Reading a simple table

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Given a table of hours of sleep for six people, your child says what it measures and counts six answers before doing anything else.
• — Your child runs down the answer column and names the smallest and the largest values without missing one.
• — Your child copies the answer column into one list in order from smallest to largest, keeping every repeat.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Read the headings first

   A data table like this usually has two columns. The first names who or what was measured. The second holds the answers, and its heading tells you the unit, such as hours or pages. Have your child say what the table is about before touching a number.

2. 02

   Count the rows

   Each row is one answer. Count them. Six people means six answers, and that count matters later, when your child finds a middle or divides by how many.

3. 03

   Look down the whole answer column

   Most questions about this kind of table are about the column, not one box. Run a finger down it and ask: what is the smallest answer, what is the largest, and does any answer show up more than once?

4. 04

   Rewrite the answers as a list in order

   Copy the answers into one line from smallest to largest, keeping every repeat. The workbook leans on this step, because its next lessons plot that list and find its middle.

5. 05

   Go back to single rows

   Ask a one-row question too, like how many hours Dad slept. Then the reverse: who slept 9 hours? Moving both ways shows your child is reading the rows, not guessing.

You will need: Paper and a pencil · A ruler or a strip of paper to hold under a row

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Draw a table with the headings Person and Hours of sleep. Fill in: Mom 7, Dad 6, Ana 9, Leo 10, Grandma 7, Sam 8. Ask what the table measures and how many answers it has.

   Listen for  Hours of sleep, with 6 answers. Watch that your child counts the rows, not only the numbers that catch their eye.

2. Try 2

   Using the same table, ask for the smallest and the largest answer, and who gave each one.

   Listen for  Smallest is 6 hours, from Dad. Largest is 10 hours, from Leo. A child who says 9 for the largest stopped reading the column too early.

3. Try 3

   Ask your child to rewrite the hours as one list from smallest to largest.

   Listen for  6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10. Both 7s belong in the list, and the list should have 6 numbers, one for each row. Dropping a repeat is the most common slip.

4. Try 4

   Ask who slept 7 hours.

   Listen for  Mom and Grandma. This one starts from an answer and goes back to the rows, and it has two right answers, which surprises some children.

5. Try 5

   Ask how many people slept more than 7 hours.

   Listen for  3 people: Sam with 8, Ana with 9 and Leo with 10. A child who says 5 counted the two 7s as well, reading more than as at least.

Watch for

• — Dropping repeated values when making the list. Two people who slept 7 hours are two answers, and both of them count.

If it is not there yet

• — Back up to finding one box in a small table about your family, with a ruler under the row, before working with a whole column of answers.
• — Build the table together from real answers, asking each person yourselves, so every row has a face attached to it.
• — Start with only four rows, then add rows as the counting and sorting settle.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• Grade 6 Math Practice Workbook · Lesson 29

  A Question That Expects Different Answers

  Needs it because the answers to a statistical question arrive as a list.