Composing Inquiry: Teachers’ Resources
Teaching Inquiry: Working With Numbers

Trend Analysis Brainstorm/Pre-writing (Group Work)

Preparation: The class before you plan to do this activity, provide the following homework assignment, or something similar:

For next class, bring with you a few things:

  1. A start on your paper
  2. A list of specific questions about your topic and/or your data
  3. Copies of the data sources that you would share with others to show them what you are working on and how you are approaching your topic.

We work in class next time developing your papers, so this is your opportunity to really dig into the work. For the start on your paper, there are no specific guidelines. You might have a few paragraphs, or a substantive freewrite (or set of them) that helps to establish your thinking. You might have some tables or charts you have created (even just sketched by hand) or an outline or idea web. Just make sure you have a real start on the paper.

Lesson Objective: students practice working with graphically represented numerical data to see trends or patterns; they practice explaining to peers how the data leads them to these observations and what the numbers and patterns might mean.

Time: allow 30 – 35 minutes in groups of three (5 minutes to observe, 5 minutes to talk for each person’s data), then discuss as a class any difficulties that arose.

Note: we don't usually give students these directions on a printed page since they will have lots of other papers to shuffle in this activity. Instead, provide a brief list of the steps on the board as a reminder and explain the process before you have them start. If you're doing this activity at the beginning of the term, or before group work has become an established part of your class routine, you may need to model listing the observations and posing questions with a data table your bring in.

Directions for students:

You have brought in several pages with data tables. Without explanation, pass these charts around. You will have about 5 minutes with each person’s charts, so you may want to suggest a priority order.

Individually and without discussion: Study the charts and see what you see. Each person should come up with three clear observations about the data in the chart. Note what you see as a trend, for instance. You can compare the movement in a few different categories. After you have these three interesting observations, come up with a question, something that might be answered by further research but doesn’t appear on the chart. Write all this down; do not share your notes yet. I’ll tell you when it’s time to change. Even if you have found your three observations before time is up, continue studying the data, based on suggestions for data analysis in the book. (See, for instance, if there’s a way to group these factors in a different way.)

Talking time: The person who brought the table will explain what he/she is thinking about working on and why. Then others in the group share what they saw in these data tables and the questions they posed.

© Andrew Strycharski

Margaret Marshall Composing Inquiry: Teachers’ Resources Prentice Hall 2008