Meg’s Musings

     When I was little and would use some statistics to argue a point my father’s favorite reply was, “Figures lie and liars figure.” It took me many years before I really understood what he meant. There is a great article in this month’s Language Arts, NCTE Journal for elementary teachers, Learning to Read the Numbers: A Critical Orientation toward Statistics. Phyllis Whitin and David J. Whitin write about literacy in today’s data – driven world. They argue that literacy involves understanding what data counts and what to ignore.  They point out that if numbers are not analyzed and challenged, one set of data becomes as reliable as another.  In their conclusion Whitin and Whitin assert that “Teachers can play a key role in helping children to develop a healthy skepticism toward numerical information.”

                As a fourth grade teacher I guide my students in showing numerical information in a variety of ways. We use bar graphs, pie charts, and line plots. I teach them the importance of labels and titles. After reading this article, I realize I need to do more with getting my students to question data and to experiment with different representations.