Read the story in the chart
Look for highs, lows, rises and falls.
What is the story?
This chart shows the books borrowed from a school library in the first five weeks of term. Which sentence tells its story best?
What this lesson covers
The idea
A chart can be read for its highest and lowest values, rises and falls, biggest change and overall trend.
What is the story?
This chart shows the books borrowed from a school library in the first five weeks of term. Which sentence tells its story best?
- The bars are all different heights
- Borrowing went up every week
- Week 5 has the tallest bar
Ask the chart questions
This chart shows the rain in Meera's town in six months, June to November. Tap the bar that answers each question. Compare the bars with their neighbours.
Many facts make one story
You read four things from one chart: the highest month, the lowest, the biggest rise and the biggest fall. The last two came from comparing a bar with the one before it.
Put together, they tell a story. The rain rose until August, then fell every month after it. That up-then-down shape is the pattern. The trend is the general direction: up until August, then down.
Reading a chart means finding the highest and lowest values, the rises and falls, and the overall trend.
A trend is the general direction the data moves over time.
Notes
Reading a chart means finding the highest and lowest values, the rises and falls, and the overall trend.
Read the title, labels and scale first. Then look for highest, lowest, rises, falls and the trend.
Check yourself
Asha's team took five weekly quizzes. By how many marks did the score rise from Quiz 3 to Quiz 4?
Answer: 22 marks
Quiz 4 was 70 and Quiz 3 was 48. 70 − 48 = 22 marks.
Look at the same quiz chart. Which sentence about it is true?
A chart shows the library's visitors rising every month from June to October. What can Zoya say safely?
- The score rose in every quiz, from Quiz 1 to Quiz 5. Look at Quiz 3. The score dipped from 52 to 48 before it rose again.
- The score dipped once, then ended highest at Quiz 5 — correct. Yes. It rose, dipped at Quiz 3, then rose strongly. The overall trend is upward.
- Quiz 4 had the highest score, because it jumped the most. Quiz 4 had the biggest jump, but Quiz 5 is taller at 75 against 70. The highest bar and the biggest jump are different facts.
- Visitors rose from June to October, but November is unknown — correct. Yes. The chart shows what happened up to October. A trend can hint at the future, but it cannot promise it.
- Visitors will go on rising in November, December and after. A trend can stop or turn around. A rising chart does not promise that the rise will go on.
- Most people in the town now read more books than before. The chart counts only the library's visitors. It tells us nothing about the whole town.