Read charts and graphs
A once-valued skill has fallen by the wayside -- but our kids will need it even more than we do. You probably have a pretty good idea how well your teenager can write, how good her reading comprehension is, and how easily she solves math problems. But here's a question to consider: Can your high-school student extract the meaning from a chart or graph? Okay, let's stipulate that your kid probably can. What do you think about your neighbor's kid? Do you think he knows how to read a visual display of quantitative information?
Reading Charts and Graphs
A once-valued skill has fallen by the wayside -- but our kids will need it even more than we do. You probably have a pretty good idea how well your teenager can write, how good her reading comprehension is, and how easily she solves math problems. But here's a question to consider: Can your high-school student extract the meaning from a chart or graph?
Okay, let's stipulate that your kid probably can. What do you think about your neighbor's kid? Do you think he knows how to read a visual display of quantitative information? There's a very good chance he can't. And that's a problem. The education world seems always aflutter with controversies over how best to teach students to write or what's the most effective way to teach mathematics.
While these are important matters, involving real problems, there are other gaps and failings that also deserve attention. I taught for the past 10 years in an independent high school for girls.
Not long after starting there, I discovered that many of my students had limited ability to derive and summarize the main message from fairly straightforward charts and graphs like this one , comparing the crime rate to unemployment in the US over a twenty-year period:.
When I raised the subject at a faculty meeting one day, my comment elicited wide agreement. The ensuing discussion revealed that kids handled these kinds of tasks well in science and math classes, but the skills didn't seem to transfer over to other subject areas such as the social sciences and history. Now, this problem is surely not universal. There are certainly students who can handle these cognitive tasks well in any context.
But an alarming percentage cannot. I have not been able to find hard numbers on this and will be grateful to anyone who can provide them. Part of the explanation, I suspect, is a simple aversion on the part of many to anything that smacks of math.
I know; I'm in that category. I'm one of those people whose skills at extracting information from graphs and charts are stunted because I avoided developing them, preferring to rely on the accompanying text to tell me the important points I needed to know from a complicated table or graph.
Another obstacle is that we all find it harder to extract meaning from graphs and charts in subject areas new to us. One study I found indicated that this is a widespread problem, showing that even professional scientists' abilities to interpret graphs "are highly contextual and are a function of their familiarity with the phenomena to which the graph pertains. Still another reason for the difficulty some students have with visual displays of quantitative data is that many of the old standbys -- pie charts, line graphs, dot charts and point plots, histograms, pictographs, etc.
These graphics are obviously the result of technological advancements, which make it easier to produce more complex graphs. See Tony Hirst's description of the computer work involved in producing the diagram above. Newspapers and magazines carry more graphic representations of data than they used to, and the Web is full of this stuff.
Another example :. The New York Times regularly provides good examples of these cutting-edge graphics. See this interactive chart , for example, which shows how swing states have shifted between the Republican and Democratic parties over the years.
As these visual displays become more and more ubiquitous, it is all the more important that students know how to read, interpret, and summarize the information presented. It's become an essential element of overall literacy. But instead of working more aggressively to nurture this set of educational skills, we seem to be headed in precisely the opposite direction. Instead, they want elementary-school kids to focus on fractions.
Nobody can be opposed to that, but surely there is room for both kinds of emphasis. As students get older, it's important for them to learn not only how to be intelligent viewers of graphic representations, but wary and cautious viewers. While charts and graphs obviously are a boon to our ability to communicate information about large numbers or complicated relationships, there are also hidden pitfalls.
Statistics, like any other kind of information, are open to manipulation and distortion. We want our kids to be literate in this material so they can avoid being hoodwinked by those who use statistical figures carelessly or unscrupulously. Students need to learn how the creators of charts and graphics can misrepresent the truth: altering the baseline, changing units of analysis and comparison, using averages or means when they are misleading, not using constant dollars, not showing populations as a percentage of the base, or implying causality where none exists.
Unfortunately, unless your high school student takes a statistics course -- and only about 11 percent do -- she or he is unlikely to learn all this. So, what can you do to help your teenager develop this particular kind of literacy? First, ask her teachers what they're doing to address these concerns in her classes.
Push them on it. And teaching this sort of literacy should not be seen as the exclusive duty of math teachers or science teachers. Instructors in all subject areas where graphs and charts show up should be helping students with these skills.
Second, and more importantly, take an active role yourself in educating your kids how to read charts and graphs. Show them interesting ones. Talk about them. See if they can extract the important meaning from them. See if they can summarize the main point. If they can't do it, help them figure out how. Show them the problems with graphs that are misleading. You can start by showing them this graph that Jim Fallows posted late last week as part of a piece here on what sorts of factors predict the outcome of presidential elections.
See if they know, from just looking at the graph, what he means when he says the graph is distorted because it makes the stock-market rise look bigger than it should.
And if you feel like probing a whole other matter, see if they can explain coherently what it means to say there has been a "rise in the stock market. The main point to impart to your kids is that this kind of literacy is important. They shouldn't shrug it off, nor should they be afraid of it. Show them how this kind of material can provide fascinating insights into things of real interest, with graphic representations like these:.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters theatlantic. Skip to content. Sign in My Account Subscribe. The Atlantic Crossword. The Print Edition. Latest Issue Past Issues. Link Copied. Tony Hirst at Onlinejournalismblog.
Global Web Index. John Tierney is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a former professor of American government at Boston College. Schlozman and The U. Connect Twitter.
Discover how and when to use charts and graphs, including Venn diagrams and pie 11 MIN READ But which kind of chart or graph should you choose? Learn how to read charts and graphs and to explain the information they show (using a variety of correct words.).
Diagrams and charts are important because they present information visually. This handout provide a few hints on understanding information visually. Review the two examples provided. Our friendly staff is ready to help — drop by or make an appointment!
Here is a graphic preview for all of the graph worksheets.
Visual representations help us to understand data quickly. When you show an effective graph or chart, your report or presentation gains clarity and authority, whether you're comparing sales figures or highlighting a trend.
Understanding Diagrams and Graphs
Do you have to give a presentation? But do you know how to make it attractive to your listeners? Charts, graphs, and diagrams can help you cope with this task. This kind of visual content helps your audience see what you are talking about. You will also need this skill to be able to complete one of the IELTS tasks, which is usually to describe and discuss a diagram or any other visuals with figures and facts. Whether you need to prepare for the English test or want to get professional advice on giving a presentation at work, certified tutors on Preply.
How to Read Scientific Graphs & Charts
Updated: April 16, References. Line graphs and bar graphs are both visual ways of representing two or more data sets and their interrelation. In other words, graphs are pictures that show you how one thing changes in relation to another. Learning to read graphs properly is a matter of interpreting which pieces of information go together. Log in Facebook. No account yet? Create an account. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Article Edit.
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Charts and graphs are often used to summarize data. They make it easy to see trends and the amount of variation in the information being studied. A trend is the direction of change in the data. So we could say the trend has been for people to live longer than previous generations.
Reading Charts and Graphs: Activity 1 of 3
Graphs and charts are visual representations of data in the form of points, lines, bars, and pie charts. Using graphs or charts, you can display values you measure in an experiment, sales data, or how your electrical use changes over time. Types of graphs and charts include line graphs, bar graphs, and circle charts. Different types of graphs and charts display data in different ways, and some are better suited than others for different uses. To interpret a graph or chart, read the title, look at the key, read the labels. Then study the graph to understand what it shows. Read the title of the graph or chart. The title tells what information is being displayed. For example, a graph or chart of the quantity of pants sold in June may be titled, "Number of Pants Sold in June. Look at the key, which typically is in a box next to the graph or chart. It will explain symbols and colors used in the graph or chart. In a line graph of the "Number of Pants Sold in June," a blue line might display the number of blue pants sold per day during the month, the red line the number of red pants, and the brown line the number of brown pants. Such a line chart can show not only how sales changed from day to day, but a quick glance shows the popularity of each color. Similarly, in a bar graph, the blue rectangle displays the blue pants sold that month, the red rectangle displays the red pants, and the brown rectangle displays the brown pants. You can put the bars next to each other in a monthly chart that just displays the relative sales of each color, or you can stack the three color bars on each other to display next to similar bars for other months.
