This is the elementary version of the introduction. There is also an introduction with an example for grades 6-12.
What is a slow reveal graph?
It starts with a graph that has been stripped of context: its numbers, its labels, its title. Like this.
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
The teacher facilitates a discussion around what students notice and wonder. Students might notice that the bars keep increasing. Students might notice the use of color, and that some of the blocks are half pink, half purple. One of the blocks (in the 6th column) looks like it has a partial block. As students share their ideas, the teacher makes them visible by annotating them on a screen or board.
Then: another slide is revealed.
What new information did we just learn? What do you think this graph might be about now? What might the bars measure? What would the pink region mean?
Students identify what information is new — in this case, the labels for most of the categories. Then, they are encouraged to discuss more about the individual bars, e.g. what they might measure or what the colors might indicate. The teacher continues to annotate their ideas.
Then: another slide is revealed.
What new information did we just learn? What are decibels? If raindrops are roughly 40 decibels, how many decibels do you think conversation is? …TV? etc.
Again, students identify what information is new (the title and the measure of one bar) and discuss how this changes their understanding of the graph. We now know that this graph is about how loud different sounds are. How can we use a typical volume of raindrops (40 dB) to determine the volume of other sounds, like conversation or city traffic? Students will use different strategies, e.g. skip counting by 10, adding up 10s (10 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 40), or potentially even using multiplication or division (40 ÷ 4 = 10, so each block is worth 10). The teacher annotates.
What new information did we just learn? How can we determine how many decibels a rock concert might be?
We have confirmation on the values of different bars (conversation, city traffic, vacuum cleaner, TV/stereo/headsets), and are encouraged to figure out a typical volume for rock concerts. Students might say 101, 105, 110, or even something like 100 ½. The answer is revealed on the next slide.
What new information did we just learn? What do you think the pink region means now?
What number do you think completes the sentence “___ decibels and above can damage hearing”?
Students may have already guessed that the pink region indicates sounds that can be “too loud,” or damage hearing. But how loud is too loud? They will have to rely on their knowledge of the value of half-blocks to figure it out.
Lastly, students are encouraged to guess what sound might be 140 decibels. Is it jet engines? Construction?
Are you surprised? Why or why not?
How loud do you think other common activities are?
If fireworks can damage our hearing, why do you think people still hold firework displays?
What do we know from this graph? What do we not know from this graph?
Who might find this data and/or graph useful? Why?
It’s fireworks!
This slow reveal graph, “Sound the Alarm,” is available for Google slides. There are suggested questions to ask in the speakers’ notes of the slide deck.
The page for the graph also offers more information about the context for this graph, other content connections, and paired texts for students to explore.
So let’s get started! What would you like to do?