The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Education:How To
This week I want to talk about how one-pagers can be a powerful gateway to creative options in your classroom.
Let’s start with the one-pager basics. A one-pager allows students to express their takeaways from, well, just about anything, on a single paper through a combination of words and images. A one-pager can includes quotations, analysis, key terms, imagery, special fonts, symbolic colors, and more. You probably already know that my #1 tip for one-pagers is to give students a template that connects the elements that you want with a location on a template, so kids don’t feel overwhelmed as they begin to experiment.
You can try your first one-pager with a novel, a Ted talk, a poem, a short story, a play, a song, a podcast... You get the idea!
One of the great things about one-pagers is that they open the door to this form of dual expression, where kids are communicating their ideas through both words and visuals. Take a second to talk to them about how prevalent this is in the world. Ask them to consider political campaigns, social media, Youtube, online news. Get them started thinking about how often they see only words or only pictures, and how often it’s actually a combination that expresses ideas most effectively and memorably.
As students realize that their simple first step of a one-pager is actually guiding them into a new genre of expression, one that parallels many forms of real world communication, they may open up to more type of creative projects in class. You may find them more excited about research carousels, infographics, book trailers, and more real-world projects that bring visuals onto the scene to complement their writing. You may find that fewer students scoff that art is a waste of their time.
If you haven’t tried a one-pager yet, this week I want to highly recommend that you dive in! I’ll link my free templates for any novel in the show notes. And if you have, give a little thought to how you can use them as a gateway in students’ minds. It’s a powerful shift in how we see the world, and one that can benefit your creative classroom.
Free One-Pager Templates Here
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130: Build Connection with your Classroom Design
129: Try Hexagonal One-Pagers
128: Take your Hexagonal Thinking Activities Deeper
127: How to Create a Hexagonal Thinking Deck
126: 5 Ways to Use your Writing Makerspace
125: How to Start a Writing Makerspace
124: 6 Free Canva Tools for Teachers
123: Creative Blended Learning (Now and in the Future), with Dr. Catlin Tucker
122: The Ultimate Guide to Genius Hour In ELA
121: When Lit Circles WORK, with Krista Barbour
120: Collegiate High School's Digital Literary Food Truck Festival
119: 5 Creative Ways to Use QR Codes in ELA
118: Big Ideas for Better Writing Instruction, with EB Academics
117: 10 Ways to Encourage a Reading Culture in your (Online) Classroom
116: Connect with your Students as a New Year Begins
115: 5 Creative Digital Poetry Activities
114: Easily Reduce your Digital Paper Pile
113: Breakout Rooms, Community Building, and Grading Policies for Online Teaching
112: An ELA Teacher's Gift Guide
111: Creative Uses for Jamboard, with Matt Miller
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