Graphic Design: Designing an Effective Worksheet

Design contributes to effective communication. My students do a research project about a topic of their choice. Following a “reading for meaning” strategy, I created a set of generic questions that could apply to any topic. Once students answered the questions (true or false), I asked them to demonstrate if they were right or wrong by using evidence from credible sources.

The worksheet looked like this:

Many students were confused because they didn’t read the paragraph at the bottom. We had to spend an additional day of class time revising the document. So this year, I redesigned the worksheet. Creating a table with boxes makes everything much simpler to use and it will also be easier for me to assess.

I expect this change to result in greater student success, and more effective research.