I am currently stumped and an example of "MODE" that I can use to make a real-life connection for my students. Any ideas?"MODE" is the number that...

Mode is the  which appears most frequently. In your example

1 appears  3 times

2 appears  2times

3 appears 1 time

6 appears  1 time

8 appears 1 time

9 appears 1 time

Since 1 appears  maximum number of times in this example ,

1 is the mode.

Example 2: In the 8th standard the score in mathematics is as follows:

Class interval        Number of students

0 t0 19 marks         11

20 to 39 marks       20

40 t0 59 marks       39

60 to 79 marks       25

80 to 100 marks      5

The highest class of frequency  40 to 59 marks with 39 students. So 40 to 59 is the modal class interval.