A one-pager is a inventive, visually interesting evaluation device that offers college students an opportunity to share their concepts throughout two modes: imagery and textual content. They’re my favourite device, 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 strong 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 e book, an article, a unit, a poem, a documentary, a podcast, an exploration of theme, a science experiment, and so on.). One-pagers assist categorical what they’ve discovered in a single web page. The mission lets them work on speaking concepts by means of a mixture of modes. This can be a key ability in lots of workplaces at present.
As college students assume critically about what’s essential, in addition they enhance their retention of data. Sketching the small print into their one-pagers helps totally different components of their mind work collectively. (Try this interview with ed-tech guide and educator Jen Giffen to dig deeper).
Serving to Reluctant Artists
You could 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.” This can be a good factor to bolster together with your college students. The objective right here is to not get their one-pagers featured on the Met, however to faucet their vital considering and illustrate their understanding in memorable, insightful methods.
A technique 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 scholar can comply with, although college students who really feel prepared can go off-template, designing from the clean web page.
For instance, you may ask college students to start out an ELA one-pager by placing a key theme for a novel within the middle of their paper, then illustrating it with a citation, and including a visible and a few evaluation of their very own.
You may information college students as an 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.
Possibly you’d have college students deal with 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 supply inspiration to your subsequent one-pager mission. A fast #onepagers search over on Instagram will present you a lot extra.

In case you and your college students like hexagonal considering, then hexagonal one-pagers, a sophisticated twist that mixes the dialogue technique with the one-pager idea, can present a fair deeper degree of dialog.
College students first create hexagonal one-pagers to characterize advanced concepts in your unit. The hexagons showcase themes, characters, connecting texts, and extra from Nic Stone’s novel Expensive 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 net of connections to the category or writes concerning the reasoning behind its decisions.

Hexagonal one-pagers are additionally a enjoyable go-to for constructing neighborhood. 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.

One in all my favourite latest twists on the one-pager is an open-mind mission. On this model, the template gives 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 possibly can see open-mind one-pagers for Will Holloman, the principle character in Jason Reynolds’ verse novel Lengthy Manner Down.
This method can simply be tailored for different topics too. In a historical past class, as an example, you may present the define of a rustic within the middle 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 surface with the influences of neighboring nations, main occasions, or creative actions which can be shaping the world at the moment.
In a language class, you may add a silhouette for a well-known chief or creator talking the language of research. Have college students fill the within with what they find out about them. Subsequent, college students will create illustrations and details about their actions, affect, and/or creations on the surface.

There are such a lot of inventive methods to make use of one-pagers, and it’s unimaginable to discover all of them right here! Simply begin experimenting, and see the place it really works together with your class this 12 months. Keep in mind that a template with a transparent set of expectations for what to place the place is a good scaffold as college students start. And save time in school for a gallery stroll and area in your partitions for a vivid show of one-pagers!
Plus, get our free Studying Comprehension Methods Bundle.




