Visual Learning in the Middle School Classroom

Does this look like your classroom?? Are your students tired of paper pencil activities? Even you are bored by what you are asking your students to do? Looking for a way to include creativity into your lesson plan once again?????? Infographics may be the answer! Studies show that our brains are wired to tune out subtle differences, we need to make things more dramatic in order for our brains to focus and retain the information we are teaching. This is where infographics can help us, as teachers, out!

Visual Learning Tool....

Over 65% of the population are visual learners....this means that the majority of our classroom population is made up of visual learners and infographics would be the way to tap into that learning style!!

The Great Debate....Making Comparisons

Infographics is a great tool for making comparisons or using as a tool in a debate! How about a side by side infographic of PC vs. MAC?? You can easily use an infographic as tool to fuel the debate or for information that students can use to make comparisons between the two choices.

Timelines...

Imagine how much more interesting it would be to study characters or important people or events in history and then share that information using an infographic?? Students would thoroughly enjoy these projects and actually retain the information since it is so much more interesting than the typical report. 

Again, these are just a few more uses of infographics in the classroom. We are all in the homestretch of our school year and are quickly approaching standardized test taking time. Imagine the uses of infographics for students with this information!! They could do goal setting and represent it with graphs and images in an infographic....talk about taking ownership of that data!!! It is the end of the year...you are exhausted, the students are done...have them make infographics showing the amount of growth they have made in a years time in your class!! 

How would you use the infographic? You have seen these ideas, what ideas popped into your head while you were reading this?? I can't wait to hear all about these!! Everytime I read something about infographics I have so many ideas pop into my head and think about how useful the infographic could be in my classroom!! I cannot wait to get past our SBAC test after Spring Break so I can start our novel study and incorporate infographics into my lesson plan....what plans do you have for infographics in your classroom???

References:

Fanguy, Will. (2018). Using Infographics in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://piktochart.com/blog/using-infographics-classroom/.
Farris, Tracey. (2018). Use Piktochart to Spark End-of-Year Reflections in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://piktochart.com/blog/end-of-year-reflections-classroom/. 

Why use Infographics in the middle school classroom?

So you are a middle school teacher? How many times have you shared that fact and the person (or persons) just looked at you and said: "Bless your heart!"? We all know that middle school students are a special kind of special! They are moody, impulsive, easily bummed out or withdrawn, but they are also extremely creative and love to participate in creative thinking activities. This is where infographics work extremely well in the classroom. 

First, why infographics? Aren't there other ways for students of any level, but especially middle school students, to show off their creative side?? Of course there are!! But infographics force students to take what they know and present with illustrations that really catch the viewers eye as well as text that is brief and to the point.  

Photo Courtesy to LOLkagirlXX, DeviantArt via Ashley MacQuarrie, Learning Lift Off

Infographics can be a great getting to know you activity at the beginning of the year....what specifically do students want other students to know about them?? Then present this information in print and pictures using an infographic! They are able to use technology (which they love) and present information about themselves to others!

Another way to use an infographic in the classroom is as an alternative to essay writing! So often my students completely shut down at the thought of having to write a large essay about a topic. It doesn't matter if they choose the topic or not, they just DO NOT want to write, especially essays that are typically longer in nature. This is where the inforgraphic saves the day!! They have their topic, they do the research, and then they create an infographic to communicate the knowledge they have gained through pictures and text. They are suddenly excited about learning new information and completing a task in class. They are driving their instruction, which will cause them to remember more, and the teacher is there more as a support than the one doing most of the work! For example: you are getting ready to read a story about women's rights or you have already been reading about women's rights. They can create an infographic about what they have learned about the timeline of women's rights such as this one:

While these are just a few ways to use infographics in the classroom, I would love to hear how you use them in your classroom!! Show me, tell me!!!!

References:

There are many websites that help you create infographics, the infographic I posted about myself was created at piktochart. 

I also found this website to have a lot of valuable information about using infographics in middle school classrooms: venngage. 

There is also an amazing read from the piktochart website that gives valuable information about using infographics in the classroom: PIktochart Website.

Kathy Schrock's guide to using Inforgraphics as a creative assessment: Schrock