Graphic Design in Education

I think that incorporating graphic design in the classroom is crucial to reach the needs of our learners. Students now learn differently than we did when we were kids. The world of technology continues to grow and take our learners with it!  Social media, video games, texting, all of these every day activities that children take part in really change the way they absorb information. When scrolling through social media, for example, students look for different graphics to grab their attention. Once their attention has been grabbed, you have a greater chance of them reading and internalizing the material. I think we need to use this idea in our classrooms. A wonderful way to do this is to incorporate graphics when you can. 

I love quick, go to anchor charts or bookmarks that have graphic designs on it that students can refer to as a step-by-step guide. For example, we use an acronym called RACES for our reading responses. My teammates and I found some great graphic designs from Sweet Tooth Teaching that has book marks and posters to help students remember what they need to include in a reading response. 

It is really wonderful when teachers create graphics to use in their classrooms, and it can be even more powerful when students create them, too! One Google Drawing and Canva are two places students can go to create their own graphic designs. This App-Chat poster is one I created on Canva to use in my 1:1 classroom. 

Another place students can use graphic designs to help them is within Google Slides. Students can use this example slide below to create their own slides of whatever vocabulary words they are to be reviewing in class. One of the sections of this slide is to create their own example of the vocabulary word with a graphic design! I am such a visual learner, and kids are becoming more visual with the growth in technology use, that this is a great way to help them review vocabulary words!