Infographics by Touro TESOL Candidate Evelyn Ramos EDDN 636 Linguistic Structure of the English Language

As a Professor preparing my teacher candidates for the 21st Century technology integration comes up often.  Yet, what does that really mean?  For the  EDDN 636 Linguistic Structure of the English Language, I had my teacher candidates complete a project: design an infographic and incorporate this into their required SIOP lesson plan.  My candidate Evelyn Ramos delivered an innovative, well designed bilingual infographic. Once she laminated it and used it in her class, several other teachers in her school approached her to also receive a copy for themselves.  In addition, her students now want to create their own infographics.

Evelyn Ramos: I am a Brentwood High School graduate and graduated 11 out of my class of 450 with honors in 2009.  I started my bachelor’s degree in Queens College and later transferred to SUNY College at Old Westbury earning a dual bachelor’s degree in Adolescence Education Spanish (7-12) and Spanish Language, Hispanic Literature and Culture; I graduated in 2016 with Cum Laude honors.  My teaching career started two years ago in 2017 at Brentwood Union Free School district as a bilingual language teacher. Currently, I am teaching Home Language Arts to 7th & 8th graders at East Middle school, choosing to return to Brentwood to give back to the community that gave so much to me. I started my graduate degree at Touro College, TESOL and Bilingual Department in 2017 and will graduate in June 2020 with a Master’s degree in TESOL. I have accomplished all this being a mother to two beautiful girls, a wife, daughter, and granddaughter.

Evelyn Ramos EDDN 636 Infographics

1. State your target audience (group of learners) for the project. 

The target audience for this project are 7th grade ELA/ENL class.  Students are in a Bilingual/ENL program. Class size is 18 students; 10 students are transitioning and 8 are emerging.  The class is a stand-alone ENL/ELA class.  Students receive two 45-minute periods of ELA/ENL.

2. State your topic for the infographic.

The topic of the infographic using the different parts of speech: Noun, Verb and adjectives.  There will be a focus on using adjectives to describe people and place using color, size and appearance.

3. State your intended learning outcome for the project.

The intended learning outcomes for this project are the following:

Students will be able identify adjectives orally and label the parts of speech in a sentence.  Students will be to write a description of a monster or spooky place using adjectives. Students will be able to identify an adjective in a sentence. What type of infographic will you create (comparison, flow chart, timeline, etc.)?

4. What type of infographic will you create (comparison, flow chart, timeline, etc.)?

The infographic I created is a flowchart to help the information flow one from another.

5. What design decisions did you make in terms of:
   1. Text – font, colors, white space, and so on, Text reduction – how did you translate text into a graphic form? Color & Pictures/graphics

At first it was hard to choose a background because I did not want to a background or template that had to much.  I choose bright colors and the color code I will be using in my lesson is a color code used within my department to teach the parts of speech. Blue for nouns, green for verbs and red for adjectives. I also used different fonts for each part of speech.  As I introduce the different groups of adjectives, I used a different font for each but kept the color red to show that they are all adjectives.  When it came to the writing, I kept it simple and comprehensible for my ELL learners. I also used pictures that provided clear written and visual examples of each topic mentioned.  I also translated the infographic into Spanish.

6. How is the topic relevant to learners? State how it relates to curriculum professional development, training goals, or other learning context for your intended audience. Please note that you are creating educational materials in this and all of your assignments for the course.

The infographic allows students to review the parts of speech.  Students need to understand how each part of speech is used in a sentence.  Learning the basic parts of speech will help ELLs in their writing.  Students do not only see parts of speech in ELA, this is a concept that will be used throughout all content areas and across curriculum.

7. Reflect on the process of creating your infographic. You should be reflecting on pedagogical benefits and challenges of creating and using infographics. Maximum 250 words on this section.

I really enjoyed creating my infographic.  On a pedagogical point of view, infographic is great to use with all learners, especially ELLs.  They are effective because you are able to provide the content in written form with visuals packing the big ideas into a small space.  Students will become engaged in learning with this mean of presentation.  An infographic presents information in a compelling way that catches the learner’s eye.  Also, infographics are much easier to read and follow.  This allows for information to be more comprehensible to the learner.  Students will be able to retain the information easily because it captures their attention and none of their teachers are using infographic in the classroom. Allowing the students to create their infographic in class would be a way to incorporate technology and in the classroom.  However, making an infographic can be challenging and time-consuming.  Creating an infographic can be an end of the unit project.  I am able to use the infographic in a bilingual classroom by creating the graph in both languages.  By providing a translated version to an Entering or emerging students I am scaffolding the content to meet their needs.

8. What did you learn relating to teaching and learning with digital content?

I learned that using a digital resource limit the amount of copies needed in the classroom.  The infographic can be displayed on the smart board.  Shared with the students through remind or class dojo.  Also, I am able to share the infographic not only with my students but my parents and colleagues.  The resources are endless.  Students really love and enjoy using infographics.