The purpose of this activity is for students to plot and interpret points that represent the result of flipping a coin 10 times (MP2). Students also interpret points that are already on the graph, representing the number of heads and tails two other students got when they flipped a coin.

Students may wonder what to do if they get the same result twice or the same result as their partner since that point is already plotted on the graph. They may:

• Put a letter for their name next to the point.
• Put a number to indicate that they got that result on their first and second coin tosses.

Students may notice that the points all lie on a line (MP7). It is not necessary for students to understand why the points form a line. Focus students’ attention on the meaning of each point.

This activity uses MLR6 Three Reads. Advances: Reading, Listening, Representing

• Display the coordinate grid from the activity.
• As each student shares, ask them to explain where to plot their point on the displayed graph.
• “What are the coordinates of Jada’s point?” ()
• “How many times did Jada toss the coin? How do you know?” (9 times, because she got 6 heads and 3 tails.)
• Highlight the point on the grid. “What does this point mean?” (10 heads and no tails)
• “Did anyone get this result?” (most likely no)
• “Do you think all heads happens very often?” (This probably does not happen very often because that means that you can get only heads on every toss.)

The purpose of this activity is for students to plot and interpret points on the coordinate grid. The context remains coins but there is a variety of coins and the vertical coordinate is determined by the value of the coins. Students plot points corresponding to different combinations of coins. They identify the coordinates of plotted points and interpret them in terms of the context of coins and their value (MP2). During the Activity Synthesis, students discuss how they decided where to plot points and how they interpreted points on the graph.

• “What do you know about the points on the grid?”
• “How could you use the total value of the coins to help you figure out which point represents the collection of coins?”

• “How did you know which point represents Tyler’s coins?” (Tyler has 6 coins so I looked for the 6 below the horizontal line at the bottom of the graph. The value of the coins is 27 cents so I looked for a point between 20 and 30 in the vertical direction, closer to 30 than 20.)
• “How did you know which point represents Clare's coins?” (There are three points that represent 5 coins. Two of them have a vertical coordinate of more than 70. That can’t be Clare because she has no quarters. So, Clare is the other point representing 5 coins.)