Posters Vs Posters

Tom Bennett lately wrote an article inward the TES inward which he suggested that some tasks - similar making posters - aren't ever the most effective run of lesson time. Some people didn't read the article properly, interpreted the headline equally a personal assault on their teaching, in addition to a Twitterstorm ensued.

When asked my sentiment on poster lessons I said that they aren't my loving cup of tea, but I was picturing a specific type of lesson. There are posters, in addition to hence at that topographic point are posters...

My Bad Poster Experience
In my NQT yr I had to instruct Year vii most the Fibonacci sequence. There are many approaches I could direct maintain taken here: a lecture, a rich task, an investigation, a video... Open Evening was approaching in addition to I'd been told to seat some pupil piece of occupation on my classroom wall, hence I decided to accept my students to an information technology Room to brand Fibonacci posters. Here's the brief I gave them (written past times my NQT self):

The Fibonacci sequence is a famous sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 35, ... Your business is to create a poster most the Fibonacci sequence. You may submit this poster at the terminate of the lesson, or if you lot desire to complete it for homework you lot may manus it inward on Monday.

Your poster should hold out eye-catching in addition to slow to read in addition to incorporate interesting facts most the Fibonacci sequence. You should focus on i or to a greater extent than the next ideas:
1. Who was Fibonacci?
2. Fibonacci’s rabbits/family trees
3. The Golden Number/Golden Ratio/Golden Section
4. Fibonacci spirals
5. Fibonacci rectangles/geometry/architecture/Islamic art
6. Fibonacci inward nature (flowers, plants, pino cones etc)
7. Fibonacci poetry
Important: Do non only cutting in addition to glue materials from the meshwork without reading in addition to fully agreement it. Try to seat things inward your ain words. You must sympathise everything you lot seat on your poster in addition to hold out create to answer questions most it.

I also provided a listing of useful links to steer them inward the administration of decent websites.

Some students made their poster on the figurer - they cutting in addition to glue some measure data most Fibonacci into Word in addition to spent most of the lesson playing to a greater extent than or less amongst fonts. I suspect that if I'd quizzed these students after on what their poster genuinely said, they'd hold out clueless. Zero learning at that topographic point then.

Some students did the enquiry online in addition to made their poster past times hand. These were lovely, but far to a greater extent than fourth dimension had been spent on bubble writing than genuinely learning most Fibonacci.

I took a quick facial expression at the posters, realised that it hadn't been a peculiarly effective lesson, praised my students for their efforts in addition to seat all of the posters on my classroom wall.

I was mortified on Open Evening when a visiting dad called me over to the display to signal out all the mistakes. "Look," he said, "this text doesn't brand whatever sense" in addition to "Four of these posters haven't fifty-fifty got the correct numbers inward the Fibonacci sequence". He was right. The posters looked pretty but the content was terrible. I wasn't certain what to say. I hadn't expected anyone to genuinely read the posters! This man, understandably, had higher expectations of a travel past times grammer school. There it was on my wall, for everyone to meet - show that my students knew really piddling most Fibonacci.

That was the final fourth dimension I did that variety of poster lesson. I'm certain there'll hold out lots of people who'll tell me that they've had much to a greater extent than success amongst similar tasks. That's great, I'm non telling anyone non to create this, I'm only telling you lot most my personal experience. After my 'create a Fibonacci poster' lesson most students knew really piddling - if anything - most Fibonacci.

My Good Poster Experience
The resources of the Standards Unit in addition to Mathematics Assessment Project are widely regarded to hold out outstanding. Many of these resources involve making 'collaborative posters'. The aim of these activities is for students to piece of occupation inward pairs (or minor groups - but I'd ever become for pairs) to prepare their agreement of a concept. These are null similar the variety of posters I described above. These activities are most students genuinely doing maths, in addition to the 'posters' are only a identify to organise their thinking.

I used the Sorting Equations of Circles 1 lesson from Mathematics Assessment Project amongst my Year 12s only earlier Easter in addition to it worked really well. After I'd taught them the full general cast of the equation of a circle, I asked them to piece of occupation inward pairs to allocate equations to the categories on the grid (which was printed on A3 paper). The solutions are shown below.

I don't oft create couple piece of occupation at Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 marking but inward this lesson I heard first-class discussions inward which students were genuinely developing their agreement of the topic. Afterwards I collected the posters in, photocopied them onto A4 newspaper in addition to handed a reduced re-create to each pupil to seat inward their folder.

Another event is this bright action Identifying Similar Triangles, over again from MAP. This was done past times my Year 10s at my previous school. They had to sort 8 pairs of triangles into 'similar', 'not similar' or 'can't tell', drawing on their noesis of angle facts. They worked inward pairs - it's quite challenging hence it took most of the lesson.

If you've non tried the activities from the Standards Unit in addition to Mathematics Assessment Project, they're definitely worth a go, whatever your 'style' of teaching.

I'm pretty certain that when Tom Bennett wrote his at i time infamous poster piece, he was thinking most the quondam type of poster lesson - the i where no-one learnt anything - in addition to non the latter.