Creativity in the Classroom
The faculty in RLL continuously hone their craft in order to improve our students’ learning outcomes. Since 2016, RLL has hosted an annual event called the Share Fair. It brings faculty from across RLL together to share ideas and resources to improve student learning. Over the years, the themes have ranged from warm up and transition exercises, integrating culture in the curriculum, and whether or not to use technology in the classroom.
Created by Andrea Stiasny Carruthers, the event is now organized by a group of volunteers including Andrea, Julie Harrell, Rashmi Rama, Amaryllis Rodríguez Mojica, and Coquis Galvan-Santibanez.
During the Seventh Annual Share Fair in March 2022, Carolina Bengolea Purdy gave a presentation describing how she was using infographics as a creative way for her Spanish 231 students to practice their language skills. During the presentation, Carolina explained her process and shared the final products her students created.
Inspired by Carolina’s exercise, Sabine Gabaron felt compelled to explore this idea in her French 274 - French and Francophone Societies and Culture - Medical I course that same semester.
“The creation and sharing of Infographics brought a wonderful sense of purpose to the class.” Gabaron wrote. “ It also elevated students’ confidence in their abilities to create meaningful content in the foreign language, regardless of their linguistic levels, and allowed them to share their own appreciation of a current world health issue in a personalized, creative, powerful way.”
This activity engaged students in a real-life problem-solving issue related to an important health crisis while underlining social, economic, and political inequities in the DROM-COMs - the term used to describe all land under French sovereignty outside of mainland France.
Description of the French 274 Infographic Activity:
1. Students read about issues in the DROM-COM – French overseas departments and regions – related to COVID. After reading, observing, discussing, and making hypothesis on what could be done to improve the health crisis in these regions, students came up with three measures they could propose to the current French government for improvement.
2. Students were then given a week to create an infographic on a topic of their choice related to the issues discussed in class. The infographics’ goals were to raise awareness of inequities or malfunctioning of the medical systems and propose solutions.
3. Students read a document on how to make an infographic (tools, design considerations), in French, based on information I gathered on several websites.
Various models of infographics found on the internet addressing medical issues were shared with the students and we discussed them in class, contrasting and comparing them, analyzing their effectiveness and goals.
4. During the week, students had to work individually, following a step-by-step process:
a. choosing a topic
b. choosing a type of infographic (format, style, message, etc.)
c. doing research (finding data and appropriate/relevant information)
d. creating the draft of the infographic on which I gave feedback,
e. submitting the final draft
The infographics were then shared with the French government via a website, after obtaining students’ approvals for publication. We never heard back from them, but students were very proud of their work.
Scroll down to see more of the infographics students made in French 274!
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