Arrange students in groups of 2–4. Tell students that sometimes local newspapers or magazines ask their readers to vote for their favorite businesses. In this activity, they think about whether this is a good way to decide which businesses are the best or are the most popular. (In other words, is this a scientific survey?) Make graph paper, colored pencils or markers, and scissors available.
Use Three Reads to support reading comprehension and sense-making about this problem. Display only the problem stem without revealing the question.
- For the first read, read the problem aloud then ask, “What is this situation about?” (A town is voting on which restaurant is best). Listen for and clarify any questions about the context.
- After the second read, ask students to list any quantities that can be counted or measured (25% of the people subscribe to the newspaper, 20% of the subscribers voted, 80% of the voters chose Darnell’s).
- After the third read, reveal the question: “Do you think Darnell’s sign is making a correct and reliable statement?” and ask, “What are some ways we might get started on this?” Invite students to name some possible starting points, referring to quantities from the second read (We can find out what percentage of the town actually voted for Darnell’s).
Select students who use different numbers of people to represent the whole town and students who create different types of diagrams. Ask them to share during the discussion.
Representation: Internalize Comprehension. Provide a blank square grid and tape diagrams for students to annotate with details to show how each value is represented. For example, number of all people in town, number of newspaper subscribers in town, number of newspaper subscribers who voted.
Supports accessibility for: Organization, Attention
