Infographics and the Common Core State Standards

As infographics become more and more popular in classrooms, we are seeing a lot of questions about how to align infographic-based teaching practices to the Common Core State Standards*.

*For non-educators or non-US educators reading this, the Common Core State Standards are “a shared set of rigorous benchmarked standards developed at the state level to prepare students to compete and succeed in the work place.” For more information, take a look at this infographic about the Common Core.

How can the Common Core State Standards be applied to infographics?  We already know that there are multiple ways to use infographics in teaching and learning. In case you haven’t read them, we recently wrote about how to use Infographics in high school classrooms and  presented examples of incorporating infographics in middle school.

The following are some examples of how to align the Common Core State Standards with the use of infographics from the California Academy of Science and Kathy Shrock’s blog

English Language Arts K-12 (from the California Academy of Science)

Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration

Grades 9-10

• Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.

Grades 11-12

• Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

Science K-12  (from the California Academy of Science)

Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Grades 9-10

• Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) …
• slate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.

Grades 11-12

• Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., quantitative data, video, multimedia) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
• Evaluate the hypotheses, data, analysis, and conclusions in a science or technical text, verifying the data when possible and corroborating or challenging conclusions with other sources of information.

English Language Arts and Literacy (From Kathy Shrock’s blog)

• ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7 Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. It would apply on how students can use data gathered online in presenting an infographic and how they can understand or interpret different media available online.

• ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism. When creating an infographic of their own, student’s carefully analyze all gathered information to ensure their accuracy and credibility. They can easily source the information on the infographic by providing works cited at the bottom.

• ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations. In creating an infographic, all types of media are used to be able to create a great presentation.

• ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts. In an infographic charts are always combined with text. That is why it is called infographics: Information and Graphics.

• ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.7 Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text. Every infographics requires analysis and great research.

• ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.7 Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table). In making an infographic, text and all kinds of graphs are used to explain a story effectively.

• ELA-Literacy.RST.9-10.7 Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words. The students are able to gather text data and switch it to graph for easier and faster understanding of an infographic.

Mathematical Practice K-12 (from Katherine Shrock’s blog)

• Represent a mathematical situation with symbols
• Use objects, drawings, & diagrams to create an argument
• Map relationships using tools such as diagrams, two-way tables, graphs, flowcharts
• Find digital content and use it to solve problems and use technological software and tools to do so
• Graph data and search for regularity and trends