Reading Apprenticeship Inspired Assignment or Lesson

This activity will take place towards the beginning of the course as students begin to dive into viewing statistical data (as data tables, visualizations such as graphs, etc.). While it might be helpful for students to know types of graphs before this activity (histograms vs. bar graphs vs. line graphs), it is not absolutely necessary as students will not be identifying the types of graphs, but merely attempting to interpret the meaning behind them based on the context provided in the text. Students will have begun to practice metacognitive routines by previous activities/discussions which ask students to reflect on what statistics currently means to them (if anything) and how they see statistics relating to their lives. While this is not text-based, the activity can also be precluded by having students pick out a piece of media that includes a statistic and have them think about the way the statistic added to their emotional and logistical reaction to the overall piece. In this way, students will have begun to think about their thinking relative to the discipline, as well as have had the experience of picking out an interesting statistic before they reach this activity. 

Criteria

As this is a preliminary activity in the course, I would not assess/evaluate it based on correctness. I would focus more on the completion of the activity, as well as the depth with which students break down the visualization they chose and the depth with which they react to it (i.e., how detailed are their critiques of the visualization?, what meaning did they extract from the piece?, did they simply describe an objective interpretation of the visualization or did they also delve into their emotional/action-related reactions to the piece?).

This activity supports metacognitive work because it asks students to reflect not only on the accuracy of the visualization (as well as what they assume the claim might be if they were not critically engaged with it), but also their reaction to the piece itself and how they currently think about statistics or data visualization at this point.

This activity can take place synchronously or asynchronously depending on how the class it formatted. In essence, students will visit the site listed above, and choose one data visualization that they are interested in or draw to. They will screenshot or save a picture of the image, and then respond to the following: 

1. Upon first glance, what would you assume is the claim being made/statistic being shared?

In other words, as someone who might not be familiar with statistics, what would your first impressions of the visualization be? 

2. How is the visualization misleading or misrepresentative of the data?

Or, what is confusing about the visualization?

 3. Based on the information you can gather from the image itself, why do you think the visualization was made in this particular way?

How might the author/statistician benefit from portraying the data in this way?

Asynchronous version

Students will respond to these questions using a Canvas Discussion forum, where students will be able to see (and be asked to respond) to their peers’ posts. The discussion posts will be evaluated on length of response to each question and the inclusion of the data visualization referenced. Individually, I would also provide feedback to each student relative to the graphic they chose (i.e., what they pointed out or reflect on that was stellar, and what they might have missed or maybe wanted to have considered). This version would likely take students about 20-30 minutes to complete. 

Synchronous version

Students will be asked to peruse the website individually for about 5 minutes in order to choose one visualization they are drawn to. Then, students will spend 10 minutes formulating written (informal) responses to the questions listed above. Students will then be asked to pair up with a partner and share their visualization and respective reflections/interpretations. This portion will also take about 10 minutes. Finally, the class will regroup as a whole and the instructor can field responses from students as to things that came up in conversations that were surprising or unexpected. The instructor can have a project image of the respective graphic that each student sharing is referring to (so that everyone is on the same page). This version can take 25-40 minutes, depending on how much time the instructor decides to allot to the whole class discussion at the end. This version can either be evaluated as student participation in class, or responses can be submitted via Canvas Discussion or as a Canvas assignment that students are more formally provided feedback on. 

The students would be working with the website “WTF Visualizations” (viz.wtf) which is an ongoing tumblr blog which posts data visualizations from mainstream media that aren’t quite accurate or clear. Students will have the opportunity to peruse this expansive blog and choose a visualization that is interesting to them or stands out to them. I chose this text because: 1) it is free of cost, 2) these are real examples of visualizations that students may run into as they interact with media on a daily basis, and 3) the blog includes a wide variety of topics that might appeal to students as personally interesting (from COVID to the NFL, to the composition of honey to the legalization of marijuana).