Classroom Posters Can Improve Students' Behavior, Attitude and Motivation for School by Ruth Herman Wells Youth Change

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Classroom Posters Can Improve Students' Behavior, Attitude and Motivation for School
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Submitted Tuesday, October 04, 2005
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When you think of interventions to use with problem

and challenging students, normally you probably think

of active approaches. But, there is a whole world

of powerful, passive approaches that are frequently

forgotten or completely overlooked.

With that in mind, we ask you to look around your

classroom or office. What do you see on your walls? The

items on your wall can have on-going, major impact--

all without you doing anything at all. We tend

to forget that young people may spend hours

each day just staring at what surrounds them.

If you surround them with nothing, they may

get nothing. If you surround them with something

powerful and persuasive, you may change lives.

Our unusual, startling posters

(http://www.youthchg.com/posters.html)

have been drawing an awful lot of comment lately,

and that's what made us realize how easy it is to

underestimate the power of passive interventions

like simple posters. People have been

commenting that our posters can sometimes

accomplish what conventional approaches couldn't.

The range of posters that you can use is

unlimited, from thought-provoking to haunting,

from inspirational to motivational, from troubling

to sarcastic, from silly to calming. Let us show you

how to maximize your impact beyond

conventional, active interventions. Put your walls

work for you, and you will be surprised how

much more you can achieve when you surround

your students with powerful agents of change.

You may end up being pleasantly surprised

how passive interventions can underscore, enhance

and even "hammer home" the points you are

trying to make with your young people.

We will look at passive interventions in two ways.

First, we'll cover the surprising range of passive

intervention posters. Second, we'll show

you free, fast and low-cost ways to make your

own posters if you have more time than budget.

These ideas will not require you to have a lot of

time, art skills or computer expertise.

We'll even show you how to get customized

posters without you having to make anything

or invest much time yourself.

TYPES OF POSTERS

Everyone has seen the motivational and

inspirational posters that have become commonplace,

but there are so many more options than that.

Here are some other often overlooked ways to

make your walls work for you all day:

* Shocking Posters

Shocking posters are jarring and unexpected.

See an example (Poster #15) at

the link above. (You will want to view each poster

as examples to get full value from this article.)

It's hard to just shake off the comment of "I'm

looking for the lowest paying job I can find ."

If you have to look at that comment for hours

per day, it could stick with you.

* Posters That Can Teach

It's hard to believe that a piece of paper

tacked to the wall can teach, but look

at this silly poster (Poster #22).

It does convey important information to

students about how to get help from teachers.

It's silly but effective to

call teachers "lousy mind readers."

* Posters That Reinforce What Has Been Taught

Poster #22 (from the example used directly above)

can also reinforce and remind students of

what they already know. It's better that a

poster provides an on-going reminder

than you have to stop the class to

provide a verbal reminder. See how

passive interventions can work better

than active ones.

* Posters Deliver Messages When

Words Don't Work

Words sometimes fail to deliver the

message, but pictures and colors may do

the job when words fail. Take a look at

Poster #28. A counselor might

work hard to let a

vulnerable youngster know that the

counselor is a helping resource, and

the child may not act on the message.

This poster-- a passive intervention--

perhaps placed on the outside of the

counselor's office door, can actually be

more effective and lasting lure than

mere words.

* Posters Haunt

A poster can look down on students for

months or years at a time. Some posters

can end up being down-right haunting.

Well-executed pictures and text can gnaw

at a youngster in ways that words can't

accomplish. Look at Poster #7

to see how bothersome a poster can be.

Obviously, the headline of "Dropouts

Needed for High Paying Jobs" could linger.

* Other Jobs for Posters

Posters are obvious candidates for

inspiration and motivation. See Poster #34

as an example. Sarcasm that might

seem harsh when spoken,

can become more acceptable on paper.

Sarcasm can be a powerful tool when used very

carefully. The next examples,

Posters #31 and #33,

definitely approach that limit-- although they

do so for a good cause (drug abuse prevention.)

Posters can also heal and soothe. Look at

Posters #29 and #30 at

to see how posters can even be reassuring.

HOW TO MAKE POSTERS

You may be surprised to learn how easy it is to

make posters that fit your students' issues. The

internet has made it so easy. You can find

endless clip art and photos all over the net.

Before you use any art or photos, be sure that

the site grants you use of their resources. A

popular source of clip art is at Discovery.com

(www.school.discovery.com/clipart/).

Free photos are tougher to find because many

photos are protected by copyright, but a site

that has completely free pictures that you can

use is Geek Philosopher.com

(www.geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/bkgPeople.htm.)

Word, Paint, Adobe Photoshop and many other

programs can be easily used to create quick

but powerful posters that can work all day

every day on your wall. To grab a picture or

piece of clip art, simply put your

cursor over the item, right click "Save Picture

As" and voila, the item is all your's. It's

that easy.

Posters can be of any size. To easily make

posters without a printer that produces

large-size pages, print the poster using

the largest size paper you can, then enlarge

the poster on your copier. Printing shops

can also enlarge and print full color posters

for you, often for a cost of under $2 per

poster. If you use a common computer program

to make your posters, you can even send in the

poster file via the internet, and not even

have to leave your office or classroom.

You don't even have to make your posters

yourself. Instead of traditional consequences

for misbehavior, have students make posters.

You can even have the students use their

misbehavior as the focus of the poster. For

example, if students get in trouble for

bullying peers, perhaps they craft a poster

on bullying. Another idea: hold contests for

students to make posters. Yet another idea:

have poster construction become part of your

instruction. For example, making posters could

legitimately become an activity for language

arts if substantial text is used. Making

posters could be a far better activity

than staring at the walls during study hall,

detention or in school suspension. You can

transform those unstructured, often

unproductive times into the source of endless

posters that make your walls work for you.

I wish I could have included thumbnails of all the

the example posters. Words don't convey their

lively, unexpected contents very well. But do take

the time to check out the referenced posters

and the recommended resources sites,

and the article will make more sense. Plus, viewing

the two resource sites and the unusual example

posters may spark some great ideas for you to make

for your walls.

►Reprint Rights◄

» left by Anonymous (1 year 19 days ago.)

is there any research that prove the influence of posters?
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