Reflection

The topic for my poster is math, specifically a standard within the measurement and data section that deals with money. The target audience is struggling math students in second grade. The Common Core Math Standard is MD8, which explains a student’s ability to solve world problems involving money. However, our district has a math standard for students to be able to identify and understand the amount of each U.S. coin. This skill must be mastered first in order for students to be able to accurately solve world problems involving money.

I chose to follow the ADDIE model throughout this instructional design process. ADDIE stands for Analyze, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. I chose this model because I took a lot of time to think about what topic I should choose for my poster. I was trying to think of certain topics that a lot of my students struggle with. Throughout the ADDIE model, the first phase is to analyze. I first analyzed my current grade level situation to fully understand the gap that needed to be filled. I knew that students struggled with MD8 because most of them still cannot identify and/or remember the value of each coin. If it weren’t the summer and I was currently teaching, I would analyze the gap by using pre-test data or formative assessments in the classroom to realize there is a need for instruction in this area. So, I used that to design my poster. In this stage of ADDIE, one decides how to design the information so that it reaches the students in an effective manner. The third step in this process is to develop. In this phase, I used what I knew from my analysis and design steps to actually create the poster. I knew I needed to keep the poster simple so that it could be easily understood by the students. During this development stage is where I also decided that I needed to include images of both the fronts and backs of the coins so that students would not get confused in a real life situation when seeing different coin sides. After I developed the poster, I moved on to the fourth step of ADDIE: implementation. This is the portion of the model in which I would actually distribute this poster and information to my students. Since it is the summer, I could not do that. However, I implemented this poster in a different way. I sent it to my teammates so that they could have it ready for use when we begin school in the fall. I also added it to my math folder of online anchor charts that my students will have access to when they join my class in August. The last step of ADDIE is to evaluate. I love the ADDIE process because it is reflective and allows designers to go back and make changes as needed. In the classroom, I would evaluate the effectiveness of the poster by giving students a formative assessment to see how well they could identify and add up different coin amounts after using the coin poster.

This product could be used for supporting a classroom lesson in grades K-2. Each of these grade levels in my district work on identifying and counting coins at varying levels. This poster could be something that is displayed throughout the entire year, located on a math word wall, or even located in a student journal so they could go back and reference it as needed. Infographics and posters are so important in the classroom because these are visuals that can be used to represent a lot of information using basic words and graphics. I like to think of posters and infographics as ways for a heavy and rich standard to be broken down into a graphic organizer that makes sense to students.

I utilized Mayer’s Multimedia principles for this assignment. I first incorporated the Multimedia principle of incorporating both images and text. For this specific topic, students desperately needed an image associated with the coin name and value. Next, I used the Coherence Principle. This is something I struggle with because I am known to ramble. However, when creating a visual that is to be used by students, I now understand the necessity in leaving out all of the extra information. The Coherence Principle makes me think of the saying that “less is more” because the readers do not have much to be distracted by. The poster has four sections, one for each coin. Each section simply contains the basics: name, picture, and value of the coin. I also incorporated the Spatial Contiguity Principle. All of the names and values for each coin were within the same frame so that related information was visually and physically close to each other.

Infographics and posters are both ways to visually represent ideas. However, infographics contain more data driven information. While there are still images to incorporate into an infographic, these images usually contain graphs or other data-related information. On the other hand, posters explain a specific concept using both text and images. Both offer unique educational benefits, but infographics are typically used in a setting in which more data-based information needs to be represented.

Students absolutely would love to develop their own infographics and posters. I actually have my students create what I call “mini-posters” at the end of most science or social studies units. The process involves me showing them an example. Then, I have students utilize their notebooks and textbooks to find what they feel are the most important facts or vocabulary words from the topic. I then have students include at least 3 illustrations to support their facts. Lastly, I have students include text features because this is a second grade standard. Within this, students have to have captions, titles, and bold words. Now I realize that these parts of the assignment help students apply the Principles of Design and Mayer’s Multimedia Principles.

The challenges to this assignment were to actually pick the topic that I would complete a visual on. Because I teach second graders, so much of what we do requires a visual, so it was hard for me to narrow it down. Once I narrowed it down, I had difficulties in finding usable coin images that had a transparent background. I was able to learn how to take photos, upload them, and then get a transparent background by utilizing a tool in PowerPoint. Then, I was able to upload those images into my Piktochart. Lastly, I had a hard time deciding whether or not this was a poster or an infographic. Because the topic was math, I assumed it was an infographic. However, after reading more of the text and researching examples of each, I decided my project was more of a poster. Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment because it is something that I can use in my classroom! I also enjoyed using Piktochart because I had not used that format in a long time, so I was able to learn some new things within that resource!