Summary: In this interactive, students are asked to synthesize their learning about a famous person to create a movie poster. Students combine their prior knowledge with information provided in several different formats (timeline, biography, photograph or painting) to create the advertising poster for a biopic about the chosen individual.

Tips for using the student site in your classroom or lab: Download Tips
Download the screen-by-screen preview: Download Preview

Before you start:

• Remind students to read and listen carefully to the instructions starting on the first screen of the activity. (This really helps!)
• Review the concept of synthesizing. Ideas to discuss:
  • Synthesizing is different than summarizing; what is important to you?
  • Synthesizing means putting together new details, images and your own prior knowledge, feelings, opinions, experiences and inferences.
  • Synthesizing is when your thinking changes or expands. It is a way of reorganizing and generating our own explanations for what we are learning.
  • When you synthesize, you take what you learned and make it part of you
• Remind students that you will be discussing their posters after they do the activity. They will need to explain the reasons behind the choices they make.
• Tell students what you would like them to do when they finish the activity.
  • Print or e-mail their poster before doing another poster.
  • Listen to the Synthesizing song.
  • Raise your hand and check in with me.

After you finish:

• Remember, the discussion is the most important part of the activity!
• Review students' posters; use them for assessment by discussing with students during one-on-one conference time.
• In small groups, ask students to compare and discuss their posters.
  • Explain why you chose that particular pose/ lighting/ angle/ background/ symbol/ music?
  • What in the biography, timeline, or pictures led you to your choices?
  • How does your title/tagline express what you synthesized about the person?
  • Was it hard to write something so short? What else did you want to say?
  • Why is your poster different than someone else's?
  • What does your poster say about the person's life or how you feel about them?
• Consider working with an art teacher, who could work with students on symbolism and expressing ideas visually. Artistic expression is a great way to express a synthesis.
• Continue to work with students to help them to synthesize while they read.

Download the biographies
Download hints on making design choices for the poster
Download a Visual Communication standard to see how it applies to synthesizing