Recently grade 8 Humanities students finished an inquiry unit that brought together an independent novel study with the
creation of their own magazine. For this project students were asked to select
a novel of their choice and work through a series of four writing assignments listed below. Each writing piece was given a two page spread in their
magazine. This along with a cover, quote page, table of content and ad page, resulted in a 12 page magazine. An outline of each of the four writing assignments can be found at these links on the class blog:
Because we wanted the magazine portion of the project to
mirror as close as possible work that professional graphic artists do in the field, we had
students work in the Adobe design program inDesign. Although this program is more
difficult to learn compared to a Macintosh program such as Pages, because
professionals in the field use this program and the range of creative design
options it allows for, we decided that we would spend the extra time to learn this application. As Mallory said, “It was great to have the opportunity to be open to professional editing software that we wouldn’t be able to use otherwise. This program allowed us to be really creative and have full control of our layout, designing everything ourselves.” The following blog post provides direction and supporting YouTube how to videos to help students to use the inDesign program:
An outline of the project and supporting links on how to use inDesign
An outline of the project and supporting links on how to use inDesign
The level of student engagement for this project was high.
Based on findings from other inquiry projects, the factors that seem to be at
work that make an inquiry project engaging is the extent students are given
ownership over the design and creation of an original product and the degree of
creativity the project allows for. Rather than sending students off on their own, however, control over the creative process and rich opportunities to innovate, does not mean anything goes. There are specific ways of knowing and doing particular to this medium. To bring students into the discipline, we connected students with experts, exposed them to many examples of innovative and creative design layouts in magazines, and provided multiple feedback loops for students to get constructive feedback on how to improve their magazine. As can be seen by the quality and sophistication of the work students created, this process seemed to provide an effective framework and we were extremely happy with the work students produced.
In this clip Scott, a professional graphic designer, is
explaining to students some of the key elements of design including grouping, using positive and negative space effectively, and how to be bold and creative in your design.
Untitled from Mr. Scott on Vimeo.
Untitled from Mr. Scott on Vimeo.
Here are some examples of student work:
Open publication - Free publishing
Open publication - Free publishing
1 comment:
Dave and Margaret,
Your blog very effectively demonstrates how you engaged your students in a unique approach to a novel study through allowing them to be producers rather than consumers of information. You highlight key elements of learning and teaching through a disposition of inquiry which include providing a framework for the project with clearly articulated guidelines and developing expertise of the students in the use of tools for a creative exploration of the novel. Through your use of the powerful inDesign program and the mentorship of an outside expert, you empowered your students to demonstrate their creativity and deep understanding. The quality of the work of the students was truly very impressive. Through the student exemplars you highlighted the depth of understanding, quality of writing, maturity, creativity and the engagement of your students in this authentic learning experience.
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