As an educator, one of the most rewarding experiences is witnessing my students grow not just academically, but also in terms of their confidence and self-awareness. In the beginning of the school year, I want to provide my middle school yearbook students the opportunity to explore the many aspects that make a quality yearbook while at the same time expressing their individuality. A creative and engaging way to achieve this is through the creation of an “All About Me” magazine. This lesson plan encourages students to explore a variety of magazines to gather ideas of what they would like their creation to become in order to be able to express their identities, interests, or aspirations while at the same time fostering a sense of community within the classroom. They will also be able to learn key vocabulary terms which are necessary in creating a school yearbook as well as share their creations with peers and gather feedback to increase the quality of their product. This lesson is a perfect way for the yearbook students to learn the necessary information because they will learn through their exploration and the feedback from their peers on their creations. According to Coghlan and Brydon-Miller, “when critical constructivist researchers produce knowledge, they are not attempting to reduce variables but to maximize them” (2014, p. 3). In this lesson plan, I have specifically chosen not to give the students too many directions or requirements to allow them the opportunity to discover what is needed to produce a quality magazine through their research and exploration of the sample magazines at the beginning of the lesson.
When looking at this lesson through the lens of TPACK, this lesson fits right in the “sweet
spot”, where pedagogical, technological and content knowledge overlap, because students are using technology of their choosing to learn the content needed to make a quality yearbook through exploration and creation (Candace R., 2013). Having students explore the
content of the different aspects and characteristics that make a quality yearbook through the creation of their own magazine and including a time for feedback and reflection will provide ownership of the knowledge rather than listening to a lecture of what they need to know. Using cameras to capture photographs and some type of graphic design program or paper and markers helps students learn which tools will be beneficial and necessary when making a quality yearbook. Providing students with the choice of which technology tool(s) they use to complete the assignment provides each student with the access to a tool they know or want to learn (Mishra and Koehler, 2006).
Lesson Objective: To learn through exploration about the characteristics and elements necessary to design and create a quality yearbook as well as key terminology by creating a tangible About Me Magazine and build classroom community.
Time Frame: One week (5 - 50 minutes periods)
Materials/Maker Tools:
Sample Magazines
Sample Yearbooks
Paper
Markers
Computers
Cameras/Images
Printer
Canva/Google Slides/Illustrator
Procedure:
Day 1:
Have a variety of sample magazines and yearbooks around the room for the students to look through. Provide them about 10 minutes to look through the magazines and yearbooks and jot down any ideas or aspects they like from what they see.
Ask students if they were to create a poster about themselves to share with their classmates, what types of information could they include.
Example: Favorite sports…hobbies…family…etc.
Students work in their table groups using the Kagan Structure “Jot Thoughts” to brainstorm possible topics that could be included.
Students are presented with the challenge to create an “All About Me” magazine about themselves that could be held and read by their classmates. The only criteria is that their magazine must be tangible and include information about themselves to share with their classmates to get to know them better.
They will have the choice of which graphic design tools they want to use, digital such as Canva, Illustrator or Google Slides, or paper to create their magazine.
They will also choose what information they want to include. They could use ideas shared by their teams in the brainstorming session or other ideas they have on their own.
There isn’t a specific set of page numbers they need to include. That will also be up to them.
Days 2-3
Students use these days to create their magazines.
They can chat with each other and get support from their peers if they need help using a specific digital tool.
At the end of Day 3, print the magazines that need to be printed. They should be printed double sided by the teacher and then given to the students without any format edits made.
Day 4
Students exchange their magazine with at least two students (ideally 3-4 would provide more feedback) depending on the time.
Students will read each other’s magazines to get to know about their classmates and fill out a form to provide feedback on the quality of the content in the magazine.
After the first reading, as a whole class we will go through the checklist on the back of the form and teach the specific yearbook terms with examples so each student knows what specific aspects to look for in their partner’s magazine.
Once that round is completed then the process will continue again.
Day 5
Students will respond to the prompt “How does making an All About Me Magazine” relate to our yearbook class?
Students will take the feedback from their peers and revise their magazines.
Follow Up:
Yearbook terms/elements will be represented on a classroom wall using the examples of each found in the student magazines.
Next, students will learn how to use the yearbook editing software needed to create the yearbook through exploration by choosing one of the layouts from their “All About Me” magazine to create in the software. They will get to explore the tools within the software to create their layout and share it with their classmates.
As the year progresses, students could continue adding to their books or enhancing them with the knowledge gained through the process of creating the yearbook.
The Process
The creation of this lesson came to fruition using the Design Learning Process of Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test as well as the ideas of Berger's Why? What If? and How? questioning as described in his book A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas (2014). He describes this three-part system of innovative questioning as a means to help solve a problem of inquiry.
Empathize and Define (Why?): I first needed to think about my users and their needs as middle school students who are new to the yearbook class and also keeping in mind that I am a first year advisor. I then began to think about the different problems/lessons and created a series of questions to dive deeper into the problem rather than just look at the surface. I was then able to define my problem to be “How might I design a lesson about creating/designing a quality yearbook using maker tools and mindsets in which students learn by creating something?”.
Ideate (What if?): I explained my defined question along with my anticipated outcomes and barriers to my graduate school peers and professors. We then spent the next six minutes generating as many ideas as possible that could solve my problem. No idea was too grand or too small. I was able to create a chart through this brainstorming session that I used to continue the ideation process and finalize my decision to have students create an “All About Me” magazine to construct this understanding.
Prototype & Test (How?): Now that I knew what my students were going to construct, it was time to create a lesson plan and prototype of the final product that I could share with my peers. I had to stop and think about what my students were going to explore in the process and how they would share their creations. I was able to share my ideas with my colleagues and obtain feedback from them. One question that came up is could the students use the yearbook software to create their “All About Me” magazine? This idea was intriguing to me because eventually they will need to learn how to use the software but this wasn’t what I was most concerned about in this lesson. But it did spark a follow through idea that the students could later choose a layout from their “All About Me” magazine and build it within the software to learn the tools embedded in the yearbook platform.
The “All About Me” Magazine lesson plan is more than just an artistic project, it is an opportunity for students to learn the content needed to produce a quality yearbook through exploration and creation while also gaining insight into their classmates and building a safe, positive and collaborative classroom community.
References
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Bloomsbury.
Candace R. (2013, April 26). TPACK in 2 Minutes [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FagVSQlZELY&t=6s
Coghlan, D., & Brydon-Miller, M. (Eds.) (2014). . (Vols. 1-2). SAGE Publications Ltd, https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446294406
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.
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