Just the Facts
A tweet by Silvia Tosiano @langwitches the other day got me thinking about research and the purpose of information. Like most Language Arts teachers, covering the research process is part of my curriculum. I’m always looking for a way to make this more meaningful. Usually I use an adaptation of Ken Macrorie’s I-Search model. The papers are based on topics that students select and integrate personal opinions as well as facts discovered during research. To me, this is the essence of research–to select what you want to learn about and then analyze any misconceptions you have uncovered in your own thinking. I also like Macrorie’s model because it integrates metacognitive processes. In addition to writing about what they have researched, students are also asked to write about their learning and the research process.
After reading Silvia’s tweet, I got to thinking about how I might integrate infographics when I teach research. I want to see how I can make facts and statistics meaningful, and help students understand how “facts” aren’t always necessarily set in stone. I did some exploring and found a few resources that will be helpful when we get started.
Ten Awesome tools for making infographics
And thanks to Twitter, I also have a student model to share with my class.
I’m excited to see how this comes together.
On Learning 
First, let me tell you that ‘Ten Awesome Tools for making infographics’ has a nice new home in my Bookmarks tab. Interestingly enough, I just had a teacher ask me the other day if I knew of a good site for building pie charts. Thanks to you, I can go in tomorrow and recommend Hohli as a means to that end. In addition, Wordle is just plain awesome! I’m gonna go play with that after posting this. ^_^ Thanks for sharing!