Using Infographics

I can not say at all that this is my idea, but lately I have been using infographics quite a bit in my room. The idea to use them came out of a discussion in our Literacy Cycles about the increased use of infographics on the grade 10 Literacy Test. The discussion became how to incorporate inforgraphics in the regular classroom without 'teaching' an entire unit on them. So we decided (thanks Ms. Bonany and Mrs. Roberts), to choose an infographic each week and spend five minutes a day on it. Here is an example of an infographic I have used:

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So each day we spend about five minutes thinking about and discussing one topic related to the infographic.

To help guide me each week, I have come up with generic questions to help focus each day.

Guiding Questions:

1. What do you notice? (this is always the day 1 question)
2. How is the information organized?
3. What is the most important part?
4. Why did they choose the information they did?
5. What words or phrases are repeated most?
6. Take off the title - what would the title be for this infographic?
7. Take off an axis from a chart/graph - what would be an appropriate title?
8. Why did they use the font that they did?
9. Is this an effective infographic?
10. Question specific to the infographic. For example, one for the infographic above that I asked was: if you were to make this one for yourself, what three things would you need to include to help you get up early? 

As you can see the questions can be quite generic, but depending on the topic you choose, the discussion can vary a lot.

Here are a couple of my favourite so far this year and a couple of questions I asked about them.

 

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 Questions:

1. Why is it so much more expensive to be a superhero now then 75 years ago?
2. How have the costumes changed over time? Why?
3. Why do you think the 'now' version has more stuff?

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Questions:

1. How might an infographic like this effect your food choice?
2. Why does it matter how much water is used to produce food?
3. Chickpeas and Lamb have similar totals, do you think their production has an equal environmental impact?

More and more we are inundated with information and in more and more compact forms. Infographics are showing up everywhere so why not take advantage of them, especially in those little moments like the first five minutes of a day or the last five minutes.

Have a great day,

James