Glyphs

What Are Glyphs?

Glyphs are a pictorial form of data collection. You might be reminded of the term "hieroglyphics" and think about early picture writing. Different forms of glyphs are used in many medical situations to quickly record data about a patient in pictorial form. For example, a dentist records cavities on a picture of teeth. A chiropractor might record injuries or muscle aches on a skeletal picture. In these cases, a "picture is worth a thousand words" and the glyph allows a doctor to more quickly record and analyze the data.

There are many good templates for glyphs in both books and online that have been developed primarily for use by elementary students. One favorite glyph is "Face It, We're Cute!" found in Super Graphs, Venns & Glyphs by Honi Bamberger and Patricia Hughes. This data collection activity is especially appropriate as a beginning of the school year activity as it collects data about each student in the class (birthday, how many brothers & sisters, how many people in family, first name, favorite subject, etc.) which is then presented as a face with features and accessories that capture the data.

These face glyphs make a great "Getting to Know You" bulletin board for students and parents. Teachers can then use the glyph bulletin board to generate some data analysis questions such as how many students in our class have only brothers or have a birthday in the fall, etc. Students use the glyph key to interpret the class display and they can use a tally sheet or bar graph to present specific results.

Glyphs also present a writing prompt and have been used in various ways to encourage students to analyze data and present their findings in written form. Some teachers have students exchange glyphs and write a "Who Am I?" riddle about their classmate's glyph. After collecting all riddles, the class is encouraged to listen to each riddle as it is read aloud and identify the appropriate glyph. Other teachers assign a specific question to each small group or partnership and require them to examine the glyphs and write about the class results for that particular question.