Week 13 Reflections: Making a poster

Students: First year elementary school students (8 years old).

At the end of my afternoon class on Tuesday we started to look at posters. I brought in some posters that we have hanging in our hallways to see if I could make them notice a few key points about them.

I divided the class into two groups of five and asked them to list as many common aspects as they could. They discussed it for a few minutes and then we did it as a whole group.As I nominated individual students on each team to list me some of their answers I wrote them down on the board.

-They have big pictures.

-The title is very big.

-They use many colors.

-They use 'periods' in front of the sentences referring to the bullets. I thought that was clever!!

-The picture is about the message.

The class was nearing it's end so I told them that we would be making our own poster's the following class. They were quite excited. I chose the two students who had scored the highest on their spelling test to be captains for their team. I'm hoping this will motivate them in the future to do better on their spelling tests as I plan to include more activities into my lesson plans. The students responded very well to this new idea and were quite excited to come back on Thursday.

Personally I was quite satisfied with my lesson. I had finally got my students interested in a production activity. First, by dividing them into two teams for discussion was much more successful compared to discussing it as a group. I got much more participation out of everyone than I usually do. Next time though I think I will use a numbered heads together strategy to ensure that everyone is paying attention in the group. I also need to keep introducing classroom interaction techniques to my lesson. I had a great opportunity to use T-S-S-T after their group discussion was over and I didn't......It would so much better than me individually nominating students.

The big day arrived....Let's make posters!! When I walked into the classroom the students were discussing their seating arrangements according to their teams and the leaders weren't shy of saying who was and who wasn't on their team. Usually, I walk into a classroom of ten kids speaking some Korean and horsing around. I had a good feeling about this one. I gave them a few minutes to find a theme for their poster...something they do everyday that is important. The first team wanted to make a poster about the importance of brushing their teeth. The next team decided to talk about eating healthy food.I gave them a sheet of paper (A3) That had a box in the middle where they would eventually write their sentences.It had a large border where they could draw pictures that went with their topic. They all had enough room around the table and paper to draw. One team drew some fruits and vegetables all around and the next drew some teeth, toothbrushes and toothpaste. 

In this part of the activity I was glad I was able to personalize the task by giving them the choice to choose what their poster was about. It really helped them stay focused and interested in the task. We touched a bit on the writing task at the end of the class. I helped them notice that their sentences should be kept short and that the vocabulary is important. We will complete them on Monday. I noticed that breaking down the activity into several parts made it much easier for them to understand and cope with. I can't believe that a few months ago I would look at an activity like this and try to complete in one 40 minute period and then at the end wonder why this never worked out.