Times Square is jam-packed with people and things to see. It’s one of New York’s top tourist destinations, but it’s not a great place to sit and read a book or attend a lecture. The same way the lights, signs, crowds, and noise of Times Square can be overwhelming, too much visual stimulation in the classroom — in the form of decorations — can hurt student performance.
However, on the opposite side of the coin, nothing in the classroom also makes for a bleak learning environment. Since the 1950’s, researchers have known that ugly rooms make people feel unhappy, tired, and want to escape. (Maslow & Mintz, 1956)
Using posters is a great way to:
- Remind student of important procedures
- Decorate and make
- Make student’s curious
Tips on using posters effectively
1. Rotate them often to keep them relevant
2. Be selective – don’t put it there unless students can use it.
For some students, creating a poster can also be a valueable experience. Hanging these around the room will make students feel proud of their work.
Here are some more creative poster making projects that can add life to your lesson!
- Ask students to create a poster to educate others about a particular issue- like recycling, or exercising regularly.
- Ask students to create a poster pretending that they are part of a story and are inviting people for an event in the story. (like a poster inviting the town for the ball in the Cinderella story)
- Ask students to create a poster-infographic to explain statistics or share the results of a study that they did.
- Ask students to create a poster to remind themselves of or remember an important learning strategy, or classroom rule.
- You may ask students to create an alert poster for a fake hurricane, to help them learn about weather alerts.
- Ask students to make a 3d poster without using any pens, paints or markers.
