Glyphs and Guided Math Groups
Glyphs are a form of graphing that are really fun yet quite rigorous at the same time. Making and interpreting glyphs involves problem solving, representing a variety of information, communicating ideas, and discussing and interpreting all the data once collected.
Key Points about Glyphs:
- Pictorial way of showing data
- Shows a great deal of information at one time
- Symbols represent the different data
- Many types of glyphs and many teacher resources with several ideas… (shoes, snowmen, houses, horses etc..)
- Require a legend to read
Making glyphs is an involved process. First the children have to decide on various criteria. They read the legend and then make their individual glyph accordingly. They are literally transfering their data into a pictorial representation. I find that it is much easier to pull students into guided math groups and have them create their glyphs there, especially since I can focus on questioning them and hear them communicate their ideas using math language. As with all other data collection, the MATH TALK is key. Have the students justify what they are doing and the discuss the collective data.
Links:
http://www.mathwire.com/glyphs/glyphs.html
http://www.kidscount1234.com/glyphs.html
http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/glyphs/
http://teachertipstraining.suite101.com/article.cfm/glyphs_for_kids
cut and paste this url: http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=14864
Teacher Resource Books About Making Glyphs:
http://astore.amazon.com/drnisgumabl-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=16
*Be sure to see the post on this blog about graphs
Dr. Nicki's Guided Math Blog 
This is a type of graphing I have never taught. You have sparked a curiosity to find out as much about these graphs as possible. What would be a good grade level to start introducing this type of graphing?? Any ability level??
Lisa Pietrosimone
September 4, 2010
HI Lisa,
You can start at kindergarten. Look at some of the examples in the links and they have pictures of primary grades doing some really engaging things…like getting to know you glyphs (name tags, houses) and seasonal glyphs (pumpkins, snowmen).
Happy Glyphing!
Dr. Nicki
drnickinewton
September 5, 2010