The goal of this activity is for students to practice interpreting points in a scatter plot. Students also practice using the trend from data in a scatter plot to estimate outcomes in the data. As students interpret the data in context, they reason abstractly and quantitatively (MP2).

The goal of this discussion is for students to interpret data from a scatter plot and table. Discuss the ways students accomplish this. Here are sample questions for discussion:

• “How do you determine the coordinates for student and student ?” (I use the table to see what numbers are listed in the same row as each student. I can also find the point labeled as or  on the scatter plot and estimate the coordinates by looking at the lines on the graph.)
• “When given one of the values for a student, how do you find the other value for the same student?” (When the problem gives me one value for a variable, I find it on the scatter plot or table. Then, I look to see the other value that is matched with the given value. In a table, it is the value next to the given value. In a scatter plot, it is the value on the opposite axis that meets the given value at a plotted point.)
• “How do you come up with the value for the question about student ?” (I look to see if there is a pattern. I notice that, in general, the more absences a student has the lower the final exam score is. Student missed more days than most of the students, so I would expect that student to do worse than most of the others on the final exam.)

The goal of this lesson is for students to interpret the slope and -intercept of a line. Discuss how students are able to recognize and understand the meaning of slope and -intercept from the given model in the situation. Here are sample questions to promote class discussion:

• “What does slope represent in any given model?” (How steep a line is or the rate of change in a given situation.)
• “How do you determine which quantity represents the slope?” (I thought about what is changing in the model, and that is how the final exam score changes based on the number of absences a student has. So, I know the slope is the number that represents the decrease in score based on the number of absences because it represents the rate of change.)
• “What does the -intercept represent in any given model?” (In the graph, it represents where the line crosses the -axis, or the value of when is equal to 0.)
• “How do you determine which quantity represents the -intercept?” (I use the graph to see the value of when is 0. I also know that the -intercept represents the score when a student has 0 absences, so the -intercept should be the expected score for a student who was not absent.)