Graphing Stories #MTBoSBlaugust Post 12

As we completed the matching cards portion of Journey to the Bus Stop, Distance – Time Graphs from Math Shell site, I provided an Graphing Stories Organizer in our co-teaching class.

In our notes, I had students separate the graph into sections, sort of like numbering lines in a text passage.

Then I asked them  to describe each portion of the graph as increasing, decreasing or staying constant.  Next I asked them to add a descriptive word like rapidly, slowly, etc.

Rather than jump right into the matching, this required students to think about what was happening. After completing this for each graph, students took out their scenario cards and began matching.

I feel like the conversations were more focused on what the scenario cards were saying and how that looked as a graph.

I wonder if I did a similar text marking, maybe with highlighters – one color for increasing, one for decreasing, one for constant…would that allow them to match more efficiently?