I just uploaded a student led lesson on the causes of WWI that incorporates students creating a poster. I also have another lesson from my years as an 8th grade teacher over the California Gold Rush that has students creating a poster. Poster-making was one of those lesson tools that I thought I should avoid in my early years as a teacher because I viewed them as a cop-out, an easy activity that got me out of having to actually teach and allowed me a slower class to relax during. With more time and experience, I’ve found ways to utilize poster making in a meaningful and effective way.
Pros and Cons to Poster Lessons
PROS–
- They center the student in the learning process, shifting the responsibility to them
- Students have an opportunity to be creative
- Students have an opportunity to work with other students
- Visual and tactile learners work well with this learning style
- An occasional Poster Lesson allows for changing up a class structure when other lessons are becoming monotonous
- Pretty products for my wall!
CONS–
- They center the student in the learning process, and students may not learn well when its up to them
- Students have an opportunity to be creative, and some students hate creative tasks. Creativity isn’t a skill I need to assess
- Students have an opportunity to work with other students, and some students hate this, don’t work well with others, use this as an opportunity to slack off
- Other style learners struggle to learn in this lesson
- Changing class structure may cause chaos or less effective learning
- Ugly products on my walls 😛
For each pro there is a con, yes, but as a teacher, I’m hoping all of the cons are opportunity for growth. My rules below are more rules for myself as I make a poster lesson so that my students are challenged the lessons aren’t just a throw-away day.
My Poster Lesson Rules:
1. They center the student as the learner, shifting the responsibility to the student. Some students are not responsible and will slack off.
All poster lessons include a handout for note-taking at end of class. In my WWI lesson, students put the posters up around the room for a gallery walk. The handout ensures that they look at other posters and read for understanding before moving on to a different lesson. This also ensures that they have notes of sorts to refer back to when reviewing the lesson at a later time. In some lessons, students include really good details so I scan the posters and share them on Google Classroom.
2. Students have an opportunity to be creative, and some students hate creative tasks. Creativity isn’t a skill I need to assess
I never grade creativity or artistic ability. Instead I grade effort. I make it a point to explain to students that they can submit stick figures and poorly drawn posters but if they try to turn in a poster after just 5 minutes while other students spend 20 minutes, I’ll hand it back to them and say “add effort.” Add some bow ties. Would a bit of color around the edges help? In my WWI poster lesson, the students need to use Art Nouveau style to create the poster and this means they need a catchy phrase, a heroic figure, and solid block colors. There is a way to attempt this with 100% effort and very little skill.
3. Students have an opportunity to work with other students, and some students hate this, don’t work well with others, use this as an opportunity to slack off
Posters are for class time only. They cannot work on them at home. Most of my poster lessons allow for students to work in pairs or groups of 3. This can be such a pain to manage and grade fairly but it is also a useful life skill for students to practice in a controlled environment. As long as it is in my classroom, I can walk around and involve myself if I see unfair dynamics. If a student isn’t working as hard as the other students in their group, I can pull them aside and explain what I want to see if they plan to get the same grade as their group. Yes, there are times when a student is difficult but isn’t that my job as a teacher, to walk alongside them in this learning experience? If that takes place outside of my classroom, there is no way for me to be sure they are working fairly with each other. In every rubric, there is a section for working well together that I reserve for students that don’t help their group out.
4. Visual and tactile learners work well with this learning style, others do not.
Introduce and review content. It is my job to make sure all of my students get access to learning including my visual and tactile learners. That’s why I love poster lessons now; I see my active students engage with material in a way they don’t if I were to lecture or have them research and write. It challenges some of my other students, yes, but I make sure to talk through the content again. Have them complete the worksheet at the end so they are writing. My WWI Causes has an open ended question at the end that I could use as a debate for my verbal and interpersonal learners.
5. Changing class structure may cause chaos or less effective learning
80/20 rule! (this works for my toddlers nap schedule too lol) I try to follow a very predictable routine for 80% of my classes as structure is comfortable for students and has the best effects. We start with a journal and discussion, learn new content through notes/reading/DBQ/simulation, then finish class with a response based on a skill: writing/debating/categorizing/quizzing. Predictability can be very secure for some students. Even so, it gets monotonous! So an occasional shake up helps to break that monotony. 20% of the classes can be totally different. A poster class with a sound track in the back. Leave the classroom for a field trip or a scavenger hunt. Doing something a little different every once in a while can really help boost your student’s moods. Do poster lessons too much, they lose their appeal as a shift from routine.
6. Ugly products on my walls 😛
Not all posters have to go on your wall! I love my decorations and have one area of the room that I tape up their work. They love and hate it when they see their work displayed for other classes to see. Personally, I love displaying all the posters but I’m also known for falling behind and never following through with new posters on the wall. (What, we’re learning about the Cold War and the Napoleon posters are still up… Hehe, sorry kids!) If you really don’t want to put them up, they are still useful as a learning tool. Scan them and share them digitally. Shrink them on the copier to hand back as notes.
Hope these rules help you approach poster making in a way that maximizes the pros and minimizes the cons. Maybe I should have made this blog post into a poster? Shoot, missed opportunity…