Some teachers spend a lot of time putting up displays. It seems to be second nature: display important content, display reminders, attractive posters and of course, student work. If you are like me, you don’t always have the time to do and redo bulletin boards every week or so, but you may realize the importance of
There is also a lot of evidence out there that displaying actual student work (as opposed to teacher-made or store bought work) is much more meaningful and exciting for the students. As if we didn’t already know that! So, as I reflect on my own display practices and look for a little inspiration, I thought I would share some quick reminders about displaying student work.
Display the work of ALL students. Whether you have to wait until you do something everyone can participate in and complete, or get after all your students until the board is complete, making sure you represent the work of all students is so mportant.- Display the Process as well as the Product. The process, the form of edited drafts, mistakes kids made that they have corrected and pictures of students in the process of an experiment or hands-on activity, is a great thing to put on display. Show the students and others that may look at
the display that learning is messy, full of mistakes and takes some perseverance. That’s a great lesson to reinforce! - Go 3-D. This may mean displaying artifacts that need to sit on a shelf, but can also include work that pops out from a traditional bulletin board.
- Put Displays at (Student) Eye Level. That way it will make the most impact on the audienceyou want to target.
- Get Students Involved. You might ask them to pick out an artifact that they are proud of or that shows their best work. You may ask students to add a sticky note to their work that explains what it is about their work they are proud of: good sentence structure, indented all paragraphs, added details to a story, wrote a great hook, copied all the math equations correctly, whatever they may be working on!
- Plan a Display. Sometimes you might just want to plan something that will exemplify a unit theme or long term project and put it on display. And allowing students to know that it will be hung so that others can look at their work is a nice additional motivator to create something worthy of presentation.
Wouldn’t it be great to also try and get some of your students’ work on display somewhere other than your school’s hallway? You may want to check out this great PD opportunity!
Children’s Art Display Teacher Workshop October 20, 2016, 4pm
Join other educators at Plymouth State University on Thursday, October 20 at 4pm for a FREE Professional Art Workshop for all educators entitled “Far From the Home I Love: Creating Artwork with a Sense of Place!” Hear about ways you can involve your school in a state-wide art exhibit at Plymouth State University, held in conjunction with our 2017 Educational Theatre Production of “Fiddler on the Roof” and engage in a hands on visual art experience with art educator Denise Plante-Renaud. All materials will be provided. Everyone is welcome!
Continue to promote students’ love of learning by displaying the great work they do!
~EMP
