20 One-Pager Examples + Advice for Using Them With Students

A one-pager is a inventive, visually interesting evaluation instrument that offers college students an opportunity to share their concepts throughout two modes: imagery and textual content. They’re my favourite instrument, and I’ve been experimenting with them for the final decade. So let me share what I’ve discovered.

Initially pioneered by AVID, one-pagers are a stable toolbox go-to for English lecturers, however actually, they’re simply tailored to any self-discipline.

College students create one-pagers to convey their key takeaways from one thing (a guide, an article, a unit, a poem, a documentary, a podcast, an exploration of theme, a science experiment, and so on.). One-pagers assist specific what they’ve discovered in a single web page. The challenge lets them work on speaking concepts by means of a mixture of modes. It is a key talent in lots of workplaces at the moment.

As college students suppose critically about what’s vital, additionally they enhance their retention of data. Sketching the main points into their one-pagers helps totally different components of their mind work collectively. (Try this interview with ed-tech marketing consultant and educator Jen Giffen to dig deeper).

Serving to Reluctant Artists

You may be considering, what about my art-haters in fifth interval? Those who moan on the point out of a marker?

Mike Rohde, inventor of sketchnotes, that are like one-pagers created on the fly,  famously says they’re “concepts, not artwork.” It is a good factor to strengthen along with your college students. The objective right here is to not get their one-pagers featured on the Met, however to faucet their important considering and illustrate their understanding in memorable, insightful methods.

A method to assist scaffold the one-pager course of for youths feeling cautious is to create a template, mapping out areas of the web page and connecting them to what you’d like college students to incorporate. This template turns into a roadmap that each pupil can observe, although college students who really feel prepared can go off-template, designing from the clean web page.

For instance, you would possibly ask college students to begin an ELA one-pager by placing a key theme for a novel within the heart of their paper, then illustrating it with a citation, and including a visible and a few evaluation of their very own.

You would possibly information college students for instance a spread of Spanish verbs associated to sports activities throughout the highest of their one-pager, together with the phrases, their definitions, and illustrations for every, earlier than laying out your necessities for the center and the underside of the web page.

Perhaps you’d have college students concentrate on the traits of a historic determine on one a part of the web page, whereas exploring her relationships in one other, influences on her in one other, and essential occasions taking place in her world in a visible timeline throughout the underside.

Let’s have a look at a couple of examples from my self-discipline, English, to offer inspiration to your subsequent one-pager challenge. A fast #onepagers search over on Instagram will present you a lot extra. 

These one-pagers, centered on novels, a play, and a brief story, showcase the potential function of a template in offering inventive constraint, dividing the web page and making it straightforward for college kids to map their concepts within the areas supplied. 

These character evaluation one-pagers present slightly visible twist on a fundamental template, inviting college students to focus in on 4 key characters from a novel to showcase their development and growth. A one-pager challenge doesn’t must be a broad have a look at a complete textual content or unit. You’ll be able to drill right down to an vital ingredient or idea.

These one-pagers showcase multimedia takeaways, providing college students a spotlight level as they watch a movie or hearken to a podcast. This use is similar to sketchnotes however with a bit extra steerage for college kids.

In case you and your college students like hexagonal thinking, then hexagonal one-pagers, a sophisticated twist that mixes the dialogue technique with the one-pager idea, can present an excellent deeper stage of dialog. 

College students first create hexagonal one-pagers to signify advanced concepts in your unit. The hexagons showcase themes, characters, connecting texts, and extra from Nic Stone’s novel Pricey Martin.  

College students start by connecting their hexagons and discussing how the concepts relate. As they rearrange the items, new insights emerge. Lastly, every group presents its internet of connections to the category or writes concerning the reasoning behind its decisions.

Hexagonal one-pagers are additionally a fun go-to for building community. For this exercise, invite your college students to fill out hexagons about themselves earlier than connecting them to these of others within the class, finally creating a visible show of all of the issues the group has in frequent. 

Considered one of my favourite current twists on the one-pager is an open-mind challenge. On this model, the template offers a silhouette for a personality in a textual content. College students then fill in key relationships, concepts, quotations, and traits for the character inside their head, whereas showcasing outdoors influences and key relationships across the head. For instance, you may see open-mind one-pagers for Will Holloman, the primary character in Jason Reynolds’ verse novel Lengthy Manner Down.

This strategy can simply be tailored for different topics too. In a historical past class, as an illustration, you would possibly present the define of a rustic within the heart of a one-pager, inviting college students to fill it with what’s taking place inside throughout a selected time interval. Then, ask them to fill the skin with the influences of neighboring nations, main occasions, or inventive actions which might be shaping the world at the moment.

In a language class, you would possibly add a silhouette for a well-known chief or creator talking the language of examine. Have college students fill the within with what they learn about them. Subsequent, college students will create illustrations and details about their actions, affect, and/or creations on the skin.

There are such a lot of inventive methods to make use of one-pagers, and it’s inconceivable to discover all of them right here! Simply begin experimenting, and see the place it really works along with your class this yr. Do not forget that a template with a transparent set of expectations for what to place the place is a superb scaffold as college students start. And save time at school for a gallery stroll and house in your partitions for a vibrant show of one-pagers! 

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