How Do You Boost Data Literacy?

 The grade and subject area that I am hoping to teach in the future is high school band. I think one way that I could incorporate authentic data sources and data visualization activities into my classroom by doing a short lesson on the positive affects of being involved in music. I could find a graph to show students the differences between how students excel in school while involved in music, versus without.

Some challenges or barriers that I would face while trying to incorporate data into my lessons is really....how would I find a place to put it in band rehearsals? Usually, music ensembles in high schools don't have a full class period like "core" classes would. They either meet at a shorter period of the day, or band and choir split a block. While I would want to show students this data for them to see how music can help them succeed, I would need to plan way ahead to figure out when the right time would be to present it to them.

I would say that the way I would help my students build their data literacy skills is to really define their topic. Even when they think their topic is specific enough, you always need to go deeper and specify more. The more specific, the better your results will be. I would also use the third strategy of making the graph more mysterious to engage them in data literacy. Though high school students might find it boring at first, it can really become engaging for them.

I believe that it is important for students to learn data literacy skills in their K-12 schooling because in the future, whether it be in college or their future job, you are always looking at some sort of data. I think that teachers can help prepare the next generation to be more informed is to use more real life data in their classrooms and explain how all aspects of gathering data works.

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