way. The printable shows the same question worked more than one way, because children get there differently.

What usually goes wrong, and what helps

Each of these is a different misunderstanding rather than a slip, so each one needs something different. Find the one that sounds like your kid.

The student ignores the key and counts each picture as one

Find the key first and say it out loud. Until they do, every picture looks like one.

The student counts half a picture as a whole one

Ask what half a picture is worth when a whole one is four. Half of the value, not half a vote.

The student counts the gridlines on a bar graph rather than what each one is worth

On a bar graph, ask what the space between two lines is worth before reading any bar.

Try this at home

When a graph turns up on a cereal box or a phone, ask what one picture or one gridline is worth before asking what the graph says. That question is the whole skill.

where these methods come from The strategies behind it: the Data and graphs chart.

What’s in the printable

Four questions on this skill, two to a page. The rest of the file is for the adult: an answer key, a worked solution for every question, and teacher pages on what each wrong answer means.