Using Infographics in the Classroom

1. Introduce a Unit

Sometimes before starting a new unit in math, a teacher might provide students with a card or sheet of paper that contains all the important formulas they will be learning and using during the next few weeks. Or, a savvy student will create their own and keep it as a reference sheet in their notebook or binder. But this practice doesn't just have to extend to math class!

Reference sheets, or "cheat sheets", give students a home base from which they'll be better prepared for the unit ahead. It's a preview for what is the most important information, but isn't totally comprehensive, so students still have to pay attention. Using infographics ensures that students start off on as equal footing as you can provide.

Example Infographics for Introducing a Unit:

Once you've created your amazing infographics, you can include it in the beginning of your PowerPoint presentation, send it out to your students through Storyboard That (or your classroom management system), or print it and pass it out to students at the start of the class.

2. Summarize a Unit

Infographics can be created after a unit as well, to provide students with a summary of key information. Many of the examples listed above can also fit into this category as well. This will also help students prepare for final exams, since they'll have something to use as a starting point for studying. These takeaways won't include every detail, so students should still pay attention and take notes during the class.

A fun way to incorporate student feedback is to have them identify what they think is the most important information and create the infographic as a class. This provides you with the opportunity to see how well students understood the lesson or unit, and allows the students to take ownership of what they learned. Students can also create their own individually, which leads us to our next use of infographics in the classroom.

3. Distill and Visualize Information

This use is twofold; not only can infographics be used to bookend a lesson and allow students to determine the most important information they learned, but they can also be created as a larger research project!

When students are researching or even studying for final exams, there's so much information that it can be overwhelming. They might feel like they need to pour every statistic, fact, and bit of information into their projects or have a hard time figuring out what is the most important things to remember.

Creating an infographic helps students learn how to distill information and think critically about what they want their audience to take away from the image. What imagery should they use to convey the information? How clearly and concisely can they convey facts and figures? Many aspects of creating infographics, from integrating information to creating visual presentations, is part of the Common Core standards for a variety of subjects.