Graphing: Stem-and-Leaf Plots

I love stem-and-leaf plots.... I don't know why.... I just do!  A stem-and-leaf plot uses place value to organize the data.  The stem in the case above, represents the 10's place.  The leaves represent the 1's place.  It is a very easy way to see data.

To introduce the concept to my classes, we began by watching a Study Jams called Stem-and-Leaf Plots.  This gave step-by-step instructions on how to build a stem-and leaf plot.  

Next, we went the Khan Academy and watched the video Stem-and-Leaf Plots.  This video has a stem-and-leaf plot that is already created.  He is working backwards, showing students how to pull the numbers off of the plot.  

Next, we watch a second Khan Academy video Reading Stem-and-Leaf Plots.  This time, students were shown how to read a stem-and-leaf plot in order to answer mathematical questions regarding the data.  

Finally, we did a Khan Academy activity Reading Stem-and-Leaf Plots.  We worked together to solve questions regarding the data.

Now it was time to build our own Stem-and-Leaf plots in our journal.  To save time, I used a page from the textbook.  This allowed us to make two plots, one using two digits and one using three.  Then we found the range for our two plots.

Finally, my students opened their Math Classroom and found their Google Doc assignment:  Stem-and-Leaf Plots.  They opened the document, solved the problems, turned their paper in, and posted it to Kidblog (all of this with fewer and fewer questions as to "how").

Any remaining time we gave to Think Through Math.  This is our final push to earn our Think30 reward!  Math STAAR test is on Monday!