Introducing Students to Infographics [ACTIVITY]

As a visually oriented guy, I've ALWAYS dug infographics as a tool for quickly communicating information to an audience.  There's something engaging -- and easy to consume -- about infographics that make them a really neat tool for capturing the attention of readers.

And as a guy who believes that students CAN be powerful and CAN have a voice in today's world, I've always wanted to find ways to introduce my students to infographics. 

I figure that if they are going to be heard, they've got to start creating content that audiences will actually enjoy.

All of that thinking boiled to a head when two of my favorite middle school language arts teachers asked me if I could help them to dream up a lesson that would engage our students in the process of creating  infographics.

The first decision that I made was to abandon computers completely in the lesson that I was creating. 

That was a practical decision in a lot of ways:  First, there simply aren't enough computers in our building to get all of our 130 students on machines at the same time.  Best case scenario: We sign up for the computer lab and get access to 30 desktops for a class period or two.

Even if we HAD regular access to computers, though, our sixth grade students just don't have the technical skill necessary to efficiently manipulate the kinds of programs that graphic artists use to create infographics. 

While I may have been able to teach those skills to my students, the lesson would have taken weeks instead of days -- and with a MASSIVE curricula to churn our way through, we didn't have weeks for this experience.

So I decided to create a kit of paper materials that my kids could draw from while assembling an infographic. 

Much like the digital kits that I recommend to teachers interested in digital movie-making (see here and here), the paper kit for our infographic project includes a bunch of pre-assembled content (statistics, facts, hashtags, titles, sources, dividers, arrows) connected to the topic of our study: The California Condor -- an endangered bird that we've chosen to adopt.

You can check out the kits -- one includes vertical content and the other includes horizontal content -- here:

CondorInfographicVerticalIMAGES

CondorInfographicHorizontalIMAGES

I used PowerPoint to create the slides that you see in these collections -- and found a TON of helpful and engaging images on The Noun Project website. The two separate kits work together as one whole collection.  They're separated simply because infographics need both vertical and horizontal content to be visually appealing.

Our plan is to give groups of students paper copies of the entire collection and then to turn them loose in the hallway to create jumbo-tastic-infographics by arranging content and then gluing it down to butcher paper. 

Once they've completed their infographic, they'll be asked (1). to defend the choices that they make while assembling their infographics and (2). to evaluate the content, layout and visual appeal of the infographics created by other groups.

Here's the direction sheet for the assembly and evaluation process:

Handout_InfographicDirections

When creating the kits for my students, I tried to include enough content for the kids to assemble a pretty detailed infographic on the plight of the California Condor.

But I also tried to include distractors in the collection as well.  There are slides that are interesting, but wouldn't neatly fit on an infographic that's designed to raise awareness about the reasons that the Condor is endangered -- or worthy of our protection. 

That's where the higher-order thinking comes in, right? 

While my students don't have to do much of the grunt-work associated with this project -- in an attempt to save time, I've already tracked down the content that will appear in their infographics  -- they DO have to make careful choices about what to include in their final products.

My students also have to think about layout and design. They've got to find ways to organize the content that I've assembled for them.  They've got to make sure that their infographic isn't cluttered and that they use text features to create clear visual divisions in their final products.

So whaddya' think? 

Does this sound like a worthwhile lesson?

More importantly, do you think it will work?! 

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Related Radical Reads:

Infographic Lesson - Cell Phones in Schools

Using Google Docs to Create Digital Kits

More on Using Digital Kits to Structure Student Projects

Comments

[Kristenswanson]

Personally, I find a lot of the current infographic creators to be a bit clunky and template-driven, so I think your low-tech strategy actually increases the amount of higher order thinking that kids will have to do. They will have to generate the structure and design themselves, which can be quite challenging. Also, the use of distractors is quite brilliant. I wonder if it is worthwhile to have one "decoy" group who includes distractors as a way of determining students' abilities to accurately provide feedback against criteria.... Thanks for sharing this!

[Marie Garrido]

I have also been fascinated by infographics and have used them with my middle schoolers. As a reading teacher I used them to teach about text features---so many are embedded in infographics: headings, subheadings, charts, tables, pictures, captions...

I also did a research lesson where the product was an infographic. Like your lesson I had them use paper instead of computers, but they did the research.

As to your question if this is a worthwhile lesson, it depends on your objectives and if they were met. It seems to me that the objective was to logically organize material visually to show understanding of the content that they learned.

[Stevewclark]

I love this lesson! I've been trying to think of way to introduce info graphics to our students in some way too. I have never thought of doing it in a low-tech way. I love it! I will begin planning with with one of our teachers ASAP. I would love to see the finished products!

[Bill Ferriter]

Steve wrote:

I will begin planning with with one of our teachers ASAP. I would love to see the finished products!

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Thanks a ton for the kind words, Steve! Looking forward to seeing what you guys do with the lesson too.

Ill definitely share final products when our kids do the activity. Not sure when that will be -- theyre going to do that in the language arts class -- but when they do, Ill get a few pictures and post them here.

Rock right on,
Bill

[Bill Ferriter]

Kristen wrote:

I wonder if it is worthwhile to have one decoy group who includes
distractors as a way of determining students abilities to accurately
provide feedback against criteria

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First, thanks for stopping by, Pal. Youre one of the people who I enjoy learning from the most, so anytime that I get a visit from you, Im jazzed!

And I love this idea. I really DO want there to be content that is out of place on purpose to see whether or not kids can pick that content out.

I think the one change I still want to make to my packet of materials for the kids is to add more distractors. I put that lesson together in one night -- which was a bit of an overwhelming grind -- so I cut the creation process short.

With a bit more time, Id add more distractors to the collection to force kids to make more choices.

Anyway, glad this looks right to you!
Bill

[@CarolynTavener]

I love this idea. We use visual texts with our students alot and looked at lots of different infographics last year. I am definitely going to do this activity with my Grade 5/6 and have sent all our teachers a link to the blog post so they can read it and try the idea too. Thanks Bill for sharing.

[JimTiffinJr]

Like Carolyn before me, I think this is a great idea and will be looking to make this a part of the 5/6 experience for students at my school.

We've been doing a quite a bit of work with data, including graphically analyzing it. Now instead of just sharing a simple chart or graph, moving to infographics offers an opportunity to communicate a more complete story.

Unlike your situation, I do have the flexibility to spend more time on a project like this. My hope would be to generate a skill set, including the higher order thinking ones, in students so they (1) recognize opportunities for communicating with infographics; (2) they are comfortable with the tools for making them; (3) actually make them in their other classes.

My first steps would certainly be to start identifying the understandings and big ideas for these goals (thanks for sharing your evaluation document; it will help with my first steps). When it does come time for planning learning experiences, this "low tech" start is a great way to do it. The distractors are an especially good element.

My only suggestion would be to include some post-activity that asks students to identify what it is they would need to make another infographic on some unknown topic... a conceptual understanding kind of reflection perhaps. The idea being to help your students recognize that these creations are something more than this single California Condor activity. Perhaps this post-activity would provide the initiative for your students to make infographics on their own later in the year.

Good luck with this Bill, and remember: #carrionmatters ;-)

[Bill Ferriter]

Jim wrote:

My only suggestion would be to include some post-activity that asks students to identify what it is they would need to make another infographic on some unknown topic... a conceptual understanding kind of reflection perhaps. The idea being to help your students recognize that these creations are something more than this single California Condor activity.

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First, Jim, thanks for #carrionmatters! I was hoping someone would think that was funny.

And I love your suggestion, here.

One of the things that I DON'T love about my lesson is that it might be construed as a one-off event in the lives of kids instead of as an introduction to a form of communication that I really do hope they master.

I've got to find ways to make that happen -- and your reflection might just do that.

If you come up with something, I hope you'll share it!

I really want to see what other people do with this lesson simply because it's a first time kind of thing for me. I know it needs/could use tweaking and polishing.

Rock right on,
Bill

[Bill Ferriter]

Carolyn wrote:

I am definitely going to do this activity with my Grade 5/6 and have sent all our teachers a link to the blog post so they can read it and try the idea too.

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Awesome, Carolyn!

Please let me know how the lesson goes -- and more importantly, please let me know about any tweaks/changes you make to it.

I think it really has potential, but because it's the first time out of the gate for this lesson, I know it needs polishing.

I'd love to hear about the tweaks you make.

Rock on,
Bill