How can data tell a broader, fuller story of who students are? 

Data published by correctional facilities shows little about who the incarcerated population is outside of gender, age, race, charges, language and sentence, or time incarcerated. Despite what they may be charged with or found guilty of, incarcerated people have backgrounds, interests, loved ones and are more than information on graphs published by the correctional facility. When we learn more about people we can empathize with them which can lead to restorative processes that promote healing. When incarcerated students are the data storytellers themselves there is more opportunity for them to share their strengths, interests, and backgrounds which allows us to see their humanity rather than the demographic and crime stats. 

Activity: 

• Students write surveys to collect data about one another 

• Once the survey is complete (questions can be written in any language, as students will translate and use translanguaging to complete the graph) students record their findings in a graph

• Students present their work to the class

• Visual arts are incorporated into the lesson through creating visual representations of the data

Sample Survey Questions:

• What languages do you speak? 

• What do you do in your free time?

• Do you have kids?

• What foods are traditional in your country around the holidays?

• What is your favorite subject to study? 

• We found that students loved ancient history, so we decided to study ancient ruins. Used this interest to teach Ranking- another data literacy skill

Teacher created sample of a data storytelling project: