Graphic Design in the Elementary Classroom
Elementary teachers have been teaching graphic design since formal education began. Spacing and neatness have been paramount for getting good grades and excelling in school. Neatness has always counted. Graphic Design is a form of communication. A handwritten letter has the potential to evoke a sentiment that is different from an e-mail. Good design in any medium makes you look good. Merely using the set margins on a piece of loose-leaf notebook paper creates a space for framing submitted work.
Students learn best by doing. Graphic design can support learners as they publish their work. Exposing learners to the basics of spacing, color, and legibility empowers them to be purposeful publishers.
If we expect students to publish well-designed artifacts, we too must consider our lettering, colors, spacing, images and interactive media selections. Lessons designed with effective graphics enhance learning versus distracting the learner.
Before my next assignment, I will have a creative brief with the students. I will go beyond the rubric to teach basic graphic design principals. But first, I'll teach the students how to use loose leaf notebook paper and margins. This is using graphic design too.
Watch my first ScreenCast.
Click the link below my bitmoji
It's a bit primitive, but I did it! I promise it is brief.
It's a bit primitive, but I did it! I promise it is brief.
Yes, I made the above graphic on Canva.
I wanted to share it on Twitter, but Canva requires options that left me worried...Like taking over my Twitter account. #Bummer
There is so much to explore. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
You did a great job with your first Screencastify. Thumbs up. :)
ReplyDeleteAs for creating graphic designs, I had no idea how much went into making one. It really gives me a whole new outlook for the people who do this on a daily basis. I'm having my own trouble with it all, I can't even imagine how I will try to teach the kiddos. I think at my stage of the game I'm just going to make sure they can make one and it is legible. :)
I want to try a infographic resume as a getting to know you activity. I want to print them out and keep them posted all year. If I get a new student, I can match them up by interest. I also can give class jobs, based on experience and interest. I'm still playing arround with Canva.
DeleteWhat a great idea Veronica. All of these ideas foster a classroom of community, which is the key to all learning (before technology can even be a part of it!)!
DeleteYou are so correct about graphic design in something as simple as a classwork or homework assignment! How many times have we had students start over because they started writing on the back side of notebook paper (holes on the left children!) or our spatially challenged students that number haphazardly down the middle of the paper. I think referring to these norms as "graphic design" would make these mini-lessons seem more like instruction and less like correction.
ReplyDeleteYes! I don't want to nag. Graphic Design is something we will consider with everything we publish.
DeleteWow! Veronica you are more like the iceberg than you know. While you believe you are just at the tip of the iceberg, I would have to disagree. So much more of the iceberg is unseen and that is all of the work you have done to open yourself up to this new world of graphic design. Your virtual mini-lesson of "margins" of a piece of paper is a great start. I cannot tell you how many times, as an 8th grade teacher, I had to show students how to write on loose leaf, a skill you would have thought someone would have taught by now. Great insight into this week's discussion!
ReplyDeleteThanks JodiLyn!
ReplyDelete