Infographics in the Elementary Classroom

I've used activities requiring data analysis and image display in my classroom. This experience turned out to be extremely fun and positive for the students. I have mainly used infographics in three ways: pie chart posters to represent percentages from a survey, timeline posters to focus on a time period in history, and Wordle posters to represent the key ideas from a passage or story. I have taught third and fifth grade as a general education teacher. During this time, I have used the various infographic posters as a way to extend my students thoughts and allow them to take information and create a presentation collaboratively. Not only do the students love to work on these projects, it also promotes higher levels of thinking and an overall deeper comprehension of the subject matter. In order for the students to create a visual representation of their data or information, they have to first really understand what it is that they are trying to show others. 

Part of the math curriculum involves students creating surveys and collecting and analyzing the results. Upon this, the students are asked to be able to effectively represent their findings to share with others. I allowed my students to input their data into an online program that created a colorful pie chart for the students. The students had to then insert the pie charts into an online poster format. Students expanded on the pie chart to create a poster that clearly demonstrated their task and findings.

In Social Studies, a major piece of the curriculum includes the use of timelines to mark events in history. Our class studied periods in United States history at a time and then created timelines as a reference to use for the remainder of the year. I allowed the students to work in groups to create a rough draft of their timelines on paper. Once approved, the students created a timeline poster online that included the use of images and photos, as well as links for further information. This reinforced the timeline skill while expanding on the students' knowledge of each event they included on the timeline. Students also practiced their researching skills because of this infographics project.

In English Language Arts, one of the main components of reading comprehension includes the ability to highlight key details and concepts within a text. I would allow the students to type in a few sentences or a paragraph that gave the best summary of the important details from their reading. Once all the students' writing was included, we created a Wordle poster. The repeated ideas that the students shared appeared on the poster. We would hang these up as a reference to use for the remainder of the unit.

Overall, I believe infographics are an amazing educational tool and practice that should be used in the classroom. It allows students the chance to explore concepts at a deeper level. It is also a very engaging activity for students that supports collaboration and the use of technology in the classroom. I love to use infographics with my elementary students, because the students seem to really hold onto and remember the information that they have learned along the way.