So You Have to Teach Stem and Leaf Plots

I remember changing grades one year and reading over the curriculum.  I envisioned a plant when I saw the words "stem and leaf plots".  I quickly ran to my same grade partner and asked her "What on earth are stem and leaf plots?"  She laughed out loud because I drew one on the board thinking the "stem" was the "stem" and the "leaf" was the "leaf" of a plot.

This concept is a tricky one but can be explained easily if students see it as a bar graph turned on its side.  A good stem and leaf plot shows the first digits of the number (thousands, hundreds or tens) as the stem and the last digit (ones) as the leaf.

Always using topics students are familiar with helps.  I've often turned to things students like:  bus trips, ice cream, bowling scores.  Ending the unit with a game also keeps students aware of place value when it comes to teaching stem and leaf plots. 

For extension activities, think of ways to incorporate the measures of central tendency into stem and leaf plot practice.  Why not take the data and determine the mean, median, mode and range?  Below is a sample of the unit I developed to assist my students in comprehending stem and leaf plots. 

Stem and Leaf Plots - Guided and Independent Practice