Critical Thinking Payhip

silvadelina@gmail.
com 13 Oct 2017
THE DIGITAL CLASSROOMS SERIES
THINKING CRITICALLY
THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA
By Nik Peachey
Edited By Maria Fuller
NIK PEACHEY 2016

PEACHEYPUBLICATIONS.COM
silvadelina@gmail.com 13 Oct 2017
THINKING CRITICALLY
THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA
The Digital Classrooms Series
By Nik Peachey
i
Published by PeacheyPublications
http://peacheypublications.com/
Copyright Nik Peachey 2016
The contents of this book, with the

exception of the images, are the
property of Nik Peachey
ISBN: 978-0-9933031-3-5
ii
Dedication
For my amazing wife Maria and my wonderful daughters
Molly and Isabella.
Thank you.
Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in

any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your
very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest
fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips
and face
Walt Whitman,1855
iii
Preface
Thinking Critically through Digital Media is the fourth book in

the Digital Classrooms series. The first book Digital Video - A
Manual for Language Teachers was published in 2015 and was
followed by 10 Lessons in Digital Literacy and Exploiting
Infographics in 2016. Both of these previous two books have
now been subsumed into this book with two chapters of
additional materials and activities.
Thinking Critically through Digital Media builds on the concepts

and learnings from those previous books to give a more
complete manual for teachers who want to build their students
digital literacy skills and critical thinking in a very interactive
and students centered way.
Thinking Critically through Digital Media goes beyond treating

students as the passive recipients of content information and
starts to develop the skills they need to become productive
researchers and creators of digital content and in so doing
enables them become full, active and responsible members of
the global digital information and learning community.
iv
INTRODUCTION
This book is was written for teachers of English
as a second, foreign or additional language,
but it should also have value for any teacher
who wishes to develop their students critical
thinking and digital literacy skills or just help
them make better use of modern digital media.
Who it is for How the book is structured

This book is was written for teachers of The book is structured in four main chapters:
English as a second, foreign or additional
Chapter 2 deals with information in the form
language, but it should also have value for
of infographics and how they can be
any teacher who wishes to develop their
exploited independently as stimulus for
students critical thinking and digital literacy
discussion or comprehension work. It
skills or just help them make better use of
examines their usefulness and the kinds of
modern digital media.
skills teachers can help students develop
Approach to language development while either understanding or creating them.
Although the book was designed with Chapter 3 deals with research and how
teachers of English in mind it doesnt have students can create and use surveys to do
any specific tasks based around the linguistic small scale research projects. The chapter
elements you might expect to see in a aims to build students abilities to question
traditional language learning syllabus. The information and understand how information
focus of the tasks and activities in the book is is collected and analyzed.
on developing linguistic skills through
authentic content and motivating language Chapter 4 deals with presentation and how
use. students can take the information they have
found, structure and synthesize it and then
Aims and goals of the book present it for others. The chapter has a
This book is a very practical attempt to help collection of small scale presentation tasks to
teachers understand and develop the skills help students build the skills they need in
students need in order to become digitally order to do this.
literate, critical members of society whilst at
Chapter 5 is a collection of 12 lesson plans
the same time developing their ability to use
which exemplify the use of these skills and
language effectively.
techniques in combination within a lesson.
The book is based around a wide selection of
Each lesson plan has been designed as a
activities and tasks that teachers can use with
sequence of tasks starting from discussion,
their students in the physical or online
through comprehension, back to discussion
classroom to help develop these skills and
again. Each of the lessons also contains a
culminates in the final chapter which is a
number of follow up tasks to promote the
collection of 12 lesson plans which combine
development of digital literacies and critical
many of the skills developed through previous
thinking skills. These vary from classroom and
chapters.
online research tasks to writing and
presentation tasks.
6
The tasks can be used in their entirety in the Critical thinking and digital literacy
sequence in which they are presented, or It may sound strange to refer to critical
teachers may wish to drop out some of the thinking as a key digital literacy for the 21st
tasks or edit the ones you feel may not be century. Critical thinking as a concept has
appropriate for their students. been around since the time of Socrates.
However, in a world where access to
With the follow up tasks teachers may prefer
information is abundant and constantly
to choose one or two they feel their students
growing, but authority and reliability are
will benefit from most.
increasingly questionable, critical thinking has
How to use it become the key digital literacy that our
students need in order to negotiate the
This book can be used in a number of ways.
complex networked world of user created
Teachers can dip into chapters 2 - 4 and take
content and digital information media.
some of the activities and tools from these
chapters to supplement their lessons or they Although many criticize the internet for
can use some of the complete lessons plans enabling anyone to pollute our students
from chapter 5. It is not necessary to work world of information with their unsupported
through this book from beginning to end. opinion and unsubstantiated facts, the reality
is that information has always and should
What is critical thinking? always be questioned and questionable.
Critical thinking is the intellectually
disciplined process of actively and skillfully History, which as we know is written by the
conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, victors, teaches us this lesson. Any
synthesizing, and/or evaluating information dictatorship wishing to control a population
gathered from, or generated by, observation, looks first to control its access to news and
experience, reflection, reasoning, or information and second to recreate that
communication, as a guide to belief and information in the light of what they want
action. people to believe. To claim that there can be
any totally unbiased sources of news or
A statement by Michael Scriven & Richard information is at best naive and at worst
Paul for the National Council for Excellence in disingenuous and even dangerous.
Critical Thinking Instruction
So the internets ability to allow anyone, not
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining- just unfettered access to information but also
critical-thinking/410 the ability to take part in creating and
circulating that information has forced
institutions to readdress the issue of authority
7
and what makes some information sources

more reliable than others.
Previously educational establishments were

able to define authority within the walls of their
library and use those walls to insulate young
m i n d s f ro m t h a t w h i c h c o u l d b e o f
questionable authority. In recent years,
however, educationalists have been forced to
establish new methods of ascertaining the
authority of online content which includes a
range of techniques and measures to help
students judge the veracity of web based
content. However effective these techniques
may be, none is as effective as a curious,
open and critical mind.
8
EXPLOITING
INFOGRAPHICS
The chapter contains a wide range of
suggested activities for both the creation
and exploitation of infographics in the
classroom.
It also helps teachers with tips and advice
on how to plan and create infographics and
suggestions for which tools to use to
produce different types of infographic.
WHY USE There are many reasons why we should be using
INFOGRAPHICS
infographics as part of our teaching and learning practice.
Perhaps one of the most fundamental reasons is - because
they are there. Infographics have become a predominant
part of the way people choose to communicate information
online and as such we need to help our students understand
this genre of communication and work with it effectively.
Infographics are often used to convey quite dense statistical

information. Reading from screen has long been thought to
be less efficient and more tiring than reading from paper, and
reading through text that describes a lot of related statistical
information can be very challenging. Infographics are,
however, a very effective means of conveying this
information in a much more visual way that is less dependent
on explanatory text. This makes infographics very well suited
to screen based mediums of communication.
Being visual rather than textually based makes infographics

easier to understand for younger readers or those with lower
10
level reading skills. This can help to make more complex subjects
much more accessible to lower level learners.
Many learners are more visually stimulated and research tells us

that the use of color and imagery can help to make learning more
effective and memorable.
The study of many academic topics involves the understanding of

dense statistical information. Helping students to use graphic
materials both to understand and communicate information can
reinforce their academic study skills and enable them to be more
successful students, especially when they reach tertiary level.
Developing students abilities to take information and make it visual

is both a useful work skill and an engaging way to develop
students thinking and visualization skills. When creating an
infographic students have to be able to comprehend the
information as a whole and understand how the parts relate to each
other in order to decide how to layout their design. Their
understanding of the data will need to inform the structure of the
graphic. Even their choice of colors and images to use in the
graphic will need to be supported by a deeper understanding of
the information they want to convey.
11
ACCESSING Once you have found an infographic that you want to use
INFOGRAPHICS
you need to start thinking about how you will put the graphic
in front of your students. This depends on your teaching
context, what digital devices your students have and where
they can access the internet. Included here are a number of
options you can choose from to give your students access to
the infographics you use in your lessons.
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In the single computer classroom In the mobile classroom

Data-projector QR Codes
You can show the infographic in your classroom If your students have access to the internet with
using a data projector. This gives you some mobile devices then you can create QR codes to
control over when and for how long the students give them access to the infographics. They can
can see the image, but can be annoying for then scan the code and the infographic will open
students as most infographics will be longer than on their device. You can create a QR code in
one screen so youll need to decide when to s e c o n d s u s i n g h t t p : / / w w w. t h e - q r c o d e -
scroll down. This takes a lot of the independent generator.com/. If your students dont have QR
control away from the students. scanning apps on their devices you could
recommend they download the appropriate one
In the connected classroom from: http://tapmedia.co.uk/. QR code scanners
URL - Links are useful for a whole range of things so this is
something they will use again. One of the
You can give students a URL so they can access
disadvantages of this method is that the
the graphic in the browser on their own device.
infographics are usually quite large and can be
This sounds easy, but infographic image URLs
difficult to manipulate on a small phone screen.
are often very long and difficult for students to
On tablets however, they usually look fine. Its
type into their browser address bar accurately. If
best to try your graphic first and see how well it
you choose to do this, it would be wise to use
works.
some form of link shortening service first such as
http://www.tinyurl.com/, https://goo.gl/ , http://
ow.ly/url/shorten-url . Be sure to check whether In the online classroom
link shortening services are allowed within your Embed Code or Link
school though as some are banned because If you are teaching online then its easy to make
they can be used to mask links to inappropriate infographics available as part of your course
content. materials, just copy and paste a hyperlink into a
page or forum. This allows your students to click
Backchannel
through to the image in their browser. You can
By far the best way to get students to access the also try to find or create an embed code so that
infographic is by using some form of the actual image appears as part of your course
backchannel in your classroom. There are many page. If you choose to embed the infographic do
free backchannel services such as https:// still add a link to the original as this will help
todaysmeet.com/ or http:// students to scale and scroll the image. An
www.backchannelchat.com/ and these can embedded image may be too small to read.
enable you to copy and paste a link into the Dont be tempted to download the infographic
backchannel. Then when the link appears your and upload it to your site. This works well, but is
students only need to click on it to open the a violation of copyright unless you specifically
graphic. ask for permission.
13
In the disconnected classroom

Print
If you are in a physical classroom with no access
to the internet, you can, as a last resort, print
copies of the infographic for your students to
study. If you do this, you will need to print the
images much larger than A4, so use a rasterizing
service such as http://rasterbator.net/ - This will
allow you to print the images over a number of
pages and then just tape them together. To print
larger images in color can also be expensive
though.
Manipulating infographics
Once the image is on your students devices
they will need to know how to enlarge the size so
that they can read it more effectively. On mobile
devices this is usually done through two finger
dragging. In the web browser you should see a
magnifying glass that allows you to click and
enlarge the image. If this isnt satisfactory you
can also use Control and the plus or minus on
PC or Command and the plus or minus on Mac
to enlarge or reduce the image with a little more
granular control.
14
GENERIC Infographics are a great source of information, but just
ACTIVITIES FOR
showing students an infographic and telling them to study it
isnt the most effective way to exploit the medium.
EXPLOITING
INFOGRAPHICS Creating your own infographic tasks and activities can be
very time consuming though, so here Im presenting a
number of generic ideas that should work with a number of
types of infographic. You can use these ideas with students
to help focus their comprehension of the information and
give them clear goals for engaging with the information in the
graphics.
15
Peer created questions Checking information sources

Give your students an infographic and get them Get students to check the sources of any
to create a quiz based around it. Once the statistics mentioned in an infographic to make
students have created their quiz they can use it sure they are correct and that the sources are
to check the comprehension or knowledge of valid. You could also get them to find supporting
other students in their class. You can make this sources on other sites that either authenticate or
competitive and have teams to quiz each other. contradict the statistics stated in the infographic.
You could also have different infographics for
Rationale
each group and they can exchange questions
and infographics. Theres a common joke that 83% of all statistics
are made up. Often students tend to believe
Rationale any information that they find online. This
This activity has a duel role in that students activity encourages students to check the
need to read through the infographic and validity of information they find and helps them
understand it in order to create the questions, to develop the necessary research skills to
but they also get practice at formulating validate online information.
questions. The activity also adds an element of
competition which some students find Comparing to yourself
motivating and of course it saves you a lot of You can get students to find out where they fit
time creating questions yourself. within any infographics that contains personal
information. You can also use this as a mingle
Fact finding task by asking students to try to find someone in
Ask your students to find x-number of what they the classroom who fits into any of the same
believe are the most important or significant statistics that they do.
facts in the infographic. Get them to justify their
Rationale
choice and explain why these points are the
most significant. This encourages the students to apply the
information to themselves and by personalizing
Rationale it can make it seem more real, memorable and
This activity encourages students to evaluate tangible. This can make data a little less
and make value judgements about the dehumanizing. The mingle activity can also
information they are being exposed to. It also help to improve classroom dynamics and help
reveals elements of their own value system and students to get to know each other.
exposes them for discussion which can be
very enlightening.
16
Checking bias and motivation have finished a first draft they can exchange with
Ask the students to find out who created the another student and compare to see if they
infographic and why they think it was created. chose the same main points. You could also ask
This involves them researching the source and them to peer edit the text and then return it
thinking about the relationship between the before writing a final draft.
company that created the graphic and the Rationale
information in it.
This can help to develop students process
Rationale writing skills and academic study skills. It
encourages students to evaluate information
This encourages students to think more deeply
about information and to question the goals and make and articulate the connections
and motivation behind it. Students often think between different nuggets of information.
of information as neutral, but the way
information is displayed and what information Presentation summary
is chosen can influence readers. Pushing You can ask your students to prepare an oral
students to look more deeply at the motivations presentation based on the information they took
behind the information can make them more from the infographic. They can also prepare a
critical readers. presentation deck with images and text to help
support their presentation.
Personal response
Rationale
You can ask students for a range of personal
This can help to develop students presentation
responses to any infographic. Here are some
skills. The ability to present and talk about
possible example questions:
information is also a valuable workplace skill.
What did you find interesting?
What information do you doubt? Create your own research
What information would you like to share? Who Get students to create their own research
with? Why? questionnaire based around the same topic.
They can use this either in class or share it
Rationale through social media and collect the information
This encourages students to think about for their own infographic.
applying information and making it purposeful
for their own lives. Encouraging a personal Rationale
response from students can also make the This develops students research skills and
lessons more meaningful for them. encourages them to think about the framing of
questions to extract information. It also
Summary writing encourages them to think about how they
Ask your students to take notes about the most present data once it has been collected.
important information in the infographic and then
use the notes to write a summary. Once they
17
INFOGRAPHIC Teaching students how to create infographics is a very useful
CREATION TASKS
activity:
It develops their digital skills and abilities

Encourages them to think critically about information
Refines their eye for design
Enables them to create visualizations of information that
can be understood by others
Shows their understanding of information
Acts as a motivating outcome for research or project based
activities
Provides a useful digital asset to add to their portfolios
which will make revision activities much easier.
In this section of the book you can find suggestions for

activities that involve students in creating infographics.
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Infographic yourself Convert text to infographic

Get students to create an infographic about Give students an article containing factual
themselves. They could include a variety of information and ask them to create an
information including: infographic representing the main points in the
A timeline of their life and the most text. The text could be anything from a
significant events newspaper article to a financial report. This
A family tree showing the people closest to activity isnt limited to written text it could also be
them used with audio or video content.
Basic information such as interests,
studies and work type experiences Rationale
This kind of activity is a great way to check
Rationale
students comprehension of the text and to find
This kind of activity can be really useful. Its a out what students see as being the key points
great way to find out and store a bit more within it. When teachers set comprehension
information about your students in an easily questions, they have predefined what they feel
accessible way. The students can also use the are the key points to understanding a text and
infographics to introduce themselves to each the students ability to show understanding of
other and find out more about each other. This the text is then restricted by the teacher. By
is particularly useful in an online or blended allowing students to create their own
class when students dont have much infographic, the student is able to show what
opportunity to meet up. they have understood and see as significant
within the text.
Infographic CV/resume
get students to create an infographic CV. They
can include work experience and education as
well as any professional interests. This is a little
like the previous idea but should focus on
information that a potential employer would be
interested in.
Rationale
Again this is a great way to find out a bit more
about your students background and
experience, especially if you are teaching a
business class of any kind. Your students might
also find these infographics useful if they are
thinking of applying for a job. Having an
infographic version of your CV/resume can
really help it to stand out.
19
Literature & Narrative Class survey

Ask students to create a graphic timeline of a Get students to create class surveys and polls
story they are reading. They can show the based around different themes and then create
significant events and characters in the story their own infographic to display the results. You
and how they interact at different points. This could also do this as a follow up task after
activity can be used with a wide range of studying an infographic. Students can formulate
learners and is a great way to show their questions to survey the class and find out how
understanding of what is happening in the story. closely they fit to the information in the
The story could be as simple as Goldilocks and infographic.
the Three Bears or as complex as Hamlet. They
Rationale
could construct each part of the infographic as
they read so that it builds over time or just create This activity gives students a tangible outcome
it once they have finished as a kind of review / and reason to analyze and present the data
comprehension activity. they collect through research questionnaires.
Rationale Social media research infographic

This is a great way to get students to This activity is similar to the one above, but
deconstruct narrative or literature and the students will need to create a digital survey. They
relationships and motivations of the characters can then share the survey through a range of
within it. It can also show you what the students social media sites. They could use their own
have understood and how their understanding social media connections for the survey or you
of the text develops as they progress through could share it for them through your own social
the book. media connections. Once they have collected
the data they can share it in an infographic.
Fan infographic
Rationale
Ask students to research a famous person who
they admire and create an infographic about Like the class survey, this gives students a
them. This could include a timeline about their tangible outcome from their research. It also
rise to fame, significant people they met along shows them how useful social media can be as
the way, their main achievements and anything a resource for research.
else the student thinks is relevant.
Rationale
This task is a nice way to involve the students
real interests in the class. Choosing a topic that
students are enthusiastic about will also be far
more motivating for them.
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Exploring a theme This activity really helps students to make their

Give the students a theme and ask them to understanding of the interconnectedness of
research the theme online and create an various events and their causes and
infographic based around it to show their consequences much clearer than any linear
findings. text could do. Creating these visualizations
also makes revising much easier and quicker.
Rationale
This is similar to mind mapping but it pushes Vocabulary map
students to organize and make connections You can ask students to create theme based
between the nuggets of information they vocabulary maps and they can add icons or
collect. This process of organization and images to the groups of words to make them
visualization can help to embed the learning more memorable. They can divide the words
much more deeply. according to their word classification such as
nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. in separate groups
Process infographic or they could divide them according to their
Ask the students to research the steps in a lexical relationship to the theme. For example if
process, for example; how something is made, the theme is football you could have groups of
and then create an infographic to explain this. different jobs and another group of equipment,
This could be something as easy as a simple etc.
recipe or something more complex like
Rationale
constructing a building or producing a movie or
video game. This task is great for reviewing or pre-teaching
vocabulary. Organizing vocabulary and adding
Rationale color and images in this way should make it
This activity helps students to break down and easier to remember. You can also get students
order the steps of a process and think about to add these vocabulary maps to their e-
them in a more analytical way. portfolio if they have one.
Historical time line

Ask students to research a significant historical
event and then create an infographic timeline
showing the events and steps leading up to the it
and the repercussions following the event and
how it impacted on different areas. These
significant events could be anything from the
signing of the Magna Carta, the release of
Nelson Mandela to the invention of the
combustion engine or the first moon landing.
Rationale
21
Grammar infographic
You could ask students to research a
grammatical structure and create an infographic
based around it. This could include a breakdown
of the form, a timeline to demonstrate the
concept, an illustrated sentence and information
about register, pronunciation and context.
Rationale
This is a great way to get students to do their
own language research and become more
independent in the way they learn and record
information.
22
CREATING AN Being able to create an infographic is a very useful skill and
INFOGRAPHIC
there are lots of tools that you and your students can use that
will help you do this quickly and give very professional
looking results.
Creating an infographic does take some thought and

planning though and getting the planning right can save you
a lot of time when it comes to creating your infographic
design.
Included here are some guidelines and stages to help you

and your students create infographics.
23
1. Research things about These kinds of infographics are

Collect together the information you want to easily organised using a grid system so that
include in your infographic. This could be a you have a fixed number of facts per line.
mixture of statistical information, dates, facts, See: 7 Amazing Facts About Your Eyes
names etc. I often find that using a sticky-note or
post-it-note for each fact or nugget of information X vs Y
can be helpful. There are lots of infographics which are used
to compare things. These kinds of infographics
2. Organization are usually split vertically into two columns with
Try to organize the information by grouping it similar facts about each thing on each side.
under suitable headings. This is where having
your information on post-its can really help as it See: Artists vs Scientists
makes it much easier to move them around from
Webs
group to group and rearrange them.
These types of infographic usually have a
central theme with associated facts radiating
3. Structure
out, much like a mind-map. They can also have
Once your information is grouped you can start
the information organised into themes by
to think about the overall structure of your
quadrant from the central theme.
infographic and how you want to lay it out. There
are a number of common structures and being See: Walt Disney
aware of these might make it easier for you to
find an appropriate fit for your own graphic. Blocks
This is probably the most common form of
Timelines infographic. The information is organised into
These are great for any information that is groups and then built into vertical or horizontal
chronologically linked. Remember that they will blocks. Usually the first block will have some
usually work better vertically rather than introductory type information and the last block
horizontally though as scrolling up and down is more like a summary. The sources of the
on the screen is more natural. Timeline type information are usually listed at the end. The
infographics are also great for describing blocks in the middle usually have the deeper
processes and these can be easily illustrated information arranged around subtopics.
with icons or images.
See: Social Media Sites
See: The People Behind The Way We Live Today
Factoids
These are the type of infographics that have a
number of pretty random facts all around the
same topic. For example, twenty amazing
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4. Form Summary of stages

Once you have decided on a structure for your
You can use this summary of the stages with
infographic, try to sketch it out on a piece of
your students to help guide them through the
paper. This doesnt have to be neat or have text,
steps of creating their own infographic.
just get some idea of the arrangement and how
and where the pieces of information fit into the 1. Collect together the information you want to
overall design. This could save you a lot of time if include in your info graphic.
you find that the structure just doesnt work.
2. Try to organize the information by grouping it
5. Tools under suitable headings.
Once you have your sketch as a guide you can
3. Once your information is grouped, think about
decide on an infographic tool or tools that you
the overall structure of your infographic and how
think are appropriate for creating your graphics
you want to lay it out.
and text. If possible try to use a tool that has an
appropriate template for your design. Its usually 4. Once you have decided on a structure for your
quicker to try to customize a template than start infographic, try to sketch it out on a piece of
from scratch. paper.
6. Design 5. Once you have your sketch as a guide you

can decide on an infographic tool or tools that
Now the fun starts and you can create your
you think are appropriate for creating your
graphic. You can either decide on a color
graphics and text.
scheme for your graphic in advance or add all
the text and graphics first and then see what 6. Now the fun starts and you can create your
colors work afterwards. graphic.
7. Sharing 7. Once you have finished, save your infographic

Once you have finished, save your infographic as an image (png or jpg usually works best) and
as an image (png or jpg usually works best) and then you can either share it on your own website
then you can either share it on your own website or upload it to a hosting service like DropBox or
or upload it to a hosting service like DropBox or Google Drive.
Google Drive. In some cases the tool that you
use to create the graphic also provides hosting
for the graphic, but it is still wise to download a
backup copy.
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TOOLS FOR There are a huge number of tools available for creating
CREATING
infographics . These range from free to premium with a large
number of freemium tools (commercial tools that you can use
INFOGRAPHICS for free with some limitations) in between.
Any internet search on tools for creating infographics will

produce a considerable and potentially confusing list of
recommendations, so here Ive suggested a range of
examples that are popularly used in education.
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Draw.io - https://www.draw.io/
This is a free tool and one of my favorites. It provides an open canvas
that you can drag shapes and images onto and create your own
designs. You can add text to any of the shapes and use the search
engine to find icons and graphics to make the designs look more
professional. You can also search for photographic images from the
Creative Commons section of Google Images and drag these into your
design.
The finished or partially finished designs you create can be stored in

Google Drive, DropBox or on your hard drive as xml and then shared an
edited by other Draw.io users. You can also download the finished
designs as pdf or png images.
27
Creately - http://creately.com/
This is a more sophisticated version of draw.io with a nicer looking
interface. The free plan allows you to create designs but these must be
shared publicly. You can also create one project, which enables you to
store digital assets in your account to use on other infographics. If you
use a paid subscription you can also add collaborators so that you can
work on the designs and graphics together.
VisualizeMe - http://vizualize.me/
This is a free tool that creates an infographic design that can be used as
a CV. The design is generated from a LinkedIn profile so to use this your
students will need to be adults with LinkedIn accounts. Once the
infographic has been created, they can edit the design and content in a
28
number of ways. This can be a useful tool to use with adult business
students to help them network and get to know each other, especially if
they are studying online.
Easel.ly - http://www.easel.ly/
This is another freemium tool for creating template based infographics.

It has a very wide range of templates that you can edit and add images
and icons to. There are a good range of high quality download options
as well as the ability to share through links or embed codes. The
premium features are additional templates and images, but you dont
have to purchase these to get good results.
29
Canva - https://www.canva.com/create/infographics/
This is a really useful template based tool for creating infographics.

They have a great range of templates and some of the examples are
great ideas for classroom research projects. Students just edit the
templates and add their own information. Original designs can also be
created by editing a grid and adding images and icons. Canva isnt
completely free, the revenue is generated through sales of premium
images and icons, but its easy enough to create a great infographic
without using any of the commercial imagery.
Visme - http://www.visme.co/
This is a freemium tool that allows you to create infographics or
presentations based on templates.
30
It has a huge range of features and allows you to add animations and
videos to your designs so you achieve a really professional result. There
is a learning curve to getting really good results from the tool and some
of the best features are linked to the subscription version, but if you
want to take making infographics to the next level, this tool is well worth
exploring.
Wordle - http://www.wordle.net/
This is a really simple to use free tool for creating word clouds. It is a
useful tool to use if you are collecting text based data, as you can copy
and paste in the text and Wordle will analyze word frequency and show
you the more frequently used words in larger sizes. The tool is limited to
creating word clouds and cant create more complex designs but the
word clouds can be added to presentations or other infographics to
enhance them.
31
KnightLab Timeline - http://timeline.knightlab.com/
This tool is great for creating timeline type infographics that are linear
and based around historical or narrative events or processes. Its very
easy to add internet based images or media to the designs. The
timelines are created by adding links, text and data to a spreadsheet.
the spreadsheet is then uploaded to the site which generates the
design. This tool is free but you will need a Google account to use it. Its
much easier to use than it sounds and it does produce very
professional results and is used by many major news outlets.
32
CREATING
SURVEYS
This chapter of the book gives you a brief
introduction to creating polls and surveys
to carry out research and suggests some
useful tools and activities you and your
students can use to gather data.
WHY USE In most of the digital literacy lesson plans students are asked
SURVEYS
at some point to create their own research.
This chapter of the book gives you a brief introduction to
creating polls and surveys to carry out research and
suggests some useful tools you and your students can use to
gather data.
34
Why use surveys?

Questions are the most natural way of expressing our curiosity
about the world and should be at the basis of any education
system and certainly any attempt to encourage critical thinking.
Surveys and polls can help students to formulate and structure their
attempts to find and understand information.
The process of creating research polls and surveys engages
students in a wide range of cognitive and linguistic processes with
a number of educational and real world benefits.
The creation and formulation of the questions for the poll engages
students with language at a deep level. Students have to think
carefully about the right questions to extract the information they
need. The students will also need to think about the types of
questions they select for the survey and whether they should be
multiple choice, true/false, etc or more open question types that
require free text input and how this impacts on the type of data
the poll will produce and how the analyze it.
Creating the polls and surveys shows students how to gather data
from real people and how the data they read is gathered and
collated. This ability to see, understand and experience the
process from the inside enables students to look at reported
statistics in a more critical way and with a deeper level of
understanding.
Analyzing the data students collect and identifying key trends and
patterns of significance within the data requires the development
of another useful range of critical thinking skills and once again
helps students to develop a better understanding of how the data
and statistics they read can be used and manipulated.
Creating online polls and surveys engages students in the
development of a number of useful technical skills when learning
how the tools work and helps them to learn how to use digital
tools to create and share their surveys.
The creation of polls and surveys can be a very useful tertiary
study skill and real world employability skill as the ability to
collect, critically analyze and disseminate data forms a significant
35
part of many professional occupations and will continue to do so

in the 21st century.
For many students creating original research and discovering
new information for themselves can be both engaging and
empowering.
Helping students with polls and surveys

Getting students to create polls and surveys can help them
develop a wide range of skills as stated above but for students to
be able to do this they will need some help and guidance on a
range of aspects.
There is the technology aspect of choosing and using a digital
application to create their research questionnaire. With younger
students or ones who are just getting started its probably better for
you to choose which tools they use to create the surveys. Make
sure you are comfortable with the tool yourself and understand how
to use it, but also be prepared to learn alongside your students and
dont be afraid to let them know that this is something new for you
too.
A good way to make students comfortable and help them
understand how to create a survey, is to show them example ones
first so they see how the various question types work. To do this you
can create some questions for them that show various question
types. Creating a questionnaire for your students will also help you
to feel comfortable with the application.
Then you can get your students to try to recreate the surveys
themselves and perhaps change some of the questions.
Remember that learning how to use these tools and applications
isnt wasted lesson time. Students can be learning, interacting and
collaborating while they do this.
Starting students with some of the simpler single question tools can
also help to ease them into creating surveys. This will make it
quicker for them to get some results and data to work with.
Expect students to make mistakes along the way, but make sure
they have the chance to reflect on their mistakes and draw learning
points from them.
36
Help students understand the difference between qualitative and

quantitive data.
Quantitive data tends to be much more statistically based e.g. x
number of people chose answer B. This kind of statistical data is
easy to process, but can be difficult to draw any depth of
conclusions from.
Qualitative data tends to be much more subjective and can be
based around peoples opinions and impressions. It tends to be
drawn from more open ended questions and requires much more
analysis, but can also offer much deeper insights.
Students will need to have someone to share their surveys with
once they have created them. You can get the students to share
with other students in the classroom, though this may well lead to
all students giving and getting the same results and is much less
likely to be motivating for them.
Getting students to share across the school may well give a wider
range of results, but may be more difficult to manage.
Sharing surveys and polls through social media networks is the
best option in terms of gathering data from outside the classroom
and really accessing a variety people and answers. You can either
do this by sharing the links through your own social media contacts
or getting student to use their own networks. Sharing through
students own networks is likely to get the best and most results as
each group of people will only be asked to answer one set of
questions and they will know the sender. Sending multiple surveys
to your own network isnt likely to get much response for each
survey and for students this can be a bit demotivating.
37
SURVEY These activities are designed to help students understand
ACTIVITIES
how to create surveys and analyze the data. The ideas
enable students to create short research projects and collect
genuine data.
The surveys can either be shared in the physical classroom
or through social media networks or websites.
38
Survey of favorites about their class using each of the word

clouds.
In this activity students create a survey to find
out about the other students in the class.
How to solve a problem
Rationale
In this activity students learn how to collect a
Creating surveys based around research range of opinions and suggestions to explore
into favorite likes, favorite foods, sports or the dimensions of a problem.
hobbies can be a simple way to get
Rationale
students started collecting data. This is also
a good activity to do at the start of a This activity encourages students to crowd
semester as it helps students to find out a source and brainstorm suggestions to solve
bit more about each other. problems. Students can then evaluate the
suggestions and think about the pros and
Procedure
cons of each one. This survey can be used
Choose a survey tool for the students to use as the lead in to a debate or discursive
and create an example survey. written assignment. Using a brainstorming
A simple tool to use for this activity would be survey in this way encourages students to
AnswerGarden. This will allow you to create share ideas and work on solving problems
a single questions for students to type a collaboratively. It also gives them more time
response. to explore and consider their thoughts
Get students to type in their answer. before starting a debate or essay.
Now show the students the word cloud Procedure
produced by the survey and how it shows Create a survey using Tricider. To do this
the number of students who typed in each you just need to go to the site and type in
answer. the question you want answer. You could
Show the students how you created the start with something like How do we
survey and ask them to create one of their improve our English outside the classroom?
own. or something more serious like:
Ask the students to share and answer each How do we solve the problem of
others surveys. air pollution in our cities?
Now get the students to use AnswerGarden corruption?
to create a word cloud from their answers
traffic congestion?
(AnswerGarden exports to Wordle with just
affordable housing?
the click of a button)
youth unemployment?
Print and share the word clouds for students
to see and ask them to make sentences poverty in rural areas?
39
Put one of your own suggestions into the Controversial statements

survey and add some pros and cons so that
This activity encourages students to collect
students see the survey structure.
opinions through surveys.
Be sure to add a clear rubric for what Rationale
students have to do.
This activity enables students to create
Set an expiry date for the survey and then opinion polls and analyze and summarize
share it with the students.
the data they collect.
The students can work on the survey at Procedure
home, online or in the classroom if they
Create a list of controversial statements
have connected devices.
based around a specific theme, for example
Once they have added all their ideas and comparing dogs vs cats, men vs women,
pros and cons, ask them to vote for the
the city vs the country, etc. You can use
ones they think are the best solutions.
Typeform or SurveyMonkey for this type of
In class you can set up a debate. survey.
Put the students into groups and get them Create a survey based around your
to argue for the solutions they chose. statements. Students can answer Agree,
Disagree, Not sure.
You can also use the survey for a written Put the students into groups and ask them
assignment. to discuss the statements and try to
Ask the students to make notes on: persuade the other people in the group to
agree with their opinion.
The problem they are addressing
Now give the students the survey and ask
The causes of the problems
them to answer the questions.
The 4 - 5 best solutions to the problem
Show the students the data you collected
and why they like these solutions.
from them.
The disadvantages / problems with
Ask the students to write a short summary
each of the solutions.
or create a short presentation of what they
Once they have made notes, they can learned.
compare them and get feedback from a
Follow this up by getting students to create
peer before writing up the assignment.
their own survey on a topic of their choice.
You can repeat this process, but let the
Get them to share their survey among the
students choose their own problem and
other students and on social media and
create their own survey.
collect their data.
40
They can then turn the data into a Now copy all the responses and paste them
presentation. into Wordle. Create a word cloud from the
texts.
What do you think? This single word cloud should show largest
In this activity students will create a survey to the words that the respondents have typed
crowd source information or opinions. in most. These larger words in this example
Rationale would show which issues most concern
voters.
Many surveys limit the respondents
responses by giving them a defined list of Ask students what other insights they can
choices or restricting their response to yes/ gain from the word cloud.
no or numerical ratings. This makes the data You can follow this up by asking students to
much easier for the creators of the survey to create their own survey.
process. Limiting the responses can,
however, mean that useful information is Word association
missed, because the respondent wasnt In this activity students will create a
given a space to contribute openly. This vocabulary brainstorming survey.
activity helps students to understand how to
Rationale
create a more open type of survey and deal
with the problems this creates when This is a useful vocabulary building activity
analyzing data. that can help students prepare for or revise
a topic they are learning about.
Procedure
Procedure
Create a survey with a single open text type
question. Show your students how to create and share
a survey using AnswerGarden - When you
Write the question about something that is a
create your example survey use a topic that
popular current topic of conversation and
you have studied in class and type in Add
ask students to explain their views, for
words connected with + topic.
example, Who do you think should be the
next US president? Why? Show the students how you share the
survey with them.
Share the survey with your students and ask
them to write a short text in the reply field. Get the students to add words to the survey.
Now share the collected responses with Once they have finished show them how the
them and ask them to try to draw some popular words appear bigger and roll the
conclusions from the data. They should mouse over the words to show them how
realize that this is quite difficult. many people added that word.
Show the students how to export the word
cloud to Wordle and save it.
41
Now put the students in pairs and ask them Your data is likely to show some variation in
to test each other on the meaning of the the answers.
words, starting with the ones that are Get your students to look at the survey
largest. Tell them they can check online any results and discuss which was likely to be
of the words that neither of them know. the correct answer.
Once they have finished ask them to think of Clarify for the students which was the
another topic they have studied and create correct answer, or let them do some
their own survey. research to find out which was correct.
Ask them to share the survey with other Show the students how you created the
class members and also with their social survey.
network contacts if they have any.
Now give the students a topic and ask them
Once they have collected responses, ask to research it and create their own survey to
them to check any new words they have test the knowledge of other students in the
found and then share them with the class in class.
the next lesson.
Once they have created the surveys they
can share and answer them.
Knowledge quiz
In this activity students use a survey tool to From data to survey
create a knowledge quiz.
In this activity students will recreate a survey
Rationale based on some existing data.
Creating a quiz to test knowledge can be a Rationale
motivating tool for getting students to do
This activity helps students to understand
research into a topic and can also help
the questions and question types they can
them to understand the way tests are
use in a survey.
designed.
Procedure
Procedure
Choose some data that you think your
Create a short pop quiz for your students
students will find interesting. This could
using one of the survey tools. This could be
come from a research article, popular
based around something they have already
magazine survey or a simple infographic.
studied in class or something they are about
to study. Ask your students to look at the data and try
to think about the question and the question
Get your students to take the quiz and then
type that was used to create the data.
show them the data that the survey
collected. Put the students into groups or pairs and
get them to compare and try to recreate the
survey used to collect the data.
42
Now ask the students to create a new

survey on a different topic using similar
question types.
They can use one of the survey tools to
create their survey and share it with other
students in the class or through social
media.
43
TOOLS FOR Any internet search will show that there are a huge number of
CREATING
online tools available for the creation of online polls and
surveys. The ones included here show some of the variety of
SURVEYS polling tools available. All of the survey creation tools
included also have a free option.
44
SurveyMonkey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/
SurveyMonkey is a freemium product and one of the online survey

tools that has been around for the longest. Using a free
subscription you can produce surveys with up to 10 questions and
collect up to 400 hundred responses. This is likely to be enough for
the vast majority of student created surveys. Its pretty easy to use,
you just drag and drop the types of question you want to use and
then edit the parameters to add the text for the questions and
possible answer alternatives. Its also very easy to export the data
you collect from the surveys and analyze the answers. It does look
a bit dated though compared to many of the newer survey tools
and it doesnt have very attractive design templates.
Google Forms - https://docs.google.com/forms
45
If you are a Google user Google Forms is a great and very simple
to use free tool for creating surveys. You can choose a simple
template or start from a blank one and choose from a reasonable
selection of question types including text input. Google have also
made it very simple to integrate video from YouTube and search for
and add images. The surveys can be customized quite simply by
adding background images and different designs and there
doesnt seem to be any limit to the number of response you can
collect. Google Forms are also mobile adaptive so you dont have
to worry if you are working in classes where students use a range
of different devices.
Typeform - https://www.typeform.com/
This is a really powerful survey creator and one of the most user
friendly ones Ive tried. It works on a freemium model which limits
the number of templates you can use on a free subscription, but if
you are happy with limited design options that wont be a problem.
There is a really wide range of questions types to choose from and
you can just drag and drop these onto your survey template.
Typeform also offers good support for images and media, so if you
want to add videos from YouTube or upload images Typeform
would be a good option.
46
Tricider - http://www.tricider.com/
This is one of the survey tools I use most often and its a great tool
for exploring the pros and cons around a particular problem and
really pulling in ideas from the survey recipients. You simply add a
single question or problem and then users can add ideas for
solving the problem. They can also add the pros and cons of each
idea and then vote for the ones they like the best. The data the
survey produces can be hard to analyze, though the voting part is
quite straight forward. Its a great tool to use in class, because its
very simple and quick to create the survey and students can
exchange surveys easily and get instant results.
AnswerGarden - https://answergarden.ch/
This is a great tool for very simple surveys that just require a simple
text input. Its great for brainstorming words related to or how do
you feel about The answers can also be exported to Wordle
which creates a colorful word cloud of the answers showing the
most popular options at larger sizes.
47
Its also a great tool for use in the classroom because the site
automatically generates a QR code for each survey so students
can quickly scan the survey onto their phones and answer
immediately.
48
DEVELOPING
PRESENTATION
SKILLS
This chapter of the book looks at
presentations, why we should include
them as a feature of our teaching and
some of the tools we can use to help
students create them.
WHY USE This section of the book looks at presentations, why we
PRESENTATIONS
should include them as a feature of our teaching and some
of the tools we can use to help students create them.
50
Why use presentations

There is a common understanding in education that the most
effective way to learn something is to teach it and Ive often found
this to be the case. Getting students to create and deliver
presentations where they present or teach what they have learned
can be a very effective way of more deeply embedding the learning
and developing a wide range of additional skills.
Planning and creating the presentation requires students to
organize their thoughts and the materials they have covered and
arrange them into a coherent structure. They are forced to make
decisions regarding the relative importance and the relationships
between the information and research they have done and then
create a narrative thread that someone else can learn from and
understand.
Delivering a clear and engaging presentation with confidence is a
really valuable life/work skill to develop and one that can really
empower students outside of the classroom both in terms of their
future employability and their personal self confidence.
Constructing a presentation slide-deck requires a number of
technical skills. Sourcing and adding images and text and the
way students choose to arrange them develops the level of their
design skills and editorial eye. Creating the presentations can
also help them develop an understanding of the link between
images and text and how the balance between these can impact
on the listeners engagement with the presentation.
Standing up and speaking in front of an audience is a really
valuable skill to develop, especially in a second language. It
requires the speaker to think about how they use their voice and
paralinguistic features of communication. They also need to think
about the words they choose to use, how and which words they
give emphasis to, how they will use silence and pauses to allow a
significant message to sink in and how they will remember and
recall the information they are presenting.
Delivering a presentation provides a tangible outcome for the
work the students have been doing and can be a useful way to
51
draw a sense of purpose and completion to their work beyond

final grades and evaluation.
The presentation slide-deck and any script, notes or recordings
can become part of the students digital portfolio and can be
used for reflection and revision at a later date.
How to help students with presentations

Obviously students will need help to prepare and improve their
presentations and there are a number of ways you the teacher can
support this.
There are lots of websites with tips for delivering presentations and
you could make a lesson of this and get students to do some
research to find the best and most helpful tips, or you could
compile your own top ten list of tips for them.
One of the best ways to learn about good presentation skills is to
watch good presentations. You can find lots of great presentations
for students to watch on the TED Talks site: https://www.ted.com/
talks There is a huge range of topics there and again you can build
a lesson around this by getting students to evaluate what made the
talk effective. The language level of these presentations is quite
high though and for younger learners the topics may be very
complex and potentially boring.
When it comes to creating the slide-deck it may be wise to give
students some basic guidelines such as these:
Limit the number of different fonts you use. Try to have no more
than two different fonts, one for titles and another for text.
Try to minimize the amount of text you use on the screen. Just
have key points and quotes rather than longer texts.
Use minimal animation and only use it for a purpose to achieve or
emphasize a specific point.
Use a minimal number of colors and only vary colors for a
specific purpose.
Use images that relate to what you have to say rather than text.
52
Once students have prepared their presentation it is useful to give

them time to practice. You can put them in small groups or pairs to
do this and they can give each other feedback.
Make sure that you dont start students off with anything too
demanding. Keep the presentations short to begin with.
Make the first presentations students do online ones so that they
can record and practice them. Some of the tools included in this
book dont even require that they use their own voice, so using
tools like these can help them build their confidence with the
construction and organization of the materials before they have to
start worrying about how to present it.
Have realistic expectations of what your students are likely to
produce the first few times. Many people are terrified of public
speaking and it can take a long time to build the confidence to do
this well. So your students may need a lot of support and
encouragement to get up and speak, especially in a second
language.
Whether or not the students are going to be evaluated, its still
worth showing them the criteria by which a presentation can be
judged. You can vary how detailed and demanding the criteria are
depending on how mature, experienced and confident you
students are. In the next section you will see a list of possible
criteria you can use.
53
Evaluating student presentations

Evaluating students presentations and giving them feedback is an
important part of helping them to improve. Giving the students the
criteria by which they will be evaluated before they start planning
the presentation can also help them to know where the goal posts
are and so focus them on what they need to achieve.
Here are some possible criteria you could use as a simple starting
point.
Preparation:
The slide-deck
Any text included can be easily read.
The slides are in a logical order
Images are used to illustrate key points
Slides arent overloaded with information
Title slides are used to clearly signpost the sections of the talk
Any colors used within the slide design help to enhance
readability
Any fonts used help to enhance readability.

Delivery:
The presentation is delivered at a good pace
The speaker is clear and projects their voice appropriately for the
size of the room
The speaker uses pauses appropriately to give emphasis and
allow the listeners to think
The speaker makes good eye contact and spreads their attention
across the room
The speaker projects confidence through posture
The speaker engages with and involves the audience.
54
55
PRESENTATION These activities are designed to help students make their
ACTIVITIES
own presentations. They range from short activities which
can be completed in a single lesson, to longer projects
which can be spread out over a number of lessons.
The presentation stage of each activity could be delivered
either in the physical classroom, a synchronous virtual
classroom or recorded using one of the asynchronous apps
from the presentation tools section.
Most of the activities finish by asking the students to record
their presentations. These recordings can become part of a
digital portfolio and can be used for assessment and
revision.
56
Presenting research Present yourself

Get student present research they have done Get your students to create and deliver a
on a specific topic. short presentation about themselves.
Rationale
This task encourages your students to start Rationale
doing and presenting research. It doesnt This is a useful task for the start of a course
have to be too deep or complex if the or semester, particularly when you are
students havent done this kind of task working with students who dont know each
before. You can limit the research time and other well. Using themselves as the
number of slides students have to create information source for the presentation
depending on your expectations of how reduces the amount of research and
thoroughly you expect them to research. preparation time they will need to produce
Procedure the presentation. This is also a useful task
Give each student or pair / group of for any students who may be applying for a
students a topic to research. This can be job in the near future.
something as simple as a sport, a hobby or You can ask them to either do a personal
a grammar point or something more presentation or a more professional resume
complex like a style of music or architecture. type one.
Give the students some time to do some Procedure
research, make notes and find images Give the students a number of topic areas
related to their topic. to cover and ask them to create one slide
Ask them to organize the information they for each topic area.
have found and explain their rationale for Tell them that each slide can have multiple
the grouping of the information. images and graphs, but only one title and
Now ask them to create a presentation no more than a single sentence or bullet
including 5 -10 slides to share what they point of text.
have discovered. Give the students the topic areas they
The students can then do their should cover for each slide and ask them to
presentations in the classroom or record prepare. You can use the topic areas below.
them and put them online. Personal presentation:
Where you are from
Family
Interests and hobbies
Favorite foods and places
57
People you admire Give the students time to do some research

Close friends and find out a bit more about the person
they choose.
Your achievements
Ask them to prepare a presentation and
Business presentation:
include slides about these aspects of the
Your education persons life:
Your work experience Who they are and where they were born
Awards or achievements Early life
Key skills Their rise to fame
Personal interests Why they became famous
Membership of professional clubs or Their main achievements
associations
What they are doing now
Now put the students into small groups and
Your opinion of them and why you like
ask them to do their presentation to the
them
group.
Now put the students into small groups and
The other students should make notes and
ask them to do their presentation to the
at the end of the presentation they can give
group.
some feedback and tips for improvement.
Give the students time to revise and
improve their presentation then ask them to
record it using one of the presentation tools.
Fan presentation improve their presentation then ask them to
record it using one of the presentation tools.
Get the students to prepare a presentation
about someone they admire.
Film / Book presentation
Rationale
Get students to do a presentation of a film
This activity gives the students the chance they have watched or a book they have read /
to research and talk about something that are going to read.
interests them. Having a topic that
Rationale
personally interests the student should
make the presentation part less intimidating. This is a useful task to either prepare
students before they watch or read, or to
Procedure
help them review what they have learned.
Get the students to choose someone Reading a book or watching a film in a
famous who they admire. foreign language can be very challenging,
58
so having some background knowledge Poem presentations

before they have to deal with the text can be
Get your students to create a presentation of
really helpful. Using the task as a review can
a poem.
also help to add depth to the students
Rationale
understanding of the text.
This is a simple way to give students some
Procedure
content for their presentation so that they
Either choose or let the students choose a can focus more on the delivery. It also helps
book or film.
students to think about the relationship
Ask the students to research the film/book between the words and images they use on
online and find out about these aspects: the slides and how these images can help
Writer / producer people to remember their message.
Genre Procedure
Setting for the story You can choose poems for them or get them
Cultural background to the story to choose ones they like.
Main characters and their relationship to PoemHunter: http://www.poemhunter.com/ is

each other a great place to find the text of poems.
The plot Ask the students to create a presentation

with one line of the poem on each slide.
The significance of the work and how it
may have influenced other writers or Now tell them to find a suitable image to
film makers accompany each line of the poem and put
the images on to the slides. Pixabay: https://
Ask the students to use their research to
pixabay.com/ is great place to find royalty
create a presentation slide deck. They
free images.
should use one slide for each topic.
You can also ask them to add a few slides
Now give the students time to prepare their
with information about the writer and the
presentation.
background of the poem.
Ask them to record the presentation using
Ask the students to record their presentation
one of the presentation tools.
and share it with someone in the class to
Put the students in pairs and ask them to get some feedback.
watch their partners presentation and try to
Once they have the feedback give them the
give them some feedback on how they
chance to improve and produce a final
could improve it.
recording.
Now get the students to do their
Collect the recordings and add them to a
presentations in small groups in class.
class blog or website.
59
Present the news Now ask them to create a short presentation

including images and short videos to inform
Get students to create a local or international
people about the story.
news presentation
Rationale Put the students into small groups and ask
them to do their presentation to the group.
This activity gives students some easily
accessible information to work into their The other students should make notes and
presentation. Most students will almost
certainly have seen a news presentation so
they will have a model to base their Give the students time to revise and
presentation style on and an understanding improve their presentation then ask them to
of the genre. record it using one of the presentation tools.
Procedure
Future outcomes
Ask students to think about recent news
Get the students to produce an opinion based
stories they have heard about.
presentation about the future.
Put them into groups to discuss what they
Rationale
know about the stories.
This activity encourages students to think
Ask students to chose 1 or 2 current local or
more about their own opinions and views
world news stories.
and use information that they know from the
Tell them to do some online research to find present to make logical predictions for the
out more about the background to the future.
stories.
Procedure
Ask them to make notes about these things:
Put students into groups to brainstorm some
What has happened problems they have in their country or city.
Who is involved These could be something like problems of
What were the events leading up to the pollution, emigration, traffic congestion or
story energy.
Who has been affected Ask them to pick one problem they feel is
Some details, facts, figures, dates and particularly important.
times Give them some time to find out more about
What might happen next the problem by doing some online research.
What will be the longer term impact Tell them to focus on these areas:
What the problem is and why its a
problem
60
The causes and background to the You can also use one of these sources to find
problem appropriate data:
A range of possible solutions The UK Data Archive has a searchable data
The pros and cons of each solution base of links to information from various
countries: http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/
What the best solution is
find
What might happen in the future if the
The Guardian newspaper has a page with
problem is/isnt solved.
links to short articles that draw heavily on
Ask the students to prepare a presentation data and provide links to the original
that covers these aspects of the problem research sources: https://
and use one slide to deal with each area. www.theguardian.com/data
Put the students into small groups and ask The UK government publishes data on a
them to do their presentation to the group. wide range of topics related to governance:
The other students should make notes and https://data.gov.uk/
ask questions at the end of the presentation.
The World Bank has an app and a database
Give the students time to revise and students can search to investigate a range
improve their presentation then ask them to of world development indicators: http://
record it using one of the presentation tools. data.worldbank.org/products/wdi
Procedure
Presenting data
Give the students links to the data sets you
Get students to do a presentation based
want them to use, or let them search for
around some data / statistics.
something that interests them.
Rationale
Once they have the data ask them to
This activity provides data sources so that produce graphs, images or tables to
students can focus on extracting information represent that data.
from data for their presentations. They will
Then get the students to produce a short
need to evaluate the data and make
series of slides to present the most
choices about which information is more
interesting elements of the data.
significant.
Get them to include some analysis and a
You can use data that students collect from
summary of what they feel is important
one of their own surveys or find some data
about what the data shows.
online.
Put the students into small groups and ask
A search with [topic + data] will usually
them to do their presentation to the group.
provide some links to useful sources.
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Give the students time to revise and Put the students into small groups and ask
improve their presentation then ask them to them to do their presentation to the group.
record it using one of the presentation tools. The other students should make notes and
Presentation from text
Give students a text or article to read and improve their presentation then ask them to
deconstruct. This could be a longer text such record it using one of the presentation tools.
as an academic text, report or newspaper
article. Presenting a painting
Rationale Get your students to create a presentation
This is a useful comprehension activity for about a painting or artwork.
longer texts as it shows you what students Rationale
understand and see as being important
within the text. It also encourages the
more deeply about works of art and think
students to think more holistically about the
and about the story behind the artwork.
text.
Procedure
Procedure
Show your students a slide show with a
Give the students a text or article to read
number of different works of art.
and ask them to identify the key facts and
information within the text. Ask them to watch and identify ones that
they particularly like.
Then ask them to do some online research
to find sources that authenticate the facts Put the students into small groups or pairs
they found. and get them to tell the other students which
ones they liked.
Ask them to create a short presentation of
the information contained in the text. Ask them to choose one of the art works.
They can include: Now ask them to do some online research to

find out more about the artwork.
Information about the origin of the text.
Give them a list or areas to research, for
A quick summary of the main points in
example:
the text.
The artist, their life and background.
A more detail analysis of the main
information. The creation of the artwork and the
materials used.
A conclusion of what they learned from
the text and how they can use the The story / history behind the artwork.
information they extracted. What, if any impact the artwork has had.
62
Your impressions of the artwork and The causes and actions leading up to
what you think of it. the event
Then ask the students to create a The things that happened as a result of
presentation to share the information they the event.
have found. Ask the students to prepare a presentation
Try to get them to use images on their slides and slide deck to share their research.
rather than text. They should also include a slide on why
Put the students into small groups and ask they feel the event was significant and how
them to do their presentation to the group. it has affected their own life. If the event is
The other students should make notes and something negative you could also ask
ask questions at the end of the presentation. them to prepare a slide on how the event
could have been avoided.
improve their presentation then ask them to Put the students into small groups and ask
record it using one of the presentation tools. them to do their presentation to the group.
Important events ask questions at the end of the presentation.
Get students to produce a presentation about Give the students time to revise and
an important historical event. improve their presentation then ask them to
Rationale record it using one of the presentation tools.

Process & procedure
more about the underlying causes of events
in history and the link between actions and Get your students to present a process or
consequences. procedure.
Procedure Rationale
Put students into small groups and ask them This activity encourages students to think
to brainstorm important historical events. more analytically about how to do or
achieve something. Having a better
You can make this a game and award point
understanding of processes and
for each one they think of.
procedures should help students to plan
Ask students to choose one of the events their own activities more effectively and to
they feel has had the biggest impact on think more analytically.
their own lives.
Procedure
Ask them to do some research and find out
Choose or either get students to choose
more about the event.
some form of process or procedure. This
Ask them to find out about: could be something simple like making
63
something, e.g. a dish or product of some Give or let each student choose a separate
kind, or it could be something more company.
challenging like achieving some kind of Ask them to do some research online to find
goal, e.g. winning a gold medal for a sport, out more about the company.
setting up a company.
They can research:
Get the students to do some research to
The founders of the company and its
find out more about the process.
history
Get them to break the process down into a
What it produces
number of steps.
Its main product
Ask them to prepare a presentation with a
slide for each step in the process. What its worth
Put the students into small groups and ask How much money it makes each year
them to do their presentation to the group. What the future potential of the
company is
ask questions at the end of the presentation. Who its main competitors are
Give the students time to revise and What its like to work there
improve their presentation then ask them to Once the students have done their research
record it using one of the presentation tools. they should prepare a short presentation
about the company.
Pitch a company
Tell them that the presentation will be for
Ask your students to do some research on a potential investors to persuade them to put
company and then present it. money into the company
Rationale Give each students a sum of imaginary
Researching a company and finding out money to invest and tell them they can
more about it can be a very useful skill for invest it in one or all of the companies,
job seekers. In this activity students also except the one they are presenting.
have the opportunity to try to be persuasive Put the students into small groups and ask
and to get students to invest in their them to do their presentation to the group.
company.
Then ask the students to choose how much
Procedure they will invest in each of the companies.
Ask students to brainstorm the names of The student that gets the most investment is
large international companies they like. the winner.
This could be anything from fashion brands
to tech companies like Apple or Google.
64
TOOLS FOR Most computers come with some form of preloaded software
CREATING
that includes a package for creating presentations. There are
however a range of alternatives and online apps available
PRESENTATIONS that have made an attempt to change, update or enhance
the presentation format. As well as the standard tools Ive
included a range of alternatives here for you to explore.
65
PowerPoint - https://www.microsoftstore.com/
PowerPoint has become a standard tool for creating presentations

both in educational and workplace environments. There are many
reasons for sticking with PowerPoint; Its a very powerful tool, Most
students who use Windows PCs will probably already have it
installed on their computers; Many web-based platforms work well
with it. Despite this, it is worth looking around at other tools,
especially if you want to get your presentations online as PPTs are
generally big files that dont export well for online delivery or if your
students use tablet devices. There are also a lot of free alternatives
to PowerPoint, many of which give a more flexible approach to
creating presentations and are much simpler to learn.
Keynote - http://www.apple.com/uk/mac/keynote/
Keynote is Apples alternative to PowerPoint and for me its a much

lighter and more user friendly tool. It has a great range of easy to
adapt stylish templates. It makes designing the look and feel of the
66
presentation much easier. You can export the presentations to a

good range of file types including Microsofts PPT format if you
need to. I also find that Keynote deals much more easily with
importing image and video media.
SlideShare - http://www.slideshare.net/
SlideShare is a free online platform for sharing your presentation

slides. This can make your slides much more accessible to others
after the presentation. The best way to add your slides to
SlideShare is to save them to PDF first and then just upload them.
The site makes it very easy to share your presentation through a
range of social media and you can also easily add them to your
LinkedIn profile.
Simpleshow - https://www.mysimpleshow.com
67
Simpleshow is a great alternative to getting students to stand up

and do a presentation. Instead it allows students to create a
narrated video presentation. This could be used as a great first
step towards delivering their own physical presentation. It also
offers the students the choice between recording their own
narration or using a text to speak generated narration.
The site is free and simple to use. Once students register they just
need to type their script for each slide and stage in the
presentation and then the site will automatically generate images to
go with the script. Students can then go through and edit each
slide, change the images or add their own narration. At each step
their are video guides so there shouldnt be too many technical
challenges. There are also plenty of examples here: https://
www.mysimpleshow.com/examples/ so it would be good to choose
a couple for students to look at first so they understand what they
are going to create.
Prezi - https://prezi.com/
Prezi is very popular among the edtech community at present and

claims to represent a shift away from the traditional linear form of
presentation. It provides a kind canvas on which you can layout a
mixture of assets that you wish to present, such as video clips, text
and images. You then chart a course around the various assets
zooming in and out as you talk through them. Prezi is very mobile
friendly too and has a dedicated app for iOS.
68
Movenote - http://movenote.com/
Movenote is another useful alternative for online courses or when

you dont want students to have to deliver physical presentations. It
is a free tool that enables students to upload their slide-deck and
then add slide by slide talking head narration. The site is very
simple to use. Students just upload a PDF version of the
presentation and then use a webcam and microphone to add their
narration. Movenote has Android and iOS apps for students with
mobile devices too. When the the presentation is recorded it is
stored online and students can share links to their presentations.
AuthorStream - http://www.authorstream.com/
AuthorStream is similar to SlideShare. Its a tool for hosting your

presentations online. You can also add audio narration and the site
will then convert them to video which you can download, though
69
this is a paid feature so you will have to upgrade from the free
version to do that. The site does have a couple of advantages over
SlideShare though, especially for Keynote users. It accepts
Keynote presentations and will retain any animations used in the
presentation too. The site does look a bit out of date though and
isnt as well designed as SlideShare.
QwikSlides - http://www.classtools.net/qwikslides/
QwikSlides is a very simple browser-based tool for creating online

presentations. Basically you can add text, links to online images
and videos and customize the look of the presentation a little. Its
not nearly as powerful in terms of design as something like
Keynote or PowerPoint, but it does get the job done and the
presentation online very quickly and it is free. To get started just
click on the edit icon and you can simply type in your text and the
links to the media you want to include. Each line in the editor
creates a new slide.
70
Tackk - https://tackk.com
Tackk is another alternative to doing presentations in the

classroom. It allows students to create a single webpage and add
different kinds of media and text to the page. The pages are social
so other students can either contribute to the page or comment,
etc. The pages are also easily shared through social media. The
designs look very modern and professional so this is a very
motivating way for students to share their work. Students can use
the single page to share and display the results of their research
and add explainer text.
Buncee - https://www.edu.buncee.com/
Buncee is a cross between presentation tool and digital canvas.

You can use it to create either a sequence of slides or just use one
slide as a kind of digital poster. There is a really wide range of
digital assets that students can search through and use in their
pages and this includes images, video, 360 degree images as well
71
as designs, animations, shapes and text. Buncee also works a little

like a social network so that students can follow each other and like
and comment on each others work. There is also an educational
version of Buncee.
Buncee is a freemium product so there are some features which are
locked without payment (audio recording being the most useful
one) but the tool is still very useful even if you just work with the free
features.
72
12 LESSON PLANS
This chapter contains a collection of 12
lesson plans. Each plan is based around
an authentic infographic from the internet.
The lessons progress through a range of
tasks that engage students interest,
encourage them to interact and share
information, develop their abilities to
extract information and push them to view
information critically and check the
credibility of information in a range of
ways.
INTRODUCTION This chapter contains 12 lesson plans which explore a range

of different topics. Each lesson plan is based around an
authentic infographic that can be found on the internet and
includes detailed instructions on procedure, answer keys,
photocopiable worksheets for students and a classroom
presentation.
The intention of the lesson plans is to help teachers develop
students digital literacy, critical thinking and communication
skills.
Although these lessons were designed for teachers of
English as a foreign or second language, they dont contain
any explicit language focus activities. The lessons focus on
giving students meaningful tasks and activities that involve a
wide range of authentic language use and interaction and
leave it to the teacher to deal with language input and
support based around the needs of their individual students.
As such the lessons are ideal for a Content and Integrated
Language Learning (CLIL) classroom or for native English
74
students who need to develop their study skills and digital

literacies.
How to use the plans

The tasks can be used in their entirety in the sequence in which
they are presented, or you may wish to drop out some of the tasks
or edit the ones you feel may not be appropriate for your students.
With the follow up tasks you may prefer to choose one or two you
feel your students will benefit from most.
The structure of the plans

When designing the tasks for the infographics I have tried to
structure them in the following way.
Discussion tasks
Ive started each lesson with a discussion task to start the
students thinking around the topic so that they start to access
their existing knowledge of the area and both you the teacher and
they the students start to recognize any gaps in their knowledge
of the topic. These tasks are also designed to generate interest
and curiosity.
Reading tasks
For each of the infographics Ive tried to design two reading tasks.
The first is usually a scanning task so that the students look for
specific nuggets of information in the infographic. These tasks are
designed to give them a superficial overview of the structure of
the information.
The second task usually demands deeper comprehension of the
content and the ability to understand how parts of the information
relate to each other.
Post reading discussion tasks
Each lesson has a post reading discussion task and these give
the students the opportunity to share what they have learned from
the content and give a more personal response to the information.
75
Follow up tasks
There are a range of different tasks from research tasks to writing,
presentation and infographic creation tasks. In most cases the
more creative tasks are based around the research that students
are asked to carry out.
The research tasks tend to fall into two categories, credibility
checking or follow on research.
The credibility checking tasks focus on researching the original
sources of the information used in the infographic to see if they
are reliable and to find out if the information can be validated
through secondary sources.
The follow on research tasks involve the students in finding
additional information from either the other students in the class
or from social networks. These usually involve building their own
survey based on their understanding of the information in the
original infographic and then using it collect and collate
information.
The more production orientated tasks are based around the follow
on research task outcomes and usually involve synthesizing and
then presenting their research in either infographic, oral or written
form.
The follow on tasks will involve students in developing their
abilities, not only as passive researchers - checking the validity of
information, but also as active researchers - creating research
surveys and collecting information. For these tasks they will need
to develop some technology skills. These technology skills mainly
focus on the creation of different types of surveys and polls to
collect research and infographic design skills for creating the
visuals for the presentation of their findings.
76
LESSONS IN DIGITAL LITERACY
PERCEPTIONS
OF
ADVERTISING
By Nik Peachey
PERCEPTIONS OF INTRODUCTION
ADVERTISING This lesson plan is based on an infographic that reports on a
survey into advertising, peoples attitudes to it and how it
influences them.
Aims:
To develop students abilities to think critically and form

informed opinions.
To develop students abilities to study and research effectively
using digital tools.
To develop students abilities to read and understand visual
information.
To develop students abilities to check the credibility of online
information.
To develop students abilities to carry out online research and
to represent their findings visually.
To develop students abilities to extract information from
research and create informative text based on their findings.
77
LESSON PLAN How to use this plan

The materials in this plan can be used in different
Resources ways. The first four tasks can be used
independently as a simple reading and
Printable PDF copies of the worksheets can be
discussion lesson.
found at: http://tinyurl.com/zwj9kot
The infographic can be accessed at: http:// The final four tasks can be used selectively to
tinyurl.com/hw6nf3r or by clicking or scanning develop various digital skills.
the QR code. This lesson contains eight tasks:
A discussion task that gets students thinking
about advertisements and how they influence
their behavior.
A reading task that develops students abilities
to scan text for specific information
to check and confirm information.
A discussion task that gives students the
opportunity to reflect on the information and
apply it to their own lives.
A social research task that gets students to
create an online questionnaire to find out about
peoples attitudes to advertising.
A research task that gets students to check the
accuracy of information
.A research task that gets students to research
the advertising techniques used by various
companies.
A writing task that gives students the
opportunity to consolidate their learning in the
form of a blog article.
78
Discussion task - The influence of ads Reading task - Understanding statistics

The aim of this task is to get students thinking The aim of this task is to develop students
about advertisements and the influence they ability to scan read for specific facts and
have over the products they choose to buy. information.
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs Give the students the reading task. Ask them to
or groups and giving them the discussion look at the statistics and try to find out what they
questions. This should help to get the students refer to in the infographic.
thinking, talking and sharing their knowledge of
the topic. Once they have had some time to find the
information, put them in pairs or small groups
Once they have finished talking you may want to and ask them to compare their answers and
do a brief plenary session with the whole group. share what they have discovered.
Discussion task - The influence of ads Have a short plenary session and confirm and
clarify their answers.
Ask and answer these questions.
1. Can you describe a very memorable TV Reading tasks - Understanding statistics
advertisement you have seen? Study the infographic and find out what these
2. Do you have a favorite advertisement? numbers refer to.
3. How much do you believe advertising 1. 500

influences what you buy? 2. 80%
4. How do you feel it influences you? 3. 17%
5. Which kind of advertising do you think is 4. 31%
most effective for you?
5. 3%
6. Do you ever buy unknown brands?
6. 31%
7. Have you ever brought a product because it
was associated with someone famous? 7. 71%
8. Which of these types of product do you think

you would be willing to buy an unknown
Answers:
brand?
1. 500 = The number of people who answered
Breakfast cereal the survey.
A car 2. 80% = The percentage of people who think
Shoes shampoo advertisements have been digitally
enhanced.
Clothes
3. 17% = The percentage of people who think
Perfume/cologne
there should be laws to control advertising.
Coffee
4. 31% = The percentage of people who prefer
to buy branded products.
5. 3% = The percentage of people who were
influenced by advertisement they saw on
social media.
79
6. 31% = The percentage of people who thought Answers:

advertising should make people aware of new 1. False. 81% thought they were exaggerated.
products.
2. False. Only 31% of people say they prefer
7. 71% = The percentage of people who said brands that are advertised.
they found humor in advertisements most
3. True.
memorable.
4. False. Only 12% of people thought ads should
Reading task - Facts about advertising be educational.
The aim of this task is to develop students 5. True.
abilities to read for deeper understanding and 6. False. Ads tend to portray men as idiotic.
to check their assumptions.
Discussion task - Your response
Give the students the reading task. Ask them to
look at the statements and try to decide which The aim of this activity is to get the students to
ones are true. think more deeply about the information and
how it relates to their own lives and to share
Once they have made their decision get them to their responses to it.
look back at the infographic. Ask them to explore
the graphic and to check their assumptions. Give the students the discussion task and put
them into small groups to interview each other.
Once they have had time to check the
information, put them in pairs or small groups Once they have discussed the questions in their
and ask them to compare their answers and groups you might want to have a whole class
share what they have discovered. plenary session.
Have a short plenary session and confirm and You could have your own class poll using some
clarify their answers. of the questions and see how your class
compares to the statistics in the infographic.
Reading task - Facts about advertising
Look at the infographic again and check
whether this information is true or false.
1. Most people think ads for beauty products
are accurate.
2. Most people say they prefer to buy products
because of the advertising.
3. The main reason people try a new product is
because they recognize the brand.
4. Most women think an advertisement should
educate them.
5. Humor is the most effective way to make an
advertisement memorable.
6. Advertisements generally portray men as
being more intelligent than women.
80
Discussion task - Your response Social research task - Attitudes to

Ask and answer these questions. advertisements
The aim of this task is to develop students
1. Do you feel beauty adds are exaggerated? abilities to create research questionnaires and
2. How do you feel about advertisements being present their results.
exaggerated?
Tell the students you want them to create a
3. How do you feel about brand advertising? questionnaire to find out about peoples attitudes
to advertising.
4. Do you click on sponsored ads in social
media? Tell them they should think of ten questions.
5. What do you think an ad should do? Example:
6. What kind of ads do you remember most? Think about the last product you bought. Was it..
7. Do you think men or women are more a) A branded product from a well known
influenced by advertising? company.
b) An unbranded product from and unknown
8. Which of the facts in the infographic
company.
surprised you most?
c) I cant remember.
9. Which of the facts would you like to share
with someone? Who? Why? Once they have written their questions, ask them
to use one of these tools to create an online
10.Which of these quotes do you agree with? questionnaire:
Advertising is the art of convincing people to http://www.typeform.com/
spend money they don't have for something
http://www.surveymonkey.com/
they don't need. - Will Rogers
Once the questionnaires are ready they can then
The most powerful element in advertising is
the truth. - William Bernbach share them with each other and their social
media contacts and friends.
If advertisers spent the same amount of
money on improving their products as they Once they have had time to collect the data, ask
do on advertising then they wouldn't have to them to create a simple infographic to display
advertise them. - Will Rogers the results.
11.How do you feel advertisers could be forced They can use one of these tools:
to be more honest? https://www.canva.com/
12.Do you think advertising harms people? https://www.draw.io/
13.How do you think peoples buying habits http://www.visme.co/
would change if advertising was illegal?
81
Social research task - Attitudes to search terms and some tips on how to carry out
advertisements more advanced searches.
Create a questionnaire to research peoples Ask them to make notes and keep a record of
attitudes to advertising. the sources of the information they find. They
should include:
Think of ten questions you could ask to find out
about peoples attitudes to advertising. URL
Name of publication
Use one of these tools to create your
questionnaire: Name of author
Date of publication
http://www.typeform.com/
Their assessment of the credibility of the
http://www.surveymonkey.com/ source.
Share the questionnaire through social media Once they have completed the research ask
and collect your results. them to share it with the class or in small groups
Collect the results and create your own and compare what they discovered.
infographic to show the results of your
This could lead into a discussion of what makes
research.
a source credible.
You can use one of these tools to create your
infographic: Online research task - Checking information
https://www.canva.com/ Research some of the facts from the
infographic and see if you can find sources
https://www.draw.io/ which either support or contradict them.
http://www.visme.co/ Make notes of the information you find. Be sure
to record:
URL
Name of publication
Online research task - Checking Name of author
information
Date of publication
online research skills and to encourage them to Your assessment of the credibility of the
follow up and check the information they find. source.
Tell the students you want them to do some

online research to check the information in the
infographic. Online research task - Advertising
budgets
The infographic doesnt provide any links to The aim of this task is to develop students
sources, so this will be more difficult. You might online research skills and to encourage them to
just ask them to try to check 3 - 4 of the build on information they find online.
statistics.
Tell the students you want them to do some
If your students search skills are weak, you online research to find out more about
should help them with some suggestions of
82
advertising and how much companies spend on Online research task - Advertising budgets
advertising their products.
Think of ten big brand name companies.
Ask them to start by brainstorming ten prominent Try to find:
brand name companies.
How much each company spends on
Once they have their ten companies as them to advertising
try to find out: How the money is spent (online ads, TV
How much each company spends on on ads, newspaper, etc)
advertising An example of an ad campaign they
How the money is spent (online ads, TV ads, created
newspaper, etc) Make notes and keep a record of the sources
An example of an ad campaign they created of the information you find.
Ask them to make notes and keep a record of Include:
the sources of the information they find. They
URL
should include:
Name of publication
URL
Name of author
Name of publication
Date of publication
Name of author
Your assessment of the credibility of the
Date of publication source.
source.
Once they have completed the research ask Writing task - Advertising tips for startups
them to share it with the class or in small groups
and compare what they discovered.
writing skills and also to pull together and
They could also create some form of infographic consolidate everything they have learned from
or presentation to share the information. the lesson tasks.
Tell the students you want them to write an article
for a blog. Tell them to give it the title Advertising
tips for startups. Tell them the article should be
aimed at people who are just starting a new
business.
Tell them to structure the article in five sections:
Why advertise
Different media channels for advertising
campaigns
Ways to make advertisements memorable.
Some of the disadvantages of advertising.
Your best 5 tips for a marketing campaign.
83
Put the students in pairs or small groups and Writing task - Advertising tips for startups
ask them to brainstorm what should go in each
section. Write an article for a blog aimed at people
starting their own companies.
Get them to change groups and share their
ideas. Give it the title Advertising tips for startups.
Ask the students to work alone and produce a Structure the article in five sections:
first draft of their article. The writing part of the Why advertise
task could be done by the students at home or
Different media channels for advertising
in class. campaigns
Once the students have done a first draft you
Ways to make advertisements
could give them a study partner and ask them memorable.
to peer edit their texts.
Some of the disadvantages of
They could then review the text before advertising.
submitting it to you.
Your best 5 tips for a marketing
Here are some tips you could give the students campaign.
on peer reviewing:
Be positive and look for what you like
Copyright Nik Peachey
about the text.
Identify any spelling or grammatical
errors.
Identify anything you feel wasnt clear.
Think about whether the tone of the text is
consistent and appropriate for the reader.
Has the writer avoided mixing formal and
informal styles?
Does the article have the five clear
sections?
84
BODY
LANGUAGE
By Nik Peachey
BODY INTRODUCTION
LANGUAGE
In this lesson students will find out about body language and its
impact on communications. They will have the opportunity to try
to use body language and they will carry out online research to
find out how well people consciously understand body language.
Aims:
To develop students abilities to understand the impact of body

language on communication.

information.

information.

85

ways. The first three tasks of the plan can be
Resources
used independently as a simple reading and
discussion class.
found at: http://tinyurl.com/j4azsog The last two research tasks can be used
The infographic can be accessed at: http:// independently as follow up tasks or you could
tinyurl.com/grmsxhd or by clicking or scanning use both. These tasks are likely to take longer
the QR code. and could be set as homework, independent
study tasks or as projects. Both of these tasks
will require internet access.
This lesson contains five tasks:
A discussion task which encourages students
to think about their existing understanding of
body language.
A reading task which develops students
abilities to understand visual information.
A discussion task which gives students the
opportunity to formulate a personal response to
the information they have studied.
An online research task which guides students
through the process of researching and
corroborating the credibility of online
information.
through the process of creating research and
disseminating the results.
86
Discussion task - Body language Reading task - Exploring body

The aim of this activity is to get students language
thinking about the topic and sharing their The aim of this task is to develop students
existing knowledge and opinions. abilities to read for specific information and
develop a deeper understanding of the
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs
content.
or groups and giving them the discussion
questions. These should help you get the Give the students the reading task and a link to
students thinking, talking and sharing their the infographic.
knowledge of the topic.
Ask them to explore the graphic and try to
Once they have finished talking about the topic answer the questions.
you may want to do a brief plenary session with
the whole group or you could go straight into the Once they have had some time to answer the
reading task. questions, put them in pairs or small groups and
give them some time to compare and discuss
Discussion task - Body language their answers.
Ask and answer these questions. Once they have had time to compare their
answers, have a short plenary session and
1. What is body language?
confirm and clarify their answers.
2. What and how do you think we can
communicate without words? Reading task - Exploring body language
3. Which of these things do think has the most Look at the infographic and try to answer these
impact on the how we communicate? questions.
Words 1. What do these statistics refer to?
Tone of voice 11%
Gesture 7%
2. Which body postures communicate each of
Facial expression these messages?
The way we sit or stand Defensiveness
4. How conscious are you of your own body Frustration
language?
Disinterest
5. Do you think men or women are more Boredom
conscious of body language? Why?
Aggressiveness
6. Do you think you are able to read other
peoples body language? Impatience
87
Answers Discussion task - Using body language

1. During this discussion try to adopt either a
The amount of our understanding that comes positive or negative posture and see how it
through our ears and what we hear. effects the other people in your group.
The amount of understanding that comes Ask and answer these questions.
through other senses (touch, taste, smell) 1. What surprised you about the information in
2. the infographic?
Defensiveness = Arms folded 2. Is there any information in the graphic which

you think may not be true?
Frustration = Hands with closed fists
3. Who would you like to share the information
Disinterest = Avoiding eye contact in the infographic with? Why?
Boredom = Leaning back in your chair, tapping 4. How could you use what you learned from
your foot this infographic?
Aggressiveness = Leaning too far forward 5. Do you make any of the negative body
postures? When?
Discussion task - Using body 6. Can you see anyone who is using a positive
language body posture now?
The aim of this activity is to encourage 7. Do you think body language is the same for
students to think more critically about the all cultures and nationalities?
information in the graphic and how it can be 8. Do you think your posture is having an
applied to their own lives. impact on your communications now?
9. How can you be more aware of your own
Give the students the discussion task and put
and other peoples body language in future?
them in pairs or small groups to compare their
answers.
Once they have finished you can have a short

plenary session so they can share their
impressions.
You could also try to summarize the discussion

for them into brief bullet points.
88
Online research task - Checking to decide whether the information in the graphic
is reliable and true or not.
sources
The aim of this activity is to develop students Online research task - Checking sources
abilities to check the authenticity and credibility
Check the statistics in the infographic and see
of information they find online and to develop if you can find sources to support or contradict
their ability to reference the sources of online them.
content they find.
Find the original sources of the information
Ask the students if they think the information in quoted in the infographic itself and see if they
really exist.
the infographic is all true?
Use a search engine to try to find other
See if there is any information that they doubt. sources which either support or contradict
the information in the infographic.
Ask them why they doubt or believe the
Try to find at least two additional sources
information. that either contradict or support the
information.
Tell them that you want to do some research and
to see if they can corroborate the information. Make sure you take notes of the sources and
the information they offer.
Tell them they should do this in two ways.
Include:
Firstly they should find the original sources of the URL
information quoted in the infographic itself and
Name of publication
see if they really exist.
Authors name
Secondly they should use a search engine to try
Date of publication
to find other sources which either support or
contradict the information in the infographic. Your opinion about the credibility of the
source.
Ask them to try to find at least two additional
sources that either contradict or support the
information.
Tell them to make sure they take notes of the

sources and the information they find. Make sure
that they know how to record the information
sources (URL, name of publication, authors
name, date, etc.)
Once they have completed their research you

could conduct a plenary session and get the
students to present what they have found and try
89
Social research task - Researching They can use http://www.typeform.com/ to create

the questionnaire. This has a built in image
body language
search functionality which should make the
The aim of this activity is to develop students process much easier.
abilities to carry out digital research and to
disseminate their research findings through a Once the students have created their
visual medium. questionnaires they will need to circulate links to
them and start gathering results. They could use
You may wish students to do the social media their own social media networks to do this or you
task in groups or pairs as a project rather than could circulate the questionnaires through your
working alone. own network, though if you have a number of
similar questionnaires it could be challenging to
You will need to start by asking students to
get a sufficient number of answers.
search for images of people showing the posture
described in the infographic. Collecting responses is likely to take time so you
may need to leave the follow up to the
Once they have found at least 5 different images
questionnaire until at least a week later.
ask them to think about how they would use
these to create a questionnaire. Once the students have gathered some data
through their questionnaire, you could ask them
There are a number of ways they could
to share what they have learned in the classroom
approach this.
and see if their findings are similar or different.
They could show each image with multiple
Tell the students you want them to create an
choice questions asking what attitude the
infographic to show the results of their research.
recipient thinks is being conveyed and see how
They could use one of these tools to do this.
many of the recipients choose the correct
attitude. http://www.draw.io/
In this case the aim of the questionnaire would https://www.canva.com/
be to discover how well people were able to read
body language. Ask the students to think first about how they will
organize and display the information. Will they
Alternatively they could show the images and need graphs or images? How should they
ask recipients if they think the person in the structure the overall look of the infographic?
image is conveying a specific attitude. In this
case the aim of the questionnaire would be to Get them to sketch out the design for the
test the commonality of the interpretations of infographic on paper first so they think about
body language. how they will organize it.
This could be done through open questions Encourage them to minimize the amount of text
allowing recipients to type in the attitude they and use icons and images to convey as much of
think is being conveyed by the person. the meaning as possible.
90
Once they have finished their infographics they

can share them either in the classroom or
online. Discus their conclusions and encourage
them to give peer feedback on their designs.
Save the infographics to their e-portfolio if they

have one.
Social research task - Researching body

language
Search online and find 5 images of different

people showing the different postures from the
infographic.
Think about how you can use these to create

a questionnaire that will test peoples ability to
read the body language of these people.
Create your questionnaire using http://

www.typeform.com/
Share your questionnaire on social media.
When a reasonable number of people have

completed the questionnaire build an
infographic to show your results.

infographic:
http://www.draw.io/
https://www.canva.com/
91
BREAKFAST AROUND
THE WORLD
By Nik Peachey
BREAKFAST INTRODUCTION
AROUND THE
WORLD In the lesson students will find out about the different things
people usually have for breakfast in different countries and they
will develop an awareness of the importance of having a good
breakfast.
Aims:
To develop students abilities to think critically and form

informed opinions.
To develop students abilities to understand statistical
information.
information.
To develop students abilities to carry out and create online
research and to represent their findings visually.
92

ways. The first four tasks can be used
Resources
Printable PDF copies of the worksheets can be discussion lesson.
found at: http://tinyurl.com/grtjac6
The final four tasks can be used selectively as
The infographic can be accessed at: http://
follow up task or you can use all four tasks as an
tinyurl.com/o7edeft or by clicking or scanning
ongoing project over the course of a number of
the QR code.
lessons.
This lesson contains eight tasks:
about the food they eat and food from other
countries.
to scan read text for specific information.
A reading task that encourages students to
read for deeper comprehension and to check
information.
opportunity to respond to the information more
personally.
A social research task that gets students to
create a questionnaire to find out about the
breakfast habits of the their friends.
An online research task that encourages
students to check the accuracy of information
they find online.
An online research task that gets students to
find out more about food and create an online
quiz.
A writing task which gives students the
93
Discussion task - Food in your home Reading task - Understanding statistics

about foods from other countries and the food abilities to scan read for specific facts and
they like to eat. information.
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs Give the students the reading task. Ask them to
or groups and giving them the discussion look at the statistics and try to find out what they
questions. This should help to get the students refer to in the infographic.
thinking, talking and sharing their knowledge of Once they have had some time to find the
different foods. information, put them in pairs or small groups
and ask them to compare their answers and
Once they have finished talking you can do a
share what they have discovered.
brief plenary session with the whole group.
Have a short plenary session and confirm and
Discussion task - Food in your home clarify their answers.
Reading task - Understanding statistics
1. Which is your favorite meal of the day? Why?
Study the infographic.
2. What do you usually have for breakfast?
1. What do these statistics refer to?
3. Who makes breakfast in your home?
4. What things do you like to cook? 22 million
5. Do you eat to live or live to eat? 6 hours
6. What foods do you like from other countries? 1,688 feet
7. What do you know about these dishes? 11 pounds
Tagine 2. Find five reasons why eating breakfast is
Natto good for you.
Vegemite
Appachatti
Answers:
Tarhana
1.
Boerewors
22 million = The number of jars of vegemite
Yerba Mate
produced each year.
Nasi Lemak
6 hours = The length of time beans are
steamed to make natto.
1,688 feet = The longest boerewors.
11 pounds = The amount of yerba mate
consumed by each Argentinian in a year.
2.
34% less likely to develop diabetes
Less likely to become obese
Eat more healthily through the rest of the day
Score higher in maths tests
94
Eat less sweets and soft drinks Discussion task - Your response
Eat more fruit and vegetables The aim of this activity is to get the students to
think more deeply about the information and
Reading task - Facts about EI how it relates to their own lives and to share
The aim of this task is to develop students their responses to it.
ability to read for deeper understanding and to
find specific information.
Give the students the reading task. Once they have discussed the questions in their
Ask them to read and find out which of the groups you might want to have a whole class
ingredients goes into each dish. plenary session.
and ask them to compare their answers and Ask and answer these questions in pairs.
1. Which breakfast is most like your own?
clarify their answers. 2. Which breakfast would you most like to try?
3. Which breakfast would you least like to try?
Reading task - Ingredients
4. Which breakfast do you think is most
Read again and match these ingredients to the
healthy?
different dishes.
5. Will you be more likely to eat breakfast now?
1. Dry leaves and twigs
2. Lamb
3. Minced beef
4. Peanuts
5. Rice flour
6. Soya beans
7. Yeast extract
8. Yogurt
Answers:
1. Yerba Mate
2. Tagine
3. Boerewors
4. Nasi Lemak
5. Appam (Hoppers)
6. Natto
7. Vegimite
8. Tarhana
95
Social research task - Your breakfast Social research task - Your breakfast
The aim of this task is to develop students Create a questionnaire to find out about
abilities to create research questionnaires and breakfast attitudes and habits.
present their results. Think of ten questions you want to ask.
Tell the students you want them to create a Create a questionnaire using one of these
questionnaire to find out how important people tools:
think breakfast is and which foods are most http://www.typeform.com/
popular for breakfast. http://www.surveymonkey.com/
Get the students to think about the design of
their questionnaire and the questions they will Share the questionnaire with your classmates,
ask. family and friends.
Once they have the questions ask them to create Once you have collected the results you can
a questionnaire. They can use one of these tools: create a presentation or infographic to share
http://www.typeform.com/ what you discovered.
You can use one of these tools:
Ask them to share the questionnaire online
through their social network contacts or through https://www.canva.com/
friends, family and other students in the class. https://www.draw.io/
Once they have collected the responses ask http://www.visme.co/
them to create an infographic to show the results
of their research. They can use one of these tools
to create the infographic:
https://www.draw.io/
http://www.visme.co/
96
Research task - Information checking Online research task - Food trivia

The aim of this task is to develop students The aim of this task is to develop students
abilities to check the accuracy of information ability to do simple online research.
online.
Tell the students you want them to create a food
Ask the students if they believe all of the health trivia quiz to test peoples knowledge of food.
claims made in the infographic.
Tell them they should first do some research to
Tell them you want them to do some online find some interesting facts.
research to find sources which support or
contradict the information. Give them this list of sites if you want to restrict
where they search for the information:
Tell them to make notes and keep a record of the
sources of the information they find. Give some examples of questions:
http://www.factslides.com/s-Food
Once they have completed this work you could http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/
ask them to create a short presentation showing http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/
the results of their research. They could use one sciencefacts/food.html
of these tools to do this:
http://www.mrbreakfast.com/
http://www.visme.co/ glossary_term.asp?glossaryID=152
http://presentationtube.com/ If you would prefer them to have more freedom
http://www.present.me/ but still stay safe you can use an education
specific search engine. Here are some options:
Research task - The healthy breakfast http://www.kiddle.co/

Try to find out if the information in the http://www.sweetsearch.com/
infographic is true. Once they have done their research ask them to
Research some of the facts presented in the create an online questionnaire using one of these
infographic. tools:
Try to find sources of information that either http://www.typeform.com/
support or contradict the facts. http://www.surveymonkey.com/
Make notes of the information you find. Be sure
to record: Once the questionnaires are ready they can then
share them with each other and their social
URL media contacts and friends.
Name of website or publication
Name of author
Date of publication
Your opinion of the credibility of the
source.
Make short presentation to show the results of
your research.
97
Online research task - Food trivia Conclusion - explaining why its important
to know about the food you eat.
Create a food trivia quiz to find out what people
know about the food they eat. Students could do the writing part of the task at
You can use these websites to do some home or in class.
research first: Once the students have done a first draft you
http://www.factslides.com/s-Food could give them a study partner and ask them
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/ to peer edit their texts.
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/ They could then review the text before
sciencefacts/food.html submitting it to you.
http://www.mrbreakfast.com/ Here are some tips you could give the students
glossary_term.asp?glossaryID=152 on peer reviewing:
Or you could use these search engines to find Be positive and look for what you like
more food facts: about the text.
http://www.kiddle.co/ Identify any spelling or grammatical
http://www.sweetsearch.com/ errors.
Once you have found some interesting facts, Identify anything you feel wasnt clear.
write ten questions to test peoples knowledge. Think about whether the tone of the text is
Use your questions to create an online consistent and appropriate for the reader.
questionnaire using one of these tools: Has the writer avoided mixing formal and
http://www.typeform.com/ informal styles?
http://www.surveymonkey.com/ Has the writer completed the task with all
five parts of the article?
Share your questionnaires with other students
or through social media and collect your If you want your students to be able to publish a
results. final draft of their article you can use one of
these blogging platforms:
http://www.kidblog.org/
http://blogger.com/
Writing task - Food facts
Or save their articles as PDF and then share
The aim of this task is to develop students them using one of these online publishing
writing skills and also to pull together and platforms:
consolidate what they have learned from the
lesson tasks. https://www.scribd.com/
http://www.issuu.com/
Tell the students you want them to write an
article for a health blog. Tell them to give it the
title Food facts.
Introduction - saying what the article is
about
Food facts - sharing some of the
information you have learned
98
Writing task - Food facts

Write an article for an online food magazine.
Give the article the title - Food facts
Structure the article with 3 main paragraphs.
Introduction - saying what the article is
about
Food facts - sharing some of the
information you have learned
Conclusion - explaining why its
important to know about the food you
eat.
Find some images to illustrate your article.
Exchange the first draft of your article with
another student and get and give some
suggestions about how you can improve it.
Create a final draft.
99
EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE
By Nik Peachey
EMOTIONAL INTRODUCTION
INTELLIGENCE
This lesson is based on an infographic about the importance of
emotional intelligence (EI) and its role in our lives. In the lesson
students will explore the differences between IQ and EI and
develop an understanding of how they can improve their EI and
how doing this can benefit them.
Aims:
To develop students understanding of EI and its importance.
information.
information.
100

found at: http://tinyurl.com/hjqeeys The final four tasks can be used selectively as
The infographic can be accessed at: http:// follow up task or you can use all four tasks as an
tinyurl.com/zh3mdrn or by clicking or scanning ongoing project over the course of a number of
the QR code. lessons.
A discussion task which gets students thinking
about the differences between IQ and EI.
abilities to scan read text for specific
information.
A reading task which encourages students to
read for deeper comprehension and to check
information.
An online research task which gets students to
check the accuracy of the information they
find.
An online research task which gets students to
find out more about IQ and the origins of the
test.
A social research task which gets students to
create an online questionnaire to measure EI.
101
Discussion task - EI vs IQ Have a short plenary session and confirm and

The aim of this task is to get students thinking
about IQ and EI and what they represent.
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs Study the infographic.
or groups and giving them the discussion
questions. This should help to get the students What do these statistics refer to?
thinking, talking and sharing their knowledge of 59%
the topic.
20%
Once they have finished talking you can do a
34%
3 minutes
You could ask the students to try to decide which
they think is more important.
Answers:
Discussion task - EI vs IQ
Ask and answer these questions. 59% = Percentage of managers who said they
1. What is IQ? wouldnt employ someone with low EI even if
their IQ was high.
2. Do you know what your IQ is?
20% = The reduction in formal complaints
3. How is IQ measured? following EI training.
4. What is emotional intelligence (EI)? 34% = The increase in profit growth of
5. How do you think EI can be measured? companies hiring high EI managers.
6. How important do you think EI is in the work 3 minutes = The amount of additional time
place? doctors needed to spend with patients talking
7. In what kinds of jobs do you think EI would and expressing sympathy in order to reduce
be more important than IQ? malpractice suits.
8. How do you think you could improve your
EI? Reading task - Facts about EI
ability to read for deeper understanding and to
check their assumptions.
The aim of this task is to develop students Give the students the reading task. Ask them to
abilities to scan read for specific facts and look at the statements and try to decide which
information. ones are true.
Give the students the reading task. Ask them to Once they have made their decision get them to
look at the statistics and try to find out what they look back at the infographic. Ask them to explore
refer to in the infographic. the graphic and to check their assumptions.
Once they have had some time to find the Once they have had time to check the
information, put them in pairs or small groups information, put them in pairs or small groups
and ask them to compare their answers and and ask them to compare their answers and
share what they have discovered. share what they have discovered.
102
Have a short plenary session and confirm and Discussion task - Your response
The aim of this activity is to get the students to
think more deeply about the information and
Reading task - Facts about EI how it relates to their own lives and to share
Look at the infographic again and find out their responses to it.
which of these statements are true or false.
1. In 2011 the majority of hiring managers them into small groups to interview each other.
placed increased emphasis on EI.
Once they have discussed the questions in their
2. EI can be improved with training. groups you might want to have a whole class
plenary session. You could also ask the students
3. The most important aspect of EI is that it
which they now think is more important EI or IQ
enables managers to lead by example. and split them into two groups.
4. EI can impact on profitability.
5. Doctors can reduce their number of
Ask and answer these questions in pairs.
complaints by spending at least 3 extra
minutes examining each patient. Repeat the discussion you had before you
6. People with high IQs tend not to admit to looked at the infographic.
their own mistakes or take criticism well. 1. What is emotional intelligence (EI)?
7. You can improve your EI by being more 2. How do you think EI can be measured?
aware of gestures and body language in 3. How important do you think EI is in the work
yourself and others. place?
8. Being positive is an important part of EI. 4. In what kinds of jobs do you think EI would
be more important than IQ?
Answers: 5. How do you think you could improve your
1. False. It was only 1 in 3. EI?
2. True 6. Is there any information in the infographic
3. False. The most important aspect is remaining that you disagree with?
calm under pressure. Leading by example
was 4th. 7. Who would you like to share the information
4. True. Some studies have found this to be true. with? Why?
5. False. They should spend 3 extra minutes 8. Can you think of someone you know who has
talking and sympathizing with the patient. low EI? What do they do that makes you think
6. Unclear. Its implied that this is true because they have low EI?
people with higher EI are more likely to take
9. Would you like to have EI training? Why?
criticism and admit mistakes.
7. True.
8. True.
103
Online research - Fact checking Research task - IQ

online research skills and to encourage them to online research skills.
follow up and check the information they find.
Ask the students what they know about the IQ
Tell the students you want them to do some test.
online research to check the information in the
infographic. Tell them you want them to do some online
research to find out more.
Ask them to start by searching through the
sources at the end of the infographic. Then ask Ask them to:
them to try to find 2 - 3 other online sources
which confirm or contradict the information. Find a link to a free test.
Ask them to make notes and keep a record of Take the test and see what results they get.
the sources of the information they find. Research the background history of IQ testing.
They should include: Tell them to make notes and keep a record of the
URL sources of the information they find.
Name of publication Once they have completed their research ask
Name of author them to also add some notes about their own
Date of publication assessment of the test and how effective they
think it is.
source. Once they have completed this work you could
Once they have completed the research ask ask them to either create a short presentation
them to share it with the class or in small groups about IQ, a summary text or even an infographic
and compare what they discovered. to share their findings using one of these tools:
This could lead into a discussion of what makes https://www.canva.com/
a source credible. https://www.draw.io/
Online research task - Fact checking Research task - IQ
Try to check some of the facts and statistics Do some research into IQ.
presented in the infographic. See if you can find similar information to that in
Try to find sources which either support or the EI infographic.
contradict these facts. You should:
Make notes of: Find a link to a free test.
URL Take the test and see what results you get.
Name of publication Research the background history of IQ
testing.
Name of author
Date of publication Create a report to share the information you
found.
Your assessment of the credibility of the
source.
104
Social research task - Measuring EI Social research task - Measuring EI

The aim of this task is to develop students Create a questionnaire to find out if someone
ability to create research questionnaires and has high or low EI.
present their results.
Think of ten questions you will ask.
Tell the students you want them to create a Try to offer 3 possible answers for each
questionnaire to find out if someone has a high
question.
EI.
Example:
Tell them they should do this by creating You make a serious mistake at work. What do
questions based around the information in the you do?
infographic.
a) Hope nobody finds out.
Give some examples of questions: b) Admit to the mistake and think about how
Example: you can avoid repeating it.
You make a serious mistake at work. What do c) Deny that you have done anything wrong.
you do?
a) Hope nobody finds out. Link each answer to one of three different
personality types:
b) Admit to the mistake and think about how you
can avoid repeating it. High EI
c) Deny that you have done anything wrong. Moderate EI
Low EI.
Once they have written their questions, ask them
to use the Riddle personality test: http:// Create your questionnaire using the
www.riddle.com/ and create three personalities:
personality test in Riddle.
High EI
Share your questionnaire with your
Moderate EI
classmates and your social media contacts.
Low EI.
Create a short report to show the results of
They should link the answer choices from each your research.
question to one of the personality types.
Once the questionnaires are ready they can then

share them with each other and their social
media contacts and friends.
Once they have had time to collect the data, ask

them to create a simple infographic to display
the results using one of these tools:
105
Writing task - EI at work Writing task - EI at work

The aim of this task is to develop students Write an article for a business blog about EI.
writing skills and also to pull together and
consolidate everything they have learned from Include these sections in your essay:
the lesson tasks. A definition of EI
Tell the students you want them to write an The importance of EI in the workplace
article for a business blog. Tell them to give it
The importance of EI in personal
the title EI in the workplace .
relationships
How to improve EI
A definition of EI
Conclusion
The importance of EI in the workplace
The importance of EI in personal Share your draft with one of your classmates
relationships and get their feedback.
How to improve EI
Conclusion
Students could do the writing part of the task at Copyright Nik Peachey
home or in class.
Once the students have done a first draft you
could give them a study partner and ask them
to peer edit their texts.
They could then review the text before
Here are some tips you could give the students
on peer reviewing:
Be positive and look for what you like about
the text.
Identify any spelling or grammatical errors.
informal styles?
Has the writer completed the task with all five
parts of the article?
106
50 FACTS
ABOUT HAIR
By Nik Peachey
50 FACTS ABOUT INTRODUCTION

HAIR
In this lesson students will learn some amazing facts about hair
and the historical significance it has had in different cultures
around the world. They will also learn to challenge and question
the accuracy of information they find online and how to carry out
their own research into facts about skin and create their own
infographic.
Aims:
To develop students conversation skills.
To develop students abilities to think critically about online
information.
information.
information.
107

Printable PDF copies of the worksheets can be independently as a simple reading and
found at: http://tinyurl.com/gvggpmp discussion class.
tinyurl.com/n4b4p48 or by clicking or The last three tasks are research tasks. These
scanning the QR code. are the tasks that push students to develop their
digital literacies most. Its not necessary to use
all the tasks. These tasks are likely to take longer
and could be set as homework, independent
study tasks or as projects and followed up in the
classroom. The research tasks will all require
internet access.
This lesson contains seven tasks:
around the topic.
abilities to use text to check information.
develop deeper comprehension.
through the process of researching and
corroborating the credibility of online
information.
A research task which develops students
abilities to use social media to carry out
research.
108
Discussion task - You and hair Reading task - Is it true?

about the topic and accessing and sharing ability to read and scan text to check specific
their existing knowledge and opinions. information.
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs Give the students the sentences and get them to
or groups try to predict which ones are true.
Give them the discussion questions and get Then give them a link to the infographic.
them to ask and answer them in their groups. Ask them to study the graphic and check their
predictions.
Once they have finished talking about the topic
Once the students have had some time to work
alone, get them to compare and share their
the whole group to give them the chance to answers in groups.
share as a group.
Have a short plenary session to clarify and
confirm the answers.
Discussion task - You and hair Reading task - Is it true?
Ask and answer these questions. Read the infographic and find out which facts
are true.
1. How much time and effort each day do you
spend on your hair? 1. Hair can be used to clean up oil spills.
2. How would you like to change your hair? 2. On average each person produces 16 miles
of hair each year.
3. How do you think your hair influences the
way people see you and what they think of 3. 13% of women in Scotland have red hair.
you? 4. Blonde hair is more expensive than other
4. How do you feel about men with facial hair? hair colors.
How much is too much? 5. Hair is made of more than 5 elements
5. Are you more or less attracted to people including sulphur.
because of their hair? What factors effect 6. You can identify from a single hair whether
your attraction? the owner is a woman or a man.
7. The man with the longest hair lives in
Vietnam.
8. On average women spend 7 months of their
lives styling their hair by the time they are
65.
9. There was a beard tax in Russia in 1705.
10.The ancient greeks believed people with red
hair were vampires.
109
Answers Discussion task - Your response

1. True The aim of this task is to encourage a more
2. False - 10 miles / 16 Kilometers personal and critical response to the
3. False 13% of the population. Not only women. information students have been studying.
4. True
5. True Put the students in small groups to discuss their
6. False - Gender cannot be determined from responses to the questions.
hair.
When the students have discussed the questions
7. False - He did live in Vietnam but he died in
in their groups you may want to have a short
2010.
class plenary.
8. True
9. True
10. True
Reading task - Insane facts Ask and answer these questions.
The aim of this activity is to encourage the 1. Which of the facts do you feel are least likely
students to explore the information in the to be true?
infographic in more depth and to build a more 2. Which of the facts do you think may have
personal connection. changed?
Tell the students that there are many more 3. Which of the facts would you like to share
statistics in the graphic. with a friend / family member? Who? Why?
Get the students to read through the infographic 4. Why do you think society has such a positive
again and find facts that surprise them. attitude to blonde hair?
Once the students have had the opportunity to 5. Why do you think society has such a
study the graphic put them into groups to share negative attitude towards body hair?
the facts they found most surprising. 6. Most men fear going bald. Why do you think
this is?
Reading task - Insane facts
7. Which of the facts have changed the way
The infographic is in 5 sections: you see yourself/society?
Facts 8. How many of the facts do you think you will
Insane facts about hair color still remember next week?
Insane facts about hair biology 9. Which of the facts would you like to
remember?
Insane facts about hair beauty
Insane facts about hair history
Look through each section and choose what
you think is the most surprising fact from each
section.
110
Research task - Fact checking Research task - Fact checking

The aim of this activity is to develop students Choose 5 of the facts and research them to see
abilities to check the authenticity and credibility if they really are true.
of information they find online and to develop Try to find 3 sources which either support or
their ability to reference the sources of online contradict the facts.
content they find. Be sure to make notes about the sources you
use:
Ask the students if they think the information in
the infographic is all true? Include:
See if there is any information that they doubt. URL

Name of author or organization/publisher
Ask them why they doubt or believe the
information. Publication date
Type of publication
Tell them to do some research and to see if they
can corroborate the information. Your assessment of the source credibility
Ask them to choose five facts to check.
Tell them to check the facts in two ways.
Firstly they should check the sources of the

information quoted in the infographic itself and
see if they really exist.
Secondly they should use a search engine to

try to find other sources which either support or
contradict the information in the infographic.

information.
Tell them to make sure they take notes of the

sources and the information they find. Make sure
that they know how to record the information
sources (URL, name of publication, authors
name, date, etc.)

to decide whether the information in the graphic
111
Research task - Skin facts Social media task - Questioning your

The aim of this task is to develop students friends
abilities to find information and disseminate the The aim of this task is to develop students
information in a visual form. abilities to create and carry out online
research.
Tell the students they are going to do some
research into skin. Ask the students to look at the infographic again
Ask them to use a search engine and try to find and to create a questionnaire with ten questions.
up to ten similar facts about skin.
Tell them they can choose to make it a quiz type
Tell them to be sure to write down the sources of questionnaire to find out how much people know
the information they find. about hair or they can make it a research type
questionnaire to find peoples opinions.
Once they have the ten facts, ask them to create
an infographic to show their results. Use the two question types as examples.
Once they have created their infographics ask Get the students to write the questions and
the students to share them and look at each answer choices. Once they have completed
others graphics and find the ten facts that most them they can create an online questionnaire
surprised them. using one of these tools:
Research task - Skin facts
https://www.surveymonkey.com/
Do some research into skin facts and see if you
can find similar information. Once they have created the questionnaire ask
the students to share it with their social media
Find 10 facts. contacts.
Be sure to make notes about the sources you Give the students a week or two to collect
use:
results. Once they have all the results of the
Include: questionnaire ask them to create an infographic
URL to display their results.
Name of author or organization/publisher They can use one of these tools to create the
Publication date infographic:
Type of publication https://www.canva.com/
Your assessment of the source credibility https://www.draw.io/
Use the research to produce your own

infographic.
Remember to include the sources of the
information at the end.
112
Social media task - Questioning your friends Copyright Nik Peachey
Create your own questionnaire with 10

questions about hair.
This could be a questionnaire to check what
people know about hair.
E.g.
What percentage of the Scottish population has
red hair?
5%
10%
13%
25%
Or one to check their opinions and
preferences.
Which hair color would you prefer to have?
Black
Red
Brown
Blonde
questionnaire:
Share the questionnaire with your social media
contacts.
One you have collected the answers create an
infographic to share your findings.
infographic:
113
THE SCIENCE OF
HAPPINESS
By Nik Peachey
THE SCIENCE OF INTRODUCTION

HAPPINESS
This lesson is based on an infographic about happiness and the
factors that affect our happiness.In the lesson students will
explore their views of what makes them happy and discover
some of the science behind what happiness is and the factors
that create and affect it.
Aims:


information.

information.


114

Printable PDF copies of the worksheets can be discussion lesson. The final five tasks can be
found at: http://tinyurl.com/jooyh5t used selectively depending on the aims of your
The infographic can be accessed at: http:// lesson.
tinyurl.com/zcavp5m or by clicking or scanning
the QR code. This lesson contains nine tasks:
around the topic.
abilities to check information.
look more carefully at the information.
A research task which gets students to check
and explore the authenticity of sources.
the validity of the information in the infographic.
A research task which gets students to find out
more about Maslow and the hierarchy of
needs.
create an online questionnaire to research
happiness.
form of a magazine article.
115
Discussion task - What makes you happy? Reading task - Checking information
The aim of this task is to get students thinking The aim of this task is to raise interest in the
and sharing opinions about their own information and to develop students ability to
happiness and the things they believe make read to confirm information.
them happy.
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs look at the statements and try to decide if they
or groups and giving them the discussion are true or false.
questions. This should help you get the students
Once they have made their decision give them a
thinking, talking and sharing their knowledge of
link to the infographic. Ask them to explore the
the topic.
graphic and to check their assumptions.
Once they have finished talking about the topic Once they have had some time to find the
you may want to do a brief plenary session with information, put them in pairs or small groups
the whole group or you could go straight into the and give them some time to compare their
reading task. answers and share what they have discovered.
Discussion task - What makes you happy? Have a short plenary session and confirm and
1. What is happiness? Reading task - Checking information
Study the infographic and decide if these
2. What makes you happy?
statements are true or false.
3. Why do you think so many people find it 1. Eating turkey may make you happier.
difficult to be happy?
2. Serotonin is the part of the brain that is
4. Which three of these things do you feel have responsible for happiness.
the biggest impact on making you happy? 3. 20 minutes outside in good weather can
make you happier and improve your
Money
memory.
Shopping 4. You are less likely to be happy if you are
Your job married.
Family 5. The happiest people in the world live in
Iceland.
Love
6. Having a child can make you happier.
Health 7. Walking can make you happier.
Food 8. Exercise is the most effective treatment for
The weather depression.
9. Getting more sleep can make you happier.
Friends
10.Children in Mexico who go to church are
happier than other children.
11.People who earn high incomes are much
happier than average earners.
12.Most women get depressed during
holidays.
116
Answers: Reading task - Improving happiness

1. True. The aim of this task is to develop students
2. False. Serotonin is a compound ability to read for deeper understanding.
(neurotransmitter) in the blood.
3. True. Give the students the reading task.
4. False. Married people are around 10% Ask them to explore the graphic and try to
happier. answer the questions. Once they have had some
5. True. time to answer the questions, put them in pairs
6. False. People with children are 0.24% less or small groups and give them some time to
happy.
compare their answers and share what they have
7. True. discovered.
8. True.
Once they have had time to compare their
9. True.
10. False. Children in Mexico are happier than
other children, but church is not a factor. confirm and clarify their answers.
11. Its not clear. People on the highest incomes
Reading task - Improving happiness
are 3.5% happier.
12. False. More women than men get depressed Study the infographic again and answer these
during holidays (44%), but not most women. questions.
1. Name four things the infographic suggests
you can do improve your level of happiness.
2. What drugs mentioned in the text can
improve levels of happiness?
3. Which foods mentioned in the text can
improve happiness?
Answers:
1. Get more sleep, Take more exercise, Spend
more time outside in the sun, eat turkey, get
married, move to Iceland.
2. Serotonin and Dopamine.
3. Turkey, poultry, fish, milk, bananas.
117
Discussion task - Your happiness a)It isn't what you have or who you are or
The aim of this activity is to get the students to where you are or what you are doing that
think more deeply about the information and makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you
share their responses to it. think about it. Dale Carnegie
Give the students the discussion task and put b)The most important thing is to enjoy your life
them into small groups to interview each other. to be happyit's all that matters. Audrey
Hepburn
Once they have discussed the questions in their
c)Happiness is a warm puppy. Charles M.
groups you might want to have a whole class
plenary session. You could also regroup the Schulz
students according to which of the quotes they d)You cannot protect yourself from sadness
liked most and encourage them to find out what without protecting yourself from happiness.
else they have in common with the people who Jonathan Safran Foer
chose the same quote.
e)You can't be happy unless you're unhappy
Discussion task - Your happiness sometimes". Lauren Oliver
Ask and answer these questions. f)Sanity and happiness are an impossible
combination. Mark Twain
1. What information from the text will you use to
make yourself happier? g)Success is getting what you want,
happiness is wanting what you get W.P.
2. Which 3 facts in the text do you think are
Kinsella
most likely to be untrue?
h)Happiness is holding someone in your arms
3. How do you think happiness was measured
and knowing you hold the whole world.
when this information was collected?
Orhan Pamuk
4. What do you think were the motives for
i)Happiness is the meaning and the purpose
creating this infographic?
of life, the whole aim and end of human
5. Which person would you most like to share existence. Aristotle
the information in the infographic with? Why?
j)Those who are not looking for happiness are
6. Which of these quotes do you feel best the most likely to find it, because those who are
describes your own attitude to happiness? searching forget that the surest way to be
happy is to seek happiness for others.
Martin Luther King Jr.
118
Research task - Checking sources Research task - Researching Maslow

ability to research and check the sources of the online research skills and to encourage them to
information they find. follow up and check the information they find.
Share the information sources from the end of
the infographic. Ask the students what they know about Maslow
and the hierarchy of needs.
Tell students they should visit the sites and see if
they can find which of the facts came from each
Tell them you want the to do some online
site.
research to find out more.
If you want to make this activity shorter you could
split the sources and give each student one and Ask them to find information about three things
get then to check it.
Maslows life
Once they have finished checking the sources Maslows professional work
you could put them in groups to share what they
discovered. Maslows critics
Tell them to make notes and keep a record of the
Research task - Checking sources sources of the information they find.
Check the sources quoted at the end of the
infographic and see if you can find the Once they have completed their research ask
statistics the infographic was based on. them to also add some notes about their own
assessment of Maslows work and how his
http://www.nationmaster.com/
hierarchy of needs relates to their own lives.
http://www.aarp.org/
Once they have completed this work you could
http://www.sermoncentral.com/
ask them to either create a short presentation
http://www.technologyreview.com/
about Maslow, a summary text or even an
http://www.milenialstar.org/ infographic to share their findings.
119
Research task - Researching Maslow Once they have written their questions, ask them
to use one of these tools to create their
Try to find out more about Maslow and his questionnaire:
hierarchy of needs.
Try to collect information under these headings
Maslows life
They can then share their questionnaires with
Maslows professional work each other and their social media contacts and
Maslows critics friends.
Once you have collected the information try to Once they have had time to collect the data, ask
relate Maslows ideas to your own life. them to create a simple infographic to display
the results.
Present your research to the class. Use one of
these formats: Social research task - Researching happiness
A written summary Based on the information in the infographic,

design a questionnaire to measure the
A an oral presentation with presentation happiness of your friends.
slides
Think of ten questions you can use to check
An infographic how happy they are.
Think about the types of questions you will
ask.
Social research task - Researching Create a questionnaire using one of these
happiness tools:
The aim of this task is to develop students http://www.typeform.com/
ability to create research questionnaires and
present their results. http://www.surveymonkey.com/
Create an infographic to display the results of
Tell the students you want them to create a your research.
questionnaire to measure peoples happiness.
Be sure that you dont disclose the names of
Tell them they should do this by using questions the people in your infographic.
about the habits from the infographic and their
research.
Give some examples of questions, e.g.
How often do you exercise?

every day
about once a week
not often
never
120
Writing task - Tips for happiness Writing task - Tips for happiness
The aim of this task is to develop students Imagine you have been asked to write a text for
writing skills and also to pull together and a magazine on how to be happy.
consolidate everything they have learned from Give the article the title 10 tips to make
the lesson tasks. yourself happy.
Tell the students you want them to write an Divide the text into three parts:
article from an online magazine. Tell them to Introduction
give it the title 10 tips to make yourself happy. Tips
Conclusion
Ask them to brainstorm and make notes of what
they feel are the best tips they have learned Try to include information from the infographic
from the lesson. and from your own research.
Tell them to structure the article in three

sections: Copyright Nik Peachey
Introduction
Tips
Conclusion
The writing part of the task could be done by
the students at home or in class. Once the
students have done a first draft you could give
them a study partner and ask them to peer edit
their texts.
They could then review the text before


on peer reviewing:
about the text.
Identify any spelling or grammatical
errors.
informal styles?
121
STUDYING HOW
TO STUDY
By Nik Peachey
STUDYING HOW INTRODUCTION

TO STUDY
In this lesson students will learn about some of the factors that
influence successful study. They will evaluate their existing study
skills in the light of information from an infographic and do some
online research into effective study techniques.
Aims:


information.

information.


122

Printable PDF copies of the worksheets can be discussion class.
found at: http://tinyurl.com/hyfrxsv
The last three tasks are research tasks. These
tinyurl.com/gmvbfry or by clicking or scanning tasks are likely to take longer and could be set
the QR code. as homework, independent study tasks or as
projects and followed up in the classroom. The
research tasks will all require internet access.
around the topic.
abilities to scan text for specific information.
summarize key points from text.
A research task which guides students through
the process of researching and corroborating
the credibility of online information.
A writing task which helps students to
summarize what they have learned.
123
Discussion task - How you study Reading task - Fact finding

about their existing study habits and sharing ability to read and scan text for specific
their existing knowledge and opinions. information.
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs Show the students the statistics and then give
or groups them a link to the infographic.
Give them the discussion questions and get Ask them to study the graphic and find out what
them to ask and answer them in their groups. the statistics refer to.
Discussion task - How you study Once the students have had a some time to work
alone, get them to compare and share their
answers in groups.
1. How do you take notes when you study?
Reading task - Fact finding
2. How often do you review your notes?
What do these figures refer to?
3. How much do you remember an hour/day/
week/ month after you study? 1. 17 minutes
4. What have been your most memorable 2. 81%
lessons?
3. 30 - 50 mins
5. Do you remember more when you study
4. Group 2
online or from paper books?
5. 9 hours
6. How do you avoid distraction when taking
notes? 6. 3.18
7. What effect do you think listening to music
while you study has? Answers
8. Which do you think is better, to cram and
learn as much as you can immediately 1. The amount of time during a 75 minute lecture
before an exam, or to study less intensively that students used their computers for non study
over a much longer period? related tasks.
2. The percentage of students who checked
email during lessons.
3. The recommended time you should spend
studying before having a ten minute break.
4. A group of students used in a study on long
and short term memory.
5. The amount of sleep needed by 2% of people
to do well.
6. The GPA of post freshman students who work
best in the morning or daytime.
124
Reading task - Study tips Discussion task - Your response

The aim of this activity is to encourage the The aim of this task is to encourage a more
students to explore the information in the personal and critical response to the
infographic in more depth and to build deeper information.
comprehension.
Put the students in small groups to discuss their
Tell the students that there are at least ten study responses to the questions.
tips in the infographic.
Ask them to look at it again and make notes of all in their groups you may want to have a short
the study tips they can find. class debate.
Once the students have had the opportunity to Discussion task - Your response
study the graphic put them into groups to
compare what they found.
1. Which of the study tips do you already use?
Reading task - Study tips
2. Which will you try?
Look at the infographic again.
3. Which of the study tips do you feel are
Try to find all the study tips and wrong for you?
recommendations.
4. Who would you like to share the infographic
Summarize them. information with? Why?
5. Did you take any notes during this lesson?
Answers 6. What did you learn from the infographic?
Highlight notes
Study for periods of 30 - 50 mins and then take
a 10 minute break. Online research task - Checking the
facts
Review notes everyday
Review notes within 24 hours
abilities to check the authenticity and credibility
Rewrite notes of information they find online and to develop
Review highlighted areas their ability to reference the sources of online
content they find.
Use flashcards
Make up examples Ask the students if they think the information in
the infographic is all true?
Use the information to make a song, poem,
story, etc. See if there is any information that they doubt.
Make sure you get enough sleep Ask them why they doubt or believe the
information.
125
Tell them to do some research and to see if they Once they have created it ask them to share it
can corroborate the information. through their social media contacts and collect
data. It may take a few days for them to gather
Online research task - Checking the facts data, so you should schedule the next stage of
Do some research online to see if you can find the lesson for a later class.
the original reports and sources the infographic
was based on. Once they have collected the data from their
questionnaire ask them to create an infographic
Check to see if the reports have been used
to show the results of their research.
accurately.
See if you can find more information on how to They can use one of these free tools:
develop good study habits.
Make notes of the information and the sources.
Include:
URL Social media task - Study research
Name of author or organization/publisher Create a questionnaire to research study

habits.
Publication date
Write ten questions for the questionnaire to find
Type of publication out about how people study.
Your assessment of the source credibility You can use on of these tools to create your
questionnaire:
Social media task - Study research http://www.typeform.com/
The aim of this task is to develop students Share your questionnaire through your social
abilities to create research questionnaires and networks and collect as many responses as
you can.
carry out small scale research and analysis
tasks. Create an infographic to display the results of
your questionnaire.
Ask the students to do some research into study
You can use one of these free tools:
habits to find out more about the way people
study. https://www.draw.io/
Ask them to create a questionnaire with ten https://www.canva.com/

questions.
They can do this using one of these free tools:
126
Writing task - Study skills Copyright Nik Peachey
recommendations
abilities to extract statistical information and
reformulate it as a text.
Ask students to use the information they have

found to write a short article for a student
magazine or blog.
Get the students to think about the structure of

the article and make some notes about what
they will include in each part.
Once they have created their first draft get them

to exchange their article with a peer and get
some feedback and suggestions about how to
improve it.
If your students are reluctant to give each other

feedback just let them read each others drafts
and steal ideas that they like.
Once they have the feedback from their peers

ask the students to create a final copy.
Writing task - Study skills recommendations

Write a short article for a student magazine or
blog with recommended study tips for
students.
Structure your text with the following
paragraphs:
Introduction
Recommendations
Things to avoid doing
Conclusion
Remember to credit the sources of the
information you include.
127
CAREERS FOR
INTROVERTS &
EXTROVERTS
By Nik Peachey
INTROVERTS & INTRODUCTION

EXTROVERTS In this lesson students will explore their views of what makes
someone an introvert or extrovert. They will study an infographic
which links the characteristics of each to different types of jobs
and reflect on how the information applies to their own lives.
Aims:
To develop students understanding and ability to formulate
and express opinions about introverts and extroverts.
information.
information.
128

found at: http://tinyurl.com/z3ydsny
The infographic can be accessed at: http:// The final three tasks can be used selectively
tinyurl.com/h7ntz4p or by clicking or scanning depending on the aims of your lesson.
the QR code. This lesson contains seven tasks:
around what makes people shy or sociable.
abilities to check and confirm information.
create an online questionnaire to find out
whether people are introverts or extroverts.
A research task which gets students to find out
more about the Myers-Briggs personality test.
129
Discussion task - Sociable or shy? Reading task - Defining introverts and

The aim of this task is to get students thinking extroverts
about their own character and the things that The aim of this task is to raise interest in the
influence it. information and to develop students ability to
read to confirm information.
or groups and giving them the discussion Give the students the reading task. Ask them to
questions. This should help to get the students look at the statements and professions and try to
thinking, talking and sharing their knowledge of decide which ones apply to introverts and which
the topic. to extroverts.
Once they have finished talking you may want to Once they have made their decision give them a
do a brief plenary session with the whole group. link to the infographic. Ask them to explore the
graphic and to check their assumptions.
You could try to get the group order the factors Once they have had some time to check the
which influence their personality, starting with the information, put them in pairs or small groups
one that has the most impact. These can lead to and give them some time to compare their
some quite lively discussion and disagreement. answers and share what they have discovered.
Discussion task - Sociable or shy? Have a short plenary session and confirm and
Reading task - Defining introverts and
1. What characteristics do you associate with a extroverts
person who is shy / sociable?
1. Are these characteristics of introverts (shy
2. What do you think makes some people shy people) or extroverts (out-going people)?
whereas others are more out-going?
a) Likes new activities
3. How do you think each of these factors b) Learns through observation
impact on your personality?
c) Self aware
Wealth d) Has lots of friends
Parents e) Gathers and examines information
Social environment before making decisions
School f) Likes to brainstorm in groups
Role models g) Prefers a quiet work space
Chance 2. Which jobs would suit introverts or
Random factors extroverts?
4. What type of person do you think is more Pharmacist
likely to be successful? Shy or sociable? Graphic designer
Mechanic
Nurse
Police officer
Truck driver
130
Answers: Reading task - Getting the right job

1.
Study the infographic again and try to answer
a) E these questions
b) I
c) I 1. Which are more common? Introverts or
extroverts?
d) E
e) I 2. What do the I and the E represent on the
f) E strong interest inventory test?
g) I
2. 3. Which of the two is most likely to make the
most money?
Extrovert - Pharmacist, Nurse, Police
officer 4. Which characteristics of the strong interest
Introvert - Graphic designer, Mechanic, inventory are required for each of these
Truck driver professions?
a)Software developer
Reading task - Getting the right job
b)Event planner
c)Information research scientist
ability to read for deeper understanding.
d)Police officer
Give the students the reading task. 5. Which professions require the highest level
of qualification?
Ask them to explore the graphic and try to
6. Which profession requires the greatest range
answer the questions.
of characteristics?
Once they have had some time to answer the
questions, put them in pairs or small groups and
give them some time to compare their answers Answers:
and share what they have discovered. 1. Extroverts (60%)
2. Investigative, Enterprising
Once they have had time to compare their
3. Extroverts
4.
Software developer = Artistic, conventional
Event planner = Social, artistic
Information research scientist =
Investigative, conventional
Police officer = Realistic, investigative
5. Pharmacist, Physical Therapist, Information
Research Scientist, Veterinarian.
6. Advertising Sales Agent.
131
Discussion task - Your response Social research - Character questionnaire

The aim of this activity is to get the students to The aim of this task is to develop students
think more deeply about the information and ability to create research questionnaires and
how it relates to their own lives and to share present their results.
their responses to it. Tell the students you want them to create a
questionnaire to find out if a person is an
Give the students the discussion task and put extrovert or an introvert.
them into small groups to interview each other. Tell them they should do this by creating
questions based around the information in the
Once they have discussed the questions in their infographic.
groups you can have a whole class plenary
Example:
session. You could also regroup the students into
introverts and extroverts and then get them to 1. When you go to a party do you
find things they have in common. a) meet lots of new people and make new
friends.
Discussion task - Your response b) mainly talk to people you already know.
Ask and answer these questions. c) leave as soon as possible.
1. Do you think you are an introvert or an Once they have written their questions, ask them
extravert? Why? to use the Riddle personality test: http://
www.riddle.com/
2. Which characteristics from each do you think
you have? They can then share their questionnaires with
each other and their social media contacts and
3. Do you know any introverts / extroverts? friends.
4. Which of the jobs do you think would be Once they have had time to collect the data, ask
most suitable for you? Why? them to create a simple infographic to display
5. Which 3 characteristics in the interests the results.
inventory do you think you have?
Social research - Character questionnaire
6. Do you think life is easier for an extrovert?
Why/not? Create a questionnaire to find out if someone is
an introvert or extrovert.
7. Which do you think make better friends?
Use the information from the infographic to
8. What interested you most about the create 10 questions for your questionnaire.
information?
Use a personality test type questionnaire so
9. Who would you most like to share the that the answers determine what type of
information with? Why? person is answering the question.
10.Which parts of the information are you most
Use the Riddle personality test: http://
likely to remember? Why? www.riddle.com/ to create your
questionnaire.
Share the questionnaire on social media and
use the results to create an infographic.
132
Online research - What about Myers- Writing task - The Pros and cons
Briggs? The aim of this task is to develop students
The aim of this task is to develop students writing skills and also to pull together and
consolidate everything they have learned from
online research skills and to encourage them to
the lesson tasks.
follow up and check the information they find.
Tell the students you want them to write an article
Ask the students what they know about the from a blog. Tell them to give it the title The Pros
Myers-Briggs personality test. and Cons of Being an Extrovert/ Introvert .
Tell them you want the to do some online Tell them they can decide which they write
research to find out more. about.
Ask them to: Tell them to structure the article in five sections:
Find a link to a free test. What is an introvert / extrovert?
Try to take the test and see what results How do you recognize an introvert /
you get. extrovert?
Research the background to the Myers- Whats good about being an introvert /
Briggs test. extrovert?
Tell them to make notes and keep a record of the Whats bad about being an introvert /
sources of the information they find. extrovert?
Once they have completed their research ask Which would you prefer to be?
them to also add some notes about their own You could also put the people writing about each
assessment of the test and how effective they type of person into groups and get them to
think it is. brainstorm notes for the article together.
Once they have completed this work you could The writing part of the task could be done by the
ask them to either create a short presentation students at home or in class.
about Myers-Briggs, a summary text or even an
infographic to share their findings. Once the students have done a first draft you
could give them a study partner and ask them to
Online research - What about Myers-Briggs? peer edit their texts.
Find out more about the Myers-Briggs They could then review the text before submitting
personality test. it to you.
Find a link to a free test. Here are some tips you could give the students
on peer reviewing:
Try to take the test and see what results you
get. Be positive and look for what you like
about the text.
Research the background to the Myers-
Briggs test. Identify any spelling or grammatical errors.
Prepare a short oral report with a
presentation, a summary text or an Think about whether the tone of the text is
infographic for your next class. consistent and appropriate for the reader.
133

informal styles?
Does the article have the five clear
sections.
Writing task - The Pros and cons
Write an article to be published on a blog.
Use the title The Pros and Cons of being an
introvert / extrovert.
Choose which of the two you would prefer to
write about.
Structure your article in five main sections.
Cover one of these points in each section:
- What is an introvert / extrovert?
- How do you recognize an introvert /
extrovert?
- Whats good about being an introvert /
extrovert?
- Whats bad about being an introvert /
extrovert?
- Which would you prefer to be?
134
A WORLD WITHOUT
MAGNETS
By Nik Peachey
A WORLD INTRODUCTION
WITHOUT
MAGNETS This lesson is based on an infographic about magnets. The
infographics contains a range of facts and statistics as well as
some information about magnets and how they are used.
In the lesson students will find out about the different uses of
magnets and why they are so important.
The plan also includes three research tasks that develop

students abilities to create and carry out online research, create
online questionnaires and share their research by creating
infographics, presentations and reports.
135

found at: http://tinyurl.com/grcvd6e The final three tasks can be used selectively as
The infographic can be accessed at: http:// follow up tasks or you can use all three tasks as
tinyurl.com/zvdrzjt or by clicking or scanning an ongoing project over the course of a number
the QR code. of lessons.
about magnets and how they are used in our
lives.
to read and check information.
A reading task that encourages students to
scan read for specific information.
opportunity to respond to the information more
personally.
An online research task that gets students to
follow up on what they have read and find out
more about magnets.
A online research task that gets students to
create a questionnaire to find what people
know about magnets.
136
Discussion task - Magnets in your life Reading task - Finding out about magnets
The aim of this task is to get students sharing Study the infographic.
their existing knowledge of magnets and to
Find the answers to the questions you
make them curious about the information in the
infographic. discussed.
1. What are magnets made of?
or groups and giving them the discussion 2. What 4 household objects contain magnets?
questions. This should help to get the students 3. What magnets are you carrying now?
thinking, talking and sharing their knowledge.
4. What forms of electricity production dont
Once they have finished talking you can do a require magnets?
5. What role do magnets play in the careers of
Discussion task - Magnets in your life musicians?
Ask and answer these questions. 6. How would your life be different if there were
1. Do you know how magnets are made? no magnets?
2. Can you think of 4 household objects that
contain magnets?
Answers:
3. Are you carrying any magnets now?
1. It doesnt say.
4. Do you know what forms of electricity
2. The article mentions:
production dont require magnets?
5. What role do magnets play in the careers of Vacuum cleaners
musicians? Washing machines
6. How do you think your life would be different Hair dryers
if there were no magnets? Blenders
3. Only the students can answer this, but if they
have a watch or mobile phone it probably has
Reading task - Finding out about magnets some kind of magnet inside.
The aim of this task is to develop students 4. Only solar energy.
abilities read and check information. 5. They are used in microphones and speakers.
Give the students the reading task. 6. Would be very different: No electricity, no
internet, no electrical motors for household
Ask the students to study the infographic and gadgets, etc.
check the answers they were discussing.
Once they have had some time to find the
and ask them to compare their answers and
137
Reading task - Magnetic facts Discussion task - Your response

The aim of this task is to develop students The aim of this activity is to get the students to
ability to scan read for specific information. think more deeply about the information and
how it relates to their own lives and to share
Give the students the reading task. their responses to it.
Ask them to read and find what each of the
statistics refers to. Give the students the discussion task and put
information, put them in pairs or small groups Once they have discussed the questions in their
and ask them to compare their answers and groups you might want to have a whole class
share what they have discovered. plenary session.
Ask and answer these questions in pairs.
Reading task - Magnetic facts 1. What surprised you most about the
Study the infographic again. infographic?
Find out what these statics refer to.
2. What did you learn from the infographic?
1. 2008
3. Which parts of the information would you like
2. 2.5 million
to remember?
3. 6,440,000
4. Do you have any magnets on your fridge?
4. 20.3
Who / Where did they come from?
5. 0.0001
5. Why do you think this infographic was
created?
Answers:
1. The year when the golfer Tiger Woods needed 6. Who would you like to share the information
an MRI scan. with? Why?
2. The amount of steel thrown away by
Americans in the US each year.
3. The amount of cubic feet of steel that is saved
using magnets.
4. The percentage of US electricity that was
generated using nuclear power in 2009.
5. The percentage of electricity created using
solar power in 2009.
138
Online research task - More about Online research task - Magnets quiz
magnets The aim of this task is to develop students
The aim of this task is to develop students ability to do simple online research.
abilities to do online research and present the
research in a visual way. Tell the students you want them to create a quiz
to find out what people know about magnets.
Ask the students to try to find more information
about magnets. Tell them to think about what they have learned
Tell them to make notes and keep a record of the so far and write some questions to test peoples
sources of the information they find. They should knowledge.
include:
Once they have created their questions ask them
URL
to create an online questionnaire using one of
these tools:
Name of author

Date of publication

Their opinion of the credibility of the http://www.surveymonkey.com/

source. Once the questionnaires are ready they can then
The facts they find share them with each other and their social
Once they have completed this work you could media contacts and friends and find out what
ask them to create an infographic showing what they know.
they found. They could use one of these tools to
do this: Online research task - Magnets quiz
http://www.visme.co/ Create a questionnaire to find out what people
https://www.canva.com/ know about magnets.
https://www.draw.io/ Write ten questions to ask about magnets.
Use one of these tools to create a
Online research task - More about magnets questionnaire:
Find more information about magnets. http://www.typeform.com/
Try to find ten more facts. http://www.surveymonkey.com/
Be sure to make a note of: Once the questionnaire is finished share it on
URL social media.
Collect and share your results in class.
Name of author
Date of publication
Your opinion of the credibility of the
source.
The facts
Once you have all the facts create an
infographic to display them. You can use one of
these tools:
http://www.visme.co/
139
Writing task - The world without magnets http://blogger.com/

The aim of this task is to develop students Or save their articles as PDF and then share
writing skills and also to pull together and them using one of these online publishing
consolidate what they have learned from the platforms:
lesson tasks.
https://www.scribd.com/
Tell the students you want them to write an article http://www.issuu.com/
for a blog. Tell them to give it the title The World
without Magnets. Writing task - The world without magnets
Tell them to structure the article in three sections: Write a short article for a blog. Give your article
Introduction - including some information the title The world without magnets.
about what magnets are and how they are Structure your article in three parts:
made
Introduction - including some information
Main content - describing what things we
would not be able to do without magnets about what magnets are and how they are
made
Conclusion - describing why magnets are
so important Main content - describing what things we
Students could do the writing part of the task at would not be able to do without magnets
home or in class.
Conclusion - describing why magnets are so
Once the students have done a first draft you important
could give them a study partner and ask them to
peer edit their texts. Once you have completed the first draft of your
article exchange it with another student and
They could then review the text before submitting
give and get some feedback.
it to you.
Complete a final draft of your article and find
on peer reviewing: some images to add as illustration.

about the text.
Identify any spelling or grammatical errors. Copyright Nik Peachey
informal styles?
Has the writer completed the task with all
five parts of the article?
If you want your students to be able to publish a
final draft of their article you can use one of
these blogging platforms:
http://www.kidblog.org/
140
MIND YOUR
WASTE
By Nik Peachey
MIND YOUR INTRODUCTION

WASTE
In this lesson students will explore their attitudes to buying
clothes and find out about the costs and environmental impact of
producing clothes.
Aims:
To develop students abilities to think critically about online
information.
To develop students abilities to read and understand statistical
information.
To develop students abilities to create digital research
questionnaires and analyze the results.
To develop students abilities to synergize information from
various sources and use the information to build persuasive
text.
141

ways. The first four tasks of the plan can be used
Resources
discussion class. The last three research tasks
can be used individually as follow up tasks or
found at: http://tinyurl.com/zq9eurr
you could use all three. These tasks are likely to
take longer and could be set as homework or
tinyurl.com/zhppsrf or by clicking or scanning
independent study tasks.
the QR code.
A pre reading task which encourages students
to think about their existing clothes buying
habits and attitudes.
A quiz creation task which encourages
students to ask questions about a text.
A post reading task which gives students the
A social media research task in which students
create a digital questionnaire to research the
opinions of their peers.
A writing task that develops students abilities
to extract information from infographics and
use it to create a persuasive text.
through the process of researching an
environmental problem.
142
Discussion task - Buying clothes Ask them to study the graphic and find out what
the statistics refer to.
The aim of this task is to get students thinking
about the topic and accessing and sharing Once the students have had a some time to work
their existing knowledge and opinions. alone, get them to compare and share their
answers in groups.
or groups Have a short plenary session to clarify and
confirm the answers.
Give them the discussion questions and get
them to ask and answer them in their groups.
Reading task - Checking statistics
Once they have finished talking about the topic Study the infographic and find out what these
you may want to do a brief plenary session with numbers refer to.
the whole group to give them the chance to
1. 13.1 million tons
share as a group or you could go straight into
the reading task. 2. 700 gallons
3. 7 lbs
Discussion task - Buying clothes
4. 210 million gallons
5. 5 miles
1. How often do you buy new clothes?
6. 4 out of 7
2. How do you decide when to throw clothes
away?
3. How long do you think an item of clothing

Answers
should last?
1. The amount of textiles that are trashed each
4. Do you think you follow fashion? year.
5. What do you do with your old clothes? 2. The amount of water needed to produce one
T-shirt.
6. Do you ever recycle your clothes? How?
3. The amount of CO2 emitted by 1 pound of
textiles.
Reading task - Checking statistics 4. The amount of water that could be saved if
each American recycled 1 T-Shirt.
ability to read and scan text for specific 5. The maximum distance 64% of people are
prepared to drive to recycle their clothes.
information.
6. The number of people more likely to shop at a
Show the students the statistics and then give location that has a clothes recycling bin.
them a link to the infographic.
143
Reading task - Creating questions Discussion task - Recycling clothes

The aim of this activity is to encourage the The aim of this task is to encourage a more
students to explore the information in the personal and critical response to the
infographic in more depth and to build deeper information students have been studying.
comprehension.
Put the students in small groups to discuss their
Tell the students that there are many more responses to the questions.
statistics in the graphic.
Put the students into pairs or small groups and in their groups you may want to have a short
ask them to create a quiz about the graphic. class debate.
Once they have created the quiz, get the groups Discussion task - Recycling clothes
to exchange their quiz with a different group and
see if they can answer the questions. Ask and answer these questions.
1. Which of the statistics in the infographic

Once they have answered the questions they
surprised you most?
can give the quiz back and the original group
can check to see how many of the questions 2. Why do you think so few people recycle their
they got right. clothes? Can you think of five reasons?
3. How could people be encouraged to recycle

Reading task - Creating questions more clothes?

Look at the infographic again and write 10 4. Which of your friends do you feel would most
questions for a quiz about it. benefit from seeing this infographic? Why?
e.g. How many lbs of textile does the average 5. Which person would you most like to show
American trash in one year? the infographic to?
6. How will the information in the infographic

change your clothes buying and recycling
behavior?
144
Social media research task - Social media research task - Exploring data
Exploring data Look at the data that the infographic is based
The aim of this task is to develop students on: http://www.usagain.com/huffington-post-
abilities to create research questionnaires and infographics-march-2012.
carry out small scale research and analysis Use one of these tools to recreate the
tasks. questionnaire:
Get the students to look at the original data the https://www.surveymonkey.com/

infographic was based on.
Ask the students to use it to formulate the Share it with your social media contacts and
questionnaire that was used to extract the see if their responses are similar to those in the
information. Then get the students to create their infographic.
own online questionnaires.
They can do this using one of these free tools:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/ Writing task - Making the news
http://www.typeform.com/ The aim of this task is to develop students
Once they have created it ask them to share it ability to extract statistical information and
through their social media contacts and collect reformulate it as a text.
data. It may take a few days for them to gather
Ask students to use the information they have
data, so you should schedule the next stage of
found to write a short article about the Usagain
the lesson for a later class.
project for a local newspaper.
Once they have collected the data from their
Get the students to think about the structure of
questionnaire ask them to compare it to the
the article and make some notes about what they
information in the infographic and see if it is
will include in each part.
similar.
Once they have created their first draft get them
Discuss with them any possible causes of the
to exchange their article with a peer and get
differences between their data and that in the
some feedback and suggestions about how to
infographic.
improve it. If your students are reluctant to give
each other feedback just let them read each
others drafts and steal ideas that they like.
Once they have the feedback from their peers

ask the students to create a final copy.
145
Writing task - Making the news Once they have collected the information ask
them to organize and structure it.
Write a short article about http://
www.usagain.com that could be published on Depending on the information they could group
a local news site. it under headings, for example: Causes,
Look at the infographic again and take notes Impact, Solutions, etc.
on some of the main points you would like to
include. Once they have grouped the information ask
them to use it to create an infographic about the
Think about the structure of your text and problem.
where the information will fit within the
structure. They can use one of these tools to create the
infographic.
Think about how you will include a call to
action for people in your locale. https://www.draw.io/
Arrange a first draft. http://canva.com/
Share your draft with another student and Once they have created their infographics you
read their draft. Try to find ways to improve can share them in class or online if you have a
your draft. class blog.
Write a final version

Online research task - Making a difference
Think about a local environmental problem.
Go online and do some research into the
Online research task - Making a background of a local environmental
problem.
difference
The aim of this task is to develop students Collect notes and facts about the problem.
abilities to do online research. It should also Be sure to make notes of the sources where
help to develop their abilities to organize and you find information.
present information visually. Organize the facts you have found. Try to
group the facts into causes, impact, possible
This can be done as a classroom or homework solutions.
assignment. Create an infographic to share the
information you have found.
Get the students to think about an
Use one of these tools:
environmental problem that effects their town.
Ask them to do some research into the problem http://canva.com/
and collect information about it.
Tell them to be sure to make notes of the

sources of their information.
146
THE HABITS OF
THE WORLDS
WEALTHIEST
PEOPLE
By Nik Peachey
INTRODUCTION
This lesson encourages students to think about their attitudes to
wealth and the link between success and positive habit
formation. It also helps them to question and explore the validity
of online information.
The aims of the lesson are:
To help students explore and articulate their opinions about
wealth.
To help students understand and evaluate statistical
information.
To develop students abilities to check and evaluate the
credibility of information.
To help students develop their abilities to carry out online
factual research.
To help students develop the ability to synergise information
from a range of sources and formulate written arguments
around that information.
147

Resources ways. The first four tasks of the plan can be used
Printable PDF copies of the worksheets can be discussion class.
found at: http://tinyurl.com/zr233bn The last four research tasks can be used
The infographic can be accessed at: http:// individually as follow up tasks or you could use
tinyurl.com/gqspeb3 or by clicking or all four. These tasks are likely to take longer and
scanning the QR code. could be set as homework or independent study
tasks.
A pre reading task that encourages students to
think about their existing attitudes to wealth.
to scan text for specific information.
to read and check information.
A post reading task which gives students the
Research task in which students research the
opinions of their peers in the classroom.
An online research task that develops students
abilities to find facts and information online.
An online research task that develops students
abilities to present research in a visual format.
A writing task that develops students abilities
to extract information from infographics and
use it to create a persuasive text.
148
Discussion task - Wealth Reading task - Checking statistics

around the topic and exchanging ideas and ability to read and scan text for specific
opinions. information.
Procedure Procedure
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs Give the students the reading task and a link to
or small groups. the infographic.
Ask them to explore the infographic and find out
Get the students to brainstorm words connected what the numbers refer to.
with wealth. You could make this competitive and
Once they have had some time to find the
put them into groups to see which group can information, put them in pairs or small groups
produce the most words. and give them some time to compare their
answers and share what they have discovered.
Give the students the discussion questions and
get them to ask and answer the questions. Reading task - Checking statistics
Discussion task - Wealth Read the infographic and find out what these
statistics refer to.
1. $73 billion
1. How much money do you think you need to 2. $30,000
be rich?
3. 88%
2. How would being rich change your life?
4. 1 hour
3. Do you think having more money would
make you a better person? How? Why? 5. 63%
4. What would you like to do to make yourself 6. 17%
rich? E.g. start your own business, become 7. 219,000
famous for something, etc. 8. 400
5. How many billionaires do you think there are
in the world?
6. Who do you think are the top 5 wealthiest Once they have had time to compare their
people in the world? answers, have a short plenary session and
7. How do you think they made their money?
8. What do you think these 5 people have in Answers
common? 1. The wealth of the richest man - Carlos Slim
Helu.
2. The income per year below which someone is
Once they have finished talking about the topic considered poor.
you may want to do a brief plenary session with 3. The percentage of successful people who
the whole group or you could go straight into the read for more than 30 minutes each day.
reading task. 4. The measure of the amount of television
watched by rich and poor people in the
survey.
149
5. The percentage of wealthy people who Once they have had time to compare their
encourage their children to read 2 or more answers, have a short plenary session and
non-fiction books per month. confirm and clarify their answers.
6. The percentage of poor people who write Answers
down their goals.
1. True
7. The number of millionaires living in Paris.
2. False (A high percentage of them have similar
8. The number of billionaires on the 2013 Forbes
habits, but not all.)
billionaires list.
3. False (Around 70% of wealthy people eat junk
food.)
Reading task - Secrets of success
4. False (More wealthy people teach their
The aim of this task is to develop students children success habits, but this cant be
ability to understand and interpret the proven to be the cause of their wealth.)
underlying implications of statistical
5. True
information.
6. False (17% do)
Procedure
7. False (There are more billionaires there, but
that doesnt make you more likely to be rich)
explore the graphic and try to find which of the
statements is true or false. 8. False (There is a very low percentage of rich
women in Japan, but this doesnt mean that
Once they have had some time to do this, put women there are less likely to be rich.)
them in pairs or small groups and give them
9. False (68% of the Americans on the list are
some time to compare their answers.
self-made.)
Reading task - Secrets of success
Read the infographic and find out which of
these statements are true or false.
1. All of the worlds 5 wealthiest people are
men.
2. All wealthy people have the same daily
routine.
3. Wealthy people dont eat junk food.
4. People are wealthy because their parents
taught them good success habits.
5. Most wealthy people watch less than an
hour of TV each day.
6. Poor people dont write down their goals.
7. You are more likely to be rich if you live in
Tokyo.
8. Women are far less likely to be rich if they
live in Japan.
9. Most of the 400 richest people in the USA
inherited their wealth.
150
Discussion task - Your attitudes to Research task - Habits of success

wealth The aim of this task is to develop students
abilities to create and carry out small scale
The aim of this task is to encourage a more
classroom research.
personal and critical response to the
information students have been studying. Procedure
Tell the students you want them to find out who in
Procedure
the class is most similar to the people in the
Give the students the discussion task questions
infographic.
and put them in small groups to ask and answer
the questions. Get the students to look at the graphic and write
the questions they would need to extract the
Once they have had some time to do this you
information.
could have a whole class debate.
Once they have the questions they can create a
Discussion task - Your attitudes to wealth questionnaire and use it to interview their
classmates.
After they have interviewed everyone they can
1. Which of the facts in the infographic decide together which person in the class they
surprised you most? think is most likely to be successful.
2. Which of the facts in the infographic do you
most doubt? Research task - Habits of success
3. Which of the facts would you most like to tell Look at the part of the infographic that gives
to someone else? Who would you tell? information on habits.
4. Which habits do you share in common with
these wealthy people? Try to write the questions you think the
researchers asked to extract the information.
5. What ways could you change your life to
become more wealthy and successful? Once you have written the questions, use them
6. Do you believe that following all of the to interview your classmates.
wealthy habits described by the infographic
would lead you to become more successful? Who do you think is the most likely to become
Why/not? successful?
7. Why do you think there are less female
billionaires in the world?
8. Why do you think there are so many
billionaires in Tokyo?
9. Why do you think it is so difficult to escape
from poverty?
10.Do you think it is morale to be extremely
wealthy while so many people are very
poor?
11.Is the wealth of the few built on the poverty
and exploitation of the poor?
151
Online research task - Fact finding Once they have the ten pieces of information ask
them to create an infographic to display the
The aim of this task is to introduce students to information.
the practice of identifying and following up
information sources. Here are some tools they could use to create the
graphic.
Procedure
Show students the links to the sources that were https://www.draw.io/
used to create the infographic. https://www.canva.com/
Ask them to search through the links and find ten
more interesting pieces of information about the Online research task - Role model
topic.
Online research task - Fact finding abilities to do online research about specific
people.
Check the sources of information listed in the
infographic. Try to find 10 more interesting Procedure
facts. Get the students to think about successful
people they know and admire.
Sources:
Ask them to choose one of the people.
Forbes - The World's Billionaires
http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/ If they cant think of anyone to research they
BBC - Buffett 'becomes world's richest' could choose another person from the Forbes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7280569.stm rich list.
Spears - The gender divide Tell the students to do some online research into
http://www.spearswms.com/spears-lists/lists/the-gender-
divide the persons background and try to find out if
they have similar habits to those of the people
The Dave Ramsey Show: Interview with Tom Corley described in the graphic.
http://richhabits.net/dave-ramsey-rich-habits-tom-corley/
Yahoo Finance - Daily Habits of Wealthy People Online research task - Role model
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/daily-habits-of-wealthy-
people-143505884.html Choose a very successful person.
The Guardian - Which cities do the world's millionaires
and billionaires live in? Do some research into how they became
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/may/ successful.
08/cities-top-millionaires-billionaires
Forbes - Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They See if their habits match the habits described
Avoid in the infographic.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/
2013/11/18/mentally-strong-people-the-13-things-they-
avoid/
Forbes - Inside The 2013 Forbes 400: Facts And Figures You may also want to get them to produce an
On America's Richest
http://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2013/09/16/inside- infographic about the person.
the-2013-forbes-400-facts-and-figures-on-americas-
richest/
152
Writing task - How to be more Writing task - How to be more successful

successful Use the infographic as the basis for a report
The aim of this task is to develop students on how to become more successful.
abilities to take statistical information and
Follow this process:
formulate it into an essay type text.
Procedure Take notes about the key facts you want to
Ask the students to use the information from the include in the report.
infographic on the wealthiest people to write a Arrange the notes into paragraphs and think
report on how to be successful. about what other paragraphs you need in
the report, such as an introduction and a
Ask the students to take some notes of
summary or conclusion.
information they think they should include.
Create a first draft of your report.
Ask them to think about the structure of the Share your draft with another student and
report and how they will organize the show them the structure of your report. Look
information into paragraphs. at their structure and see if they have any
Ask them to think about how they will order the good ideas you can use.
information. Will their report follow the same Write your first complete draft.
structure as the infographic or will they present Exchange your draft with another student
the information in a different order? and edit your partners report.
Ask the students to write a first draft of the Look at the edits your partner has
report with only the notes of what will go in each suggested and write a final version of the
paragraph. report.
Ask them to compare the draft with their peers

and see how other students decided to
structure the report.
Get the students to write the report.
Ask the students again to exchange reports and
peer edit them.
153
THE HISTORY OF
WEDDINGS
By Nik Peachey
THE HISTORY OF INTRODUCTION

WEDDINGS
This lesson is based on an infographic about weddings, their
history and some related customs and practices.
In the lesson students will explore their opinions of weddings and

marriage and discover some new information about the origins of
various wedding customs.
The aims of the lesson are:

To help students explore and articulate their existing opinions
of marriage and weddings.
To help students understand and evaluate visual information.
To develop students abilities to check and evaluate the
credibility of information.
To help students develop their abilities to carry out online
factual research.
To help students develop the ability to synergise information
from a range of sources and formulate written arguments
around that information.
154

Printable PDF copies of the worksheets can be independently as a simple reading and
found at: http://tinyurl.com/zjmnqnk discussion lesson. The final five tasks can be
The infographic can be accessed at: http:// used selectively depending on the aims of your
tinyurl.com/z7qsjj6 or by clicking or scanning lesson.
the QR code.
This lesson contains nine tasks:
around the topic.
A research task which gets students to explore
the cost of weddings in their town.
the validity of the information in the infographic.
sources for additional information.
A research task which gets students to look for
parallel information about divorce.
create online questionnaires and analyze and
formulate the results.
Note: If you feel that divorce might be a sensitive
topic for some of your students, ignore the
divorce related task.
155
Discussion task - Your wedding Reading task - Facts and figures

The aim of this task is to get students The aim of this task is to develop students
interested in the topic and allow them to ability to scan for specific information.
explore and share their existing attitudes to
weddings and marriage. Give the students the reading task and a link to
the infographic. Ask them to explore the graphic
Start the lesson by putting the students into pairs and try to find out what the numbers refer to in
or groups and giving them the discussion the infographic.
questions. These should help you get the
students thinking, talking and sharing their Once they have had some time to find the
opinions about weddings and marriage. information, put them in pairs or small groups
and give them some time to compare their
Once they have finished talking about the topic answers and share what they have discovered.
the whole group or you could go straight into the Have a short plenary session and confirm and
reading task. clarify their answers.
Discussion task - Your wedding Reading task - Facts and figures
Ask and answer these questions. Study the infographic and find out what these
statistics refer to.
1. Do you intend to get married?
1. 4,350
2. Which of these places would you most like to
have your wedding? 2. 3000 BCE
On the beach in Hawaii 3. 200 CE
At the Pyramids 4. 1775 CE
On the Great Wall of China 5. 99%
At the top of the Empire State Building 6. 1659
3. What would your dream wedding be like? 7. 7000
4. Would you prefer not to get married? Why? 8. $3,807
5. Do you think marriage is important?

6. Do you think marriage is more important for
Answers:
women? Why?
1. How long ago people first started getting
7. What do you think is the purpose of a married.
wedding?
2. The first recorded date of a dowry being paid.
8. What do you think is the purpose of 3. The date when men started paying the dowry
marriage? in the Roman Empire.
4. The date at which it became illegal for women
to wear makeup at their wedding.
5. The percentage of people paying a bride
price in Iran between 1971 and 1991.
156
6. The year when the Queen of Portugal gave 2. The venue and the catering for the party.
two cities as a wedding present to King James 3. The couple would drink honey wine for a
II of England as a wedding present. month/moon cycle after the marriage.
7. The average number of weddings each day in 4. So that the groom can hold a sword to fight off
the USA. other suitors.
8. The average cost of the wedding rings. 5. Anne of Brittany in 1499.
6. A necklace given as a wedding present in
Reading task - Fact finding 1908.
ability to read for deeper understanding.
Give the students the task and ask them to

explore the graphic and try to answer the
questions.
Once they have had some time to answer the

questions, put them in pairs or small groups and
give them some time to compare their answers
and share what they have discovered.

Reading task - Fact finding

Study the infographic and find the answers to
these questions.
1. In which countries does/did the family of the
groom pay a dowry for his bride?
2. What is the most expensive part of getting
married?
3. Where did the term honeymoon come from?
4. Why does the bride stand on the left of the
groom?
5. Who is credited with wearing the first white
wedding dress?
6. What is the Star of the East?
Answers:
1. The Roman Empire, Islamic countries,China,
Thailand, Iran, Turkey.
157
Discussion task - Your response Research task - The cost of a

The aim of this task is to give the students a wedding
chance to discuss the information and share
their own responses to it. The activity also
ability to find and collect specific information
pushes them to think a little more deeply about
online and to formulate the information in a
the role of marriage in society and their
visual way.
attitudes to it.
In this research task students find the costs of
Put the students into pairs or small groups and
various products and services mentioned in the
give them the discussion task questions. Give
infographic and create a local version of that
them some time to discuss the questions and
part of it.
share their opinions.
Give students some time to do their research.
Once they have shared their opinions in the
You may instruct them to find a number of
groups you could open up the discussion as a
different prices for each product or service and
whole class or have a debate about the role of
then take an average across them.
marriage and some possible alternatives.
Tell them to be sure to keep notes of the
information they find and the the sources of the
information.
Ask and answer these questions. Once the students have completed their
research ask them to create an infographic to
1. Which of the facts in the infographic did you show their findings. They can do this using one
already know? of these tools:
2. Which facts most surprised you?
Research task - The cost of a wedding
3. Which of the facts would you like to share Find out how much it would cost to get married
with a friend? in your city.
4. Who would you share the facts with? Why? Research the things mentioned in the Current
5. What are the benefits of marriage for society State of Marriage part of the infographic.
and for individuals? Try to find at least three different prices for
each of the things.
6. What alternatives exist to the traditional
concept of monogamous marriage? Be sure to save the links to the sources of the
information you find.
7. What do you think are the pros and cons of
Once you have the information produce your
these alternatives?
own version of the infographic using the
8. What impact do you think it would have if the average cost from the prices you researched.
law had no part in marriage and the You can use one of these tools to create your
marriage contract was only between the two infographic:
people involved?
9. Why do you think so many more people get
divorced now than 50 years ago?
158
Research task - Fact checking Research task - Fact checking

The aim of this task is to develop students Find 3 sources of evidence online that either
ability to check the validity of information they support or contradict the information included
find online. in the Marriage through the ages section of
the infographic.
Ask the students if they think the information in
the infographic is all true? Check the original sources to make sure they
exist.
See if there is any information that they doubt.
Ask them why they doubt or believe the Use a search engine to find at least two more
information. Tell them that you want to do some sources that either support or contradict the
research and to see if they can corroborate the information.
information. Make a note of the sources and include:
Tell them they should do this in two ways. The URL
Firstly they should find the original sources of The name of the publication
the information quoted in the infographic itself The name of the author
and see if they really exist.
The date of the publication
Secondly they should use a search engine to
try to find other sources which either support or
contradict the information in the infographic.

information. Tell them to make sure they take
notes of the sources and the information they
offer.
Make sure that they know how to record the

information sources (URL, name of publication,
authors name, date, etc.)

to decide whether the information in the graphic
159
Research task - Exploring sources Research task - Researching divorce

ability to explore sources for further ability to carry out online research and
information. formulate that research for visual display.
Ask the students to look at the sources of the Ask the students to do some research into
information in the infographic. divorce. Get them to collect parallel information
to the information in the wedding infographic.
Ask them to use one of the sources to find more
information. Once they have collected all the information ask
them to create an infographic to display their
Remind them to make notes about the information.
information and then decide how they will
display and organize it in the infographic. Research task - Researching divorce
Research task - Exploring sources Do some research into the history of divorce
and create a similar infographic with similar
Choose one of the information sources information to the one you studied.
referenced in the infographic and use it to do
further research. Find ten facts and create a timeline
infographic.
Try to find some interesting information that
wasnt included in the infographic. Be sure to make a note of the URL of your
sources.
Make notes of what you find out.
Use the information to create your own infographic:
infographic.
You can use one of these tools:
160
Social research task - Attitudes to Social research task - Attitudes to marriage

marriage Create a questionnaire with questions about
marriage.
ability to create research questionnaires and Think of ten questions you can use in the
analyze and formulate the results. questionnaire.
Get the students to create some research Choose one of these tools to create your
questions to find out about peoples attitudes to questionnaire:
marriage.
Start by getting them to brainstorm some https://www.surveymonkey.com/
questions, then get them to select the best ten
questions. Circulate the questionnaire through social
media. Use the data you collect to create your
Help them to choose a suitable research tool to own infographic.
use to create their questionnaire.
http://www.typeform.com/ infographic:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/ https://www.canva.com/
Once they have created the questionnaire get
them to circulate it through social media
networks.
Once they have had some time to collect all

their information get them to analyze the results Copyright Nik Peachey
and create an infographic to display the results.
They can use one of these tools to create their

infographic:
161
APPENDIX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nik Peachey is a freelance teacher trainer, writer, conference speaker and

learning technology consultant.
He has been involved in education since 1990 and has lived and worked all
over the world.
He is a two time British Council Innovations Award Winner and the Co -

founder of PeacheyPublications.com.
He has worked with a wide range of educational companies, publishers and

institutions including Macmillan, CUP, OUP, British Council, International
House, Bell Educational Services, University of Westminster, The Open
University, The BBC, Google Creative Labs and many more.
Nik is a keen blogger and content curator. You can find his blogs at: https://
nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/ and https://nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/ and his
curation sites at: http://www.scoop.it/t/tools-for-learners and http://
www.scoop.it/t/learning-technology
He also publishes a twice monthly Learning Technology and ELT newsletter

at: https://tinyletter.com/technogogy/
clxiii
Digital Tools for Teachers

This book has been written and designed primarily with
English language teachers in mind though the majority of
the resources and tools contained in the book will have
much wider use than just language teaching.
The book contains more than 70 tools and resources and
these have been hand picked because they represent a
broad cross-section of what is at present available.
Exploiting Infographics
This book was designed to help teachers understand how
to exploit Infographics both as resources for prompting
discussion and digital research but also as motivating
creative tasks for the development of digital skills.
The book contains a range of advice and example tasks
that can be used with a wide range of classes. This book is
also contained within Thinking Critically through Digital
Media.
10 Lessons in Digital Literacy
This book contains a collection of 10 lesson plans that are
designed to develop students digital literacy and critical
thinking skills. All ten lessons are also included in Thinking
Critically through Digital Media.
Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers
This is the oldest of the books and was first published in
2009 on Scribd. It has since been downloaded more than
250k times. It contains reviews of ten tools along with a
range of pedagogical activities that can be used with each
one.
clxiv
COPYRIGHT & PIRACY
Peacheypublications.com
This book is an independent publication and has been created in

my own time and at my own expense.
I depend on the proceeds from the book so that I can produce

more work like this and so that I can feed my family and send my
daughters to college.
When you download or share this book illegally you are stealing
from me and my family.
If you have downloaded this book illegally, please do the right

thing and go buy a copy from: http://
www.peacheypublications.com/ or https://payhip.com/
peacheypublications
If you cant afford or dont have the means to buy it, then read on in
peace and I hope that it helps you and your students.
Thanks
Nik Peachey
clxv

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silvadelina@gmail.

com 13 Oct 2017

THE DIGITAL CLASSROOMS SERIES

NIK PEACHEY 2016

Copyright Nik Peachey 2016

The contents of this book, with the

Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in

Thinking Critically through Digital Media is the fourth book in

Thinking Critically through Digital Media builds on the concepts

Thinking Critically through Digital Media goes beyond treating

Who it is for How the book is structured

and what makes some information sources

Previously educational establishments were

WHY USE There are many reasons why we should be using

Infographics are often used to convey quite dense statistical

Being visual rather than textually based makes infographics

Many learners are more visually stimulated and research tells us

The study of many academic topics involves the understanding of

Developing students abilities to take information and make it visual

In the single computer classroom In the mobile classroom

In the disconnected classroom

GENERIC Infographics are a great source of information, but just

Peer created questions Checking information sources

INFOGRAPHIC Teaching students how to create infographics is a very useful

It develops their digital skills and abilities

In this section of the book you can find suggestions for

Infographic yourself Convert text to infographic

Literature & Narrative Class survey

Rationale Social media research infographic

Exploring a theme This activity really helps students to make their

Historical time line

CREATING AN Being able to create an infographic is a very useful skill and

Creating an infographic does take some thought and

Included here are some guidelines and stages to help you

1. Research things about These kinds of infographics are

4. Form Summary of stages

6. Design 5. Once you have your sketch as a guide you

7. Sharing 7. Once you have finished, save your infographic

Any internet search on tools for creating infographics will

The finished or partially finished designs you create can be stored in

This is another freemium tool for creating template based infographics.

This is a really useful template based tool for creating infographics.

KnightLab Timeline - http://timeline.knightlab.com/

Why use surveys?

part of many professional occupations and will continue to do so

Helping students with polls and surveys

Help students understand the difference between qualitative and

SURVEY These activities are designed to help students understand

Survey of favorites about their class using each of the word

Put one of your own suggestions into the Controversial statements

Now ask the students to create a new

SurveyMonkey is a freemium product and one of the online survey

Google Forms - https://docs.google.com/forms

WHY USE This section of the book looks at presentations, why we

Why use presentations

draw a sense of purpose and completion to their work beyond

How to help students with presentations

Once students have prepared their presentation it is useful to give

Evaluating student presentations

PRESENTATION These activities are designed to help students make their

Presenting research Present yourself

People you admire Give the students time to do some research

so having some background knowledge Poem presentations

Main characters and their relationship to PoemHunter: http://www.poemhunter.com/ is