Infographics for the Week of 4/27-5/1: Happy Birthday Billy Shakes!

Today’s infographics are all about William Shakespeare because it’s the bard’s birthday!

Without further ado about nothing, Behold! the infographics!

Remember that we can use infographics for many purposes, including as a visual text for analysis.

Here are some ideas borrowed and adapted from this google doc:

 

Observe

Have students identify and note details. Describe what you see.  What do you notice first? Is there any text you can read? What does it say? Describe anything you see on the page besides words, such as images or decorations. How is the text and other information arranged on the page? · Describe anything about this text that looks strange or unfamiliar. What other details can you see? What information is provided that would help us determine if this information is current and reliable?

Reflect

Encourage students to generate and test hypotheses about the source. What was the purpose of this text? How do you know? Who created it? With what bias might they be approaching this infographic? Who do you think was its audience? How do the choices the author makes reflect the audience? Can you tell anything about what was important at the time it was created?  What situations or issues were prevalent at the time? How do these affect what is presented on the infographic? What tools and materials were used to create it?  What colors and designs?  How do they contribute to the overall impression of the infographic?  In what ways do they suit the topic? What is the larger story or context within which this was designed? What can you learn from examining this? If someone created this today, what would be different?

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Question

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Have students ask questions to lead to more observations and reflections.

What do you wonder about…  who? · what? · when? · where? · why? ·how?

Consider providing them question stems from multiple levels (like in Socratic Seminar): question levels

How could information on this infographic inspire a research question?

What is the over-arching question the infographic-creator seeks to answer?

For the Almost-Birthday, Wordsworth. Day 6 of NPM

Tomorrow would have been William Wordsworth’s 244th Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Billy Wordsworth.

Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played:
Their thoughts I cannot measure,
But the least motion which they made,
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

 

The two writing assignment I think of most for this poem are 1. Students writing their own poems “Lines Written in Early Spring,” and 2. Students lifting the lines “Have I not reason to lament/What man has made of man?” and beginning a poem there.

Some lesson plans and teaching resources for William Wordsworth here.