I often use word processing programs and
spreadsheet programs to make worksheets, flyers, posters, and project sheets.
Often times these documents lack visual appeal as they are made very quickly.
However, when the topic demands or when there is lots of time to develop visual
appeal, I have created several types of visually appealing documents.
Last year, all our weekly newsletters were
required to be sent home by e-mail. This led to most teachers, including
myself, to just typing information into a textbox with little to no visual
appeal. To make things easy to identify, subjects were broken up into clearly
labeled paragraphs or bullets, and important information was bolded and/or
highlighted. Below you will see an image of a template I have made for the
upcoming school year in order to make newsletters visually appealing to
parents.
Being able to email the newsletters allows
for the effective use of color. Each of the subjects are color coded to the
book colors in class. We color code many things including out books, planners,
and folders. Now I have the capability for the newsletters to also be color
coded. Having each subject in its own box allows for quick reference. Each box
has space for a general objective for that subject that week as well as a
labeled space for upcoming quizzes and tests and the material that will be
covered. Quick reference, I have found, is important to parents as they are
less likely to read a newsletter if you have a paragraph for each subject. Upcoming
dates that are important have their own box and there is a quickly referenced
space at the bottom for parents to find my contact information.
I have also created a project menu for our
highly anticipated American Revolution Unit. This project has been modified
through the years but has finally settled on a menu style choice. With this
being the case, the project is set up like a menu. The menu is four pages
comprising of at least four choices for each of the following: appetizer, entrée,
and sides. There is an optional section labeled
desserts. Each section has a main objective that students will choose a project
from to demonstrate their proficiency. The choices are given entertaining
names, just like restaurants do. Then after each project option name there is a
description of what is expected for the completion of that option. I originally
had picture examples for select project options, just like restaurants do, but
I found students were copying the ideas. Therefore I changed the images to
general images that relate to the project. You can see JPEG images of the menu
below.
Websites:
Practice worksheet from posters.4teachers.org
Practice student poster
Examples of Videos
JPEGS of Newsletter and Project Menu
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