Graphic Inquiry and Differentiation

Lauren Besich

ET- Differentiation

Johnson, L. & Lamb, A. (2012). Graphic inquiry: dyniamic differentiation and digital age learning.  Teacher Librarain, 39(4), 61-67. Retrieved from http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk//launch.aspx?eid=8cd67d4c-5f33-4525-91db-9287de63151b

This article discusses how teacher librarians can incorporate different types of graphics to help differentiate instruction when working with teachers to meet the needs of all students.  Graphic inquiry gives students a chance to further explore information and content standards through the use of various visual technologies.  Authors Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson outlined six types of graphic teacher librarians can use for differentiation: data sets, illustrations, infographics, maps, organizers, and photos.  Multiple Web resources are provided in the articles for each graphic type. 

Data sets, or collections of facts, help students understand data, and give them an opportunity to visually report their work.   Graphs, charts, surveys, and inventories are data set examples discussed in the article. 

Illustrations support students’ visualizations of concepts taught in class.  Through analyzing others’ illustrations or creating their own, student thinking is challenged.  The authors suggest various sources where teacher librarians can find illustration for students to use, and Web tools that allow them to create their own illustrations and comics. 

Infographics are visual forms of information, and are becoming pretty trendy.  They can be used to jump start learning through evaluation of the information, or they can be used as a synthesis of new information they have learned.  If using infographics in the classroom is a new concept for teacher librarians, they can read the article series about teaching with infographics presented by The Learning Network at the New York Times.  Articles cover using infographics in the Social Studies, English, and Science and Health content areas.

Maps help students identify information about a geographical area.  They can analyze a specific location, make predictions based on the information in the map, or create their own maps.

Organizers help students visually organize information as an alternative to writing activities, or as a guide for writing.  Different graphic organizers include timelines, Venn Diagrams, comparison charts, and many others.  The authors suggest organizers reduces plagiarism by requiring the students to share what they visualize, not what they copied and pasted. 

Photos can be used to document a process and opposed to writing about a process.  Much like illustrations, students can analyze photos, and also how the use of photo editing tools affects the message of a photo. 

This article is a rich resource for teacher librarians and teachers who want to incorporate graphic inquiry into their curriculum.  The ideas and examples they outline provide a good starting point to those new to graphic inquiry.