Graphing All Year

Student surveys are one of my favorite things to do. It’s really fun to see the similarities and differences among my students. Often you’ll even see new bridges built and friendships formed after students make their choices. 

The format of conducting surveys in my room has changed from year to year. I’ve had students place clothespins with their names onto a sign to display their choice. I’ve done TONS of graphs on my SMARTBoard. I’ve even had students fill in over-sized graphs that you can wipe off and reuse.

However, my favorite kinds of graphs are the ones that you can keep all year. Sometimes I even have my students write their names to make the bars on the graph to create a permanent record of their choices. They are great conversation starters and it’s entertaining for the students to look back at surveys from the beginning of the year to see how their opinions have changed.

This year we combined all of our favorite surveys into one unit on Teachers pay Teachers. Graphing All Year is a student-centered collection of 40 printable graphs that pose thought-provoking questions, 4 per month, to last the school year. (No more trying to think of surveys last minute! Hallelujah!)

The graph topics have students discussing their opinions and debating their feelings on food, animals and more! After completing each survey, you can use the blank graph at the end of the product with the matching number of categories to allow students to transfer the data into another form (e.g. tally marks or picture graphs).

I love to combine my completed graphs into a class graph book or display each graph on my math board. These graphs are a perfect teaching tool for tallies, totals and comparisons. To crank up a higher level of thinking, students can also use the surveys in a supported forum to discuss their choices and construct arguments to persuade others.