“Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” -Mark Twain
Yes, I’m back to blogging on a regular basis again. I wanted to blog. I wrote down lots of great ideas. I even began a few rough drafts of new blogs. However, between the end of school and my website makeover, my blogging has been neglected. Anyone else ever feel this way about things you’d like to do but life gets in the way?
Several fellow educators, who are also parents, made a special request for the summer. They asked if I would make the summer blogs applicable to parents and to teachers. I thought this was a great idea, sooooo…my summer blogs will be based on a mathematical standard or concept, how to integrate the understanding of the concept into your family’s daily routine, and how to take these same ideas and use them in your classroom.
This first summer blog is about the reading and interpreting of charts and tables. This standard can be found beginning in most state’s kindergarten curriculum. Variations of this concept continue all the way through high school. It is a life skill that is needed by everyone but is sometimes made quite difficult when we place it into a classroom setting. When it’s learned through a worksheet, most children find it tedious and they almost always find it boring.
How can I do help my child understand charts and tables?
The most convenient place for a parent to work with a child in the reading of data is almost always at the dining table or in the kitchen. Here’s the scenario in my own house just a few weeks ago. I put out 3 of the cereal boxes from our pantry. Our two youngest children were at the table eating cereal while I drank my morning cup of coffee. I grabbed one of the boxes and challenged them with the statement that my cereal was more nutritious than their box of cereal. The next few seconds consisted of the mad grabbing for the remaining cereal boxes.
After the bartering and trading of boxes (anyone who has more than one child understands the need to trade until you have the “right” one), each of us found the nutritional value charts on the sides of the boxes. We looked at each of them and shared at least three things we found interesting about the cereal’s nutritional value. We then shared something that we didn’t quite understand from the table and asked everyone else what it meant. We also talked about which box had the most interesting pictures and colors.
We discussed what we saw for at least 5 minutes, then went back to the question of which one was the most nutritious. The children and I took turns calling out an ingredient and the daily requirement percentage that was in the cereal. My middle child, who has an extremely concrete and visual learning style got a sheet of paper to write down the information she thought was important. Her brother, being the youngest and the least likely to want to write in the morning, decided he would look at hers if he needed to.
As we called out the information, I asked the children to make a comparison statement using some of the data they had just shared. One of the most important things to do at this point is to ask questions and give the children “thinking” time. I ask a question and then count to 20 before I restate the question. Instead of providing answers to the questions, I keep asking new questions and rephrasing old questions in order to guide them to finding the answers themselves. I also make a habit of asking an equal number of questions I don’t know the answer to either. My children like the fact that I am not “assessing” them, but rather “exploring” with them.
During the process, both of them ended up rereading all three cereal boxes and made complex comparisons. One of the cereals had more minerals and vitamins than the other two. I asked them to make a guess (otherwise known as a hypothesis) as to why this particular cereal might have more of the daily requirements. My eight-year-old smiled smugly and read one of the statements that was already written on the box.
After calling out all the minerals, my daughter suggested that we look at the carbs, the sugars, the protein, and the fat. These comparisons were very interesting. The children both noted that the cereal with the most sugars and the most carbohydrates was also the most popular with children. The also noted that they had seen a bunch of commercials about the cereal.
In defense of the high-carb, high-sugar cereal that had now become “his,” my son vehemently argued that his cereal had the most protein grams. He was right. It did. Now we had to go back to the original question, “Which cereal was the most nutritious?”
I love the energy when children are genuinely challenged with a real-world problem. I also love the logic with which they approach their solutions. My daughter said that the most nutritious cereal would depend upon the person who was eating it. When anyone in the family is preparing for an athletic event, they eat lots of good protein. The cereal with the most protein might be the most nutritious for them. When someone is trying to watch their weight, then the most nutritious would be the one with less sugar and carbohydrates.
As we continued our discussion, their older sister came to eat breakfast. She took one look at the three cereals that were available, made a face, and decided that none of them looked good—no matter how nutritious. Her siblings spent several minutes making strong arguments for their cereals. She listened patiently, but ended up eating a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. (The rule at our house is, “if you don’t like what is being served, you may always have a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich instead.” This rule was instituted when the children began to think our house was a buffet restaurant.)
The closing remark stated as they left the table? “It doesn’t really matter how nutritious the food is if the kid won’t eat it. Maybe we should read the labels on all the junk cereals and buy those instead…lots of giggles at this point…just an idea, Mom!”
What would this look like in a classroom?
The scenario didn’t look all that different when I taught the gathering, displaying, comparing, and interpreting of data with my students. I met with the students in a small-group setting in Teacher Time (see the Tabor Rotation Planning Guide ). I put a table cloth on the table where I met with my students. I gave each of them an apron and a place mat. Each student was given a notebook to take notes. I asked them to become a food critic for the local newspaper and determine which food product was the most nutritious. Authenticity or a close simulation was always more engaging.
We used empty food boxes and containers. I guided the students in the exact same way as I guided my children at the breakfast table. The students made statements using data and then showed the comparison statements by writing on an interactive white board. We also created graphs using the interactive white board. I used state public-release questions to model what this type of information looked like on the upcoming state test. They made the connections easily!
The students continued the use of food containers/tables at the Manipulative Station. The students also constructed their own graphs, using interactive white board, in the Technology/Application Station. The Games Station was a perfect place to put a game that required the students to be the first to put information in order and to find information first in a table.
To continue the high level of authenticity and application of real-world concepts, the students wrote recommendation letters to the companies who made the foods they studied. They constructed support for their recommendations by using the data they had collected. The students were making their own real-world connection!
What are some additional resources I can use to teach this concept?
At the elementary level, you may want to look at Gretchen Parrish’s lesson plan for grades 4-5. She created a unit that does a fantastic job of helping students compare the nutritional values of nonperishable foods and use Microsoft Works to create the graphs to explain their finds.
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3023
At the secondary level I found two great resources. Rachelle Kean offers a unit called, “Fast Fats: A Nutritional Analysis of America’s Obsession with Fast Foods.” The activities were written for grades 10-12, but could be adapted for younger grades.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/health/nutrition.html
“Better Nutrition by Analyzing Food Labels” is the name of the unit written by Lynda Wiest for grades 7 and up. The plans in this unit have students writing formulas, interpreting data, and even creating a triple bar graph.
http://wolfweb.unr.edu/homepage/jerryj/NNN/Nutrition.pdf
Hope this blog helps you begin to think about simple, practical, but meaningful ways you can help your children this summer and your students this fall.
Now…if I can just get the children to fix my morning mug of nutritional coffee…
“I’ve been on a constant diet for the last two decades. I’ve lost a total of 789 pounds. By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.” -Erma Bombeck