Infographics in language classroom

What’s an infographic?


Before preparing for this post, an infographic was for me an editorial infographic or a data visualization, like a lot of numbers put into a picture to make it easy to read.

The value of visualization video really helps me to create my own definition of infographics.
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/29684853[/vimeo]
We also know that there is a scientific reason for why we like infographics

Why using infographics in education?


Using infographics in instruction is an innovative and engaging way to ensure that the message you are sharing is visually appealing and easily digested by your students.  They allow students to comprehend, interpret, and analyze complex information in a quick and clear manner.  This combined with the brain research to support why infographics are so effective gives teachers a powerful new tool to use for teaching and learning.

I really like this quote from the JTH instructional technology blog. And it made me think that I have had my students to create mind maps. Isn’t a kind of infographic?

[caption id="attachment_333" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Mind map- Animals Mind map- Animals[/caption]

What is happening in my classroom?


I spend a lot of time looking for a great infographic to use in my French class without success. So I decided to create my own. Actually I created three of them and I spent a great amount of time working on them!

First I used a template from Canva.com. That’s a very simple infographic about the morning routine. It allowed me to highlight the pronoun for the reflexive verbs. Grammar is often a problem for the students. I used this infographic as a display in my classroom when my Grade 3 worked on the morning routine.

[caption id="attachment_262" align="aligncenter" width="120"]Morning routine in French Morning routine in French[/caption]

The second one is to show the difference between the masculine and the feminine. This concept is foreign to a lot of my students, especially if they’re English speakers.

I teach grammar in context so I’ve never done a lesson just on noun gender. However as it’s a concept, it’s not easy to grasp, let’s not talk about applying the rules.

[caption id="attachment_302" align="aligncenter" width="200"]Noun gender in French Noun gender in French[/caption]

I believe that I could still improve this infographic so I showed it to my colleagues to have a critical eye. After few changes, I decided to have a go with my students anyway. For one lesson with my grade 2 (8 year old), I show them the infographic.

They actually liked it and I got some light bulb moments! I asked them to explain what it was about and then we talked about how to use the feminine and masculine in French. Then I gave them words and they had to say if it was masculine or feminine and therefore which article they should use.

[caption id="attachment_261" align="aligncenter" width="200"]Find your own examples Find your own examples[/caption]

To finish the lesson, I handed out the “empty” infographic and they had to found their own words to fill the worksheet in. This activity wasn’t very exciting!

So I kept on looking for other ideas of how to use infographics in a language classroom.

I found some ideas in this post from Nik’s learning technology blog. I like the last three ideas: summary/writing, presentation summary and create your own research. It would really help students to use prior knowledge to expresse themselves in French.

 

Comments

  1. Rebekah MadridFebruary 27, 2016 at 8:15 PM

    I love that you created your own when you couldn't find ones you liked! I also think it's so valuable for teachers to make the things they might want their kids to one day create. It's not as easy as we think. But your infographics really show the role of visualization in any classroom. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Magali BrutelFebruary 28, 2016 at 12:40 PM

    Thanks for your comments Rebekah!
    I think that visualization has really an important role in language classroom. That’s a very good way to help transferring knowledge without having to jump from one language to another which I believe is very confusing when learning a foreign language.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Abby FranksMarch 2, 2016 at 3:16 AM

    I think it's so great that you created a infographic to fit your needs. I find it very difficult to think in terms of visualizations so I can only image how time consuming this was. I wonder if something like this would even be considered an infographic "https://unpetitcoindefrance.blogspot.com/2014/11/conjugaison-le-futur-des-verbes.html", although this might be a bit beyond your students' needs.

    I'm also curious what you think about continuing to create these for your students. Did the blank chart help? Did you find that the time you put into creating it was worthwhile?

    Thanks for the inspiration. I'm hoping to give this a try eventually.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Magali BrutelMarch 2, 2016 at 12:16 PM

    Hi Abby,
    Thank you for the link. Yes, you're right my students are not at this level yet and it's not age appropriate. However, it's still a source of ideas that I could remix, adapt...
    I think I may create other infographics even if it takes time, it's really worth it! Actually, I've very often remixed resources offline ( I find that easier to work with something that I created/remixed) so why shouldn't I do it online???
    Thank you for your comments
    Thanks for your comments

    ReplyDelete

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