Blog #3 -- Visualizing Understanding

• Infographic Model

    It is essential to utilize visual aids and motivators when exploring texts and new ideas in an English Language Arts classroom. When I thought about the topic of visualizing understanding, the first thing that came to mind was the relatively straightforward process of creating an infographic. This multimodal tool can be made digitally (like my Canva creation above) or by hand and it displays essential information from a particular text. I believe that this assignment pairs well with the exploration of a full-length novel, whether read independently or class-wide. For the infographic above (click the link for better resolution), I based my assignment on a novel I had independently read for a class last semester, Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman. When creating my infographic, I kept in mind that it would likely act as a model for future students to draw ideas from, so this is jam-packed with info and text-heavy.

    As I was creating this infographic, I had to think back to reading this book personally, which involved brushing up on character names, relationships, and important themes. My goal was to transfer my learning into an eye-catching visual production. In a class that meets daily, this processing-and-reflecting stage should be almost automatic. Once I recalled as much key information as I needed and double-checked with a bit of research, I could begin shaping the theme of this graphic to represent the main crisis of the book-- extreme drought. This man-made environmental crisis is the key motivator to the movement within this story, and just as the characters are pushed by surrounding fire, I wanted my audience to be drawn towards the intensity of the flames with different imagery. I began this project with an arid, dry theme for my background and added warm tones while overlaying flames throughout the page. Of course, the real learning occurred when I had to practice meaning-making by displaying six key ideas and lessons from this novel. Due to the approachability of this format, I felt comfortable discussing more than one bold idea that I would normally be confined to in an essay. By encompassing many ideas in my infographic, I gained a deeper understanding and appreciation for the way that this novel was crafted.

     Ideally, I would love for this project or unit to end with a peer discussion/ feedback/ reflection in order to maximize the interaction with their projects. Infographics are an especially useful tool, as they offer students an opportunity to stand in the role of a teacher when they share their work among the class. Pushing students to create multimodal representations of their learning expands upon what they already know and solidified their understanding of the text. Along with strengthening visualization and imagery skills, these projects build inquiry among scholars that can be applied infinitely throughout their lives.