Stories and graphs
Match a story to its distance-time, temperature-time or battery graph: rises, falls, stops, quickly or slowly.
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Teaching guide: reading graphs in context
Interpreting graphs is one of the skills that national tests and PISA assess the most: reading one point is not enough, students have to understand the story the line tells. This free reading graphs worksheet generator makes A4 worksheets with everyday graphs (walks, water tanks, a phone battery, temperature, savings) drawn from generated data, from Grade 5 to Grade 10, always with an answer key.
Student worksheet 
Answer key Values and rates of change
Read values, when a value is reached, the speed or rate of a stretch and, in secondary, the average rate of change.
Trends
Describe whether a series rises, falls or stays the same, where it changes fastest, the percentage change and what happens if it goes on.
Compare two series
Two lines on one graph: when they meet, which grows more and, in Grades 9–10, absolute against relative growth.
Misleading graphs
Axes that do not start at 0, unequal steps and 3D pie charts: find the trick, work out the real change and argue.
Answer key
Answers worked out from the values on the graph, with the calculation, and the right graph circled.
Frequently asked questions about reading graphs
How do you read a distance-time graph?
The horizontal axis is time and the vertical axis is the distance from a point (home, the start). When the line goes up, it is moving away; when it goes down, it is coming back; when it is flat, it has stopped. The steeper the line, the faster it goes: the speed on a stretch is the change in distance divided by the time taken.
What is the average rate of change?
It is the change in value divided by the time between two moments: (final value − initial value) ÷ time. It is taught in Grades 9 and 10, and on a distance-time graph it is the average speed, stops included. At level 3 of "Read values and rates of change" it always comes out exact.
Why can a graph be misleading?
The three most common tricks are a vertical axis that does not start at 0, which makes a small difference look huge; unequal steps on an axis, which change the shape of the line; and 3D pie charts, where the slice at the front looks bigger. On the worksheets, students compare what the graph looks like with the real values.
Which grades are the worksheets for?
Grades 5–6 (level 1), Grades 7–8 (level 2) and Grades 9–10 (level 3). The questions follow the style of maths competence tests and PISA (uncertainty and data, change and relationships).
What other worksheets can I combine them with?
To read graphs of real data, use the Climate Graph Worksheet Generator and the Population Pyramid Worksheet Generator. For percentages and rates, the fraction worksheets and the decimal worksheets. Find more in Mathematics.
Is any data sent to a server?
No. The worksheet is made in your browser and templates are saved only in your browser's memory.
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