Infographics

7th graders began a new unit this week with Infographics. Infographics, and their amazing visual displays of data, are a fantastic way to really get students thinking about how they share information. Ultimately students will create their own info graphic after gathering data on a selected topic. Before that, we need to take apart an Infographic to see how it works!

This week students worked in groups with an assigned Infographic. We wanted to compare an Infographic with a traditional written article, so we pulled every fact from an Infographic we could during class, then compared the two.

A simple, yet effective way to begin a conversation about comparing and contrasting pieces of information. During this activity, students recognized not only that the data was being presented in an easily accessible way via images, but that much of the text had been replaced by color or placement.

We followed up the comparison with a small critique of the Infographic. Each group made an OREO for the Infographic. An OREO sandwiches (see what I did there?!?) two positive critiques with one piece of constructive criticism.

In the next few weeks we're going to brainstorm surveys to give using Google forms, then take the data and create an Infographic. I'm looking forward to seeing how students will visual their data sets!

This is another time that Google Classroom has been so helpful for our class. Having links to every Infographic, the activity and OREO instructions, feedback form, and finally a discussion at the close of class is fantastic.