A STUDY OF INNOVATIVE WAYS TO TEACH POSTER WRITING

Abstract

In this present course of academic growth, the task of writing a discourse without much difficulty is
not as easy as it seems. Every child is unique in his or her persona and thus every child has their own pace in
writing skill. And writing or making a poster as part of their discourse writing is as relevant as other discourses.
Though it is not frequently asked in examination, but still it is equally important in practical life situations.
But with accordance with other discourses, it is part of academic syllabus. Thus the present study was
undertaken to analyse how students find the task of writing poster and their general knowledge on the same.

Key words :

i) Poster : Poster is a ‘card’ or ‘placard’ which is generally made to spread information on an event,
social concern or to create awareness to a large number of general mass.

ii) Innovative : Presenting something in an inventive, advanced and improvised way

Introduction

A poster presentation combines text and graphics to present your project in a way that is visually
interesting and accessible. It allows you to display your work to a large group of other scholars and to talk to
and receive feedback from interested viewers.

Poster is a ‘card’ or ‘placard’ which is generally made to spread information on an event, social concern
or to create awareness to a large number of general mass. A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to
be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although
a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and
informative. Posters may be used for many purposes.

Features of a poster:
 They are part notice and part advertisement
 They do not have fixed style or format
 They are artistic and eye-catching
 Give importance to visual appeal

Statement Of the problem

The study that the investigator have taken for the study is entitled as ‘A study of innovative ways to
teach poster writing for school students’. As a community work, the B.Ed trainees of Mount Carmel College
of Teacher education for Women of English optional have conducted a training programme for students as
part of community service. This project is based on the topic poster writing.

Need and significance of the study

In this present course of academic growth, the task of writing a discourse without much difficulty is
not as easy as it seems. Every child is unique in his or her persona and thus every child has their own pace in
writing skill. And writing or making a poster as part of their discourse writing is as relevant as other discourses.
Though it is not frequently asked in examination, but still it is equally important in practical life situations.
But with accordance with other discourses, it is part of academic syllabus.

Poster writing discourse is significant as it enhances the leaner to be creative and critical thinker
simultaneously at or for a particular time. It has to be précised and yet subtle message or announcements has
to be included, which needs a sudden decision making, so that minimal words will always a meaningful
message to a large crowd. Even the illustrations included, needs to be apt, because a picture speaks louder
than words. Thus the matter that has to be included in a poster writing has to be précised and eye-catchy.

Objectives

The main objective of conducting this project are as follows:

1) To find whether students are aware about various discourses in English.

2) To understand whether the students are aware of the discourse of poster writing.
3) To provide practice to student in writing discourse like poster writing.
4) To quip the students to write poster writing without any assistance.
5) To develop a sense of responsibility.
6) To be of service to their community.
7) To enhance the communication skills of learners in English.
8) To increase the language competing of the student.

Methodology and Procedure

The tools used were a set of questionnaire prepared by the investigator. The question were of ‘yes’ or
‘no’ type. The question consisted of two parts. The first set consisted of fifteen suggestion which was
to check the general outlook of students towards the subject English. The second set of question comprises
of various discourse like poster writing [formal and informal], profile writing, diary entry, newspaper
report, character sketch, composing e-mail, paragraph writing, notice, question and slogan preparation.

Methodology : Questionnaire
Sample : 20
Sampling methodology : Convenient sampling
Universe : Mount Carmel Girls High School Kanjikuzhy, Kottayam

Analysis and Interpretation

The following table illustrates the specific questions asked :

Table 1.1 Table representing the distribution of responses and percentage on general questions
Responses Percentage
Sl.
Questions
No. Yes No Yes No
1. Do you like to learn the subject English? 100% -
20 0
2. Do you speak English? 10 10 50% 50%
3. While speaking in English, do you have any difficulty in
conveying your message? 18 2 90% 10%
4. Do you engage in any activities that would enhance your
speaking skills? 13 7 65% 35%
5.
Are you able to understand what is taught in class?
18 2 90% 10%
6. Do you know the basics of English grammar? - 100%
0 20
7. Do you find difficulty in learning grammar?
11 9
8. Do you know the different parts of speech in English? - 100%
0 20
9. Do you find difficulty in learning spelling? 15% 85%
3 17
10. Do you often create spelling mistakes? 85% 15%
17 3
11. Do you love reading books? 85% 15%
17 3
12. Do you read aloud at home? 35% 65%
7 13
13. Are you interested in learning new words? 100% -
20 0
14. Do you listen to English news channels? 10% 90%
2 18
15. Do you watch English movies? 45% 55%
9 11
16. Do you refer the dictionary for finding the meaning for
difficult words? 14 6 7% 93%
17. Do you engage in any activities that could enhance your
writing skills? 11 9 55% 45%
18. Do you take down notes in your English class? 10% 90%
2 18
19. Are you interested in doing activities and exercises in the
course book?
17 3 85% 15%
20. Do you participate in any literary competitions? 15% 85%
3 17

From the above data the teacher trainee interpreted the following :

 All the respondents like to learn English but only half of them like to speak English.

 While speaking English 18 among the 20 respondents feel difficulty in conveying the message to the
listener whereas 02 of the respondents have no difficulty in doing the same.

 It is noticed that 13 among the 20 engage any activities that would enhance their speaking skills but
07 of them still don’t engage much to improve their skill of speaking in English and this may be due
to lack of confidence.

 18 of the respondents understand what is taught in class and the rest are not much able to comprehend
on what is taught on class.

 It was shocking to know that the students still are unaware of the basic knowledge of English and none
knew what exactly the parts of speech are and 11 find it difficult to understand and learn grammar and
09 don’t feel difficulty in comprehending or learning grammar.

 17 are having no difficulty in learning spelling excluding the rest, who have able to learn spellings by
themselves and understand it in whole way but it was interesting to know that the respondents and thus
the 17 don’t make spelling mistakes whereas others do.

 From the respondents only 3 don’t like to read books and the rest 17 do and among these 20, 13 of
them don’t read things loudly whereas 07 do read loudly at home.

 All the respondents are interested to learn new words but only 02 do watch English news channel to
learn anything extra from it, the rest 18 don’t watch English news channel. 9 respondents watch English
movies where the rest 11 don’t.

 Among the learners, those selected for the survey, 14 refer the dictionary for finding the meaning for
difficult words but the remaining 06 don’t take use dictionary to understand the meaning of the
unknown words.

 11 respondents engage in activities that would enhance their writing skills whereas the rest 09 don’t
get much engaged in these kind of activities.
 It was sad to know that students don’t take notes much during their classes and from the survey trainee
teacher came to know that 18 respondents don’t take notes during their English classes whereas only
two take down notes.

 But it is good to learn that 17 respondents are interested in doing activities and exercises in the course
book excluding the 03, who are not much interested to do the same.

 It is seen that 17 students are literally not at all interested to take part in any literary competitions as
they may have a lack of confidence and still there are 03 who initiate to do something different by
taking part in English language literary events.

1.2 Table representing the distribution of responses based on Poster writing

Sl. No Questions Responses Percentage

YES NO YES NO

1. Do you know what a poster is? 20 - 100% -

2. Do you like posters? 20 - 100% -

3. Do you read posters on walls or any other places? 20 - 100% -

4. Have you seen posters anywhere? 20 - 100% -

5. Can you distinguish between event posters and non-event 15 05 75% 25%
posters?
6. Do you find it difficult to write a poster? 05 15 25% 75%

7. Do you know the importance of poster writing? 12 08 60% 40%

8. Are you aware of the format for writing a poster? 19 01 95% 05%

9. Do you think that a poster should contain details of a 20 - 100% -

programme yet to happen?
10. Do you believe that a poster should contain pictures and 20 - 100% -
illustrations?
11 Do you believe that a poster should be colourful and 20 - 100% -
attractive?
12. Do you think that preparing a poster will help to develop 20 - 100% -
your writing skills?

From Table 1.2 it can be identified that all the respondents are well aware of the discourse, poster writing
as they know and like posters to read (100% for first four questions). They also even read posters displayed
at various places.

 15 respondents are able to distinguish between event posters and non-event posters whereas 05
respondents are unable to do the same.

 From the data, it can be clearly identified that 15 respondents are finding it difficult to write a poster
and 05 are able to write it well.
 12 among the respondents are aware on the importance of poster writing whereas 08 don’t have much
knowledge about the same.

 All the respondents are assure that posters contain details of an upcoming event or programme and are
informative, which is yet to happen.

 All have opted that posters can include pictures & illustrations, and should be colourful and attractive
and poster writing does help in improving writing skill.

Suggestions

The following are the innovative suggestions or strategies which can help students to foster poster
writing skills :

i) Art
A picture is worth a thousand words – what better way for a writer to understand the intricacies of a story
than to draw them. A popular medium for using art to writes is comics.

ii) Audio
Audio “writing” is simply putting them on paper. They are not distracting, can be consumed without eyes
and appeal to learners who have difficulty with traditional writing methods. The students can listen to an
audio on how to write a poster then through memorising the important points they can be given chart paper
to make a creative poster.

iii) Desktop Publishing

Slide show / power point presentation
Slide shows have long been the alternative to written report, used when the written word required an oral
presentation. Most slide shows include bulleted draft texts, images, sounds, videos, colour and movement.

iv)Video
For students who aren’t writers and have difficulty presenting to a group, a video is intimidating and stress-
free. The students can be shown a video on how to create a poster and after the display, they can be asked
questions and let them explore themselves by trying to do it. Since there are two types of posters, each
type has to be shown separate and done one-by-one so that they can get a continuity on what they do and
may learn in ease.

v) Train game
Here the students are made into a group of six and are given flashcards having the important points to be
included in a poster (use features of only one type of poster writing; event or non-event posters) and when
the team is called, one member will have to take a piece. Later one-by-one all come and take the cards and
through discussion they will have to arrange the cards into two sects; event or non-event posters features
separately. Features of both the poster types shall be kept mixed up on the table and when one type of
poster type is arranged, then they have to arrange for the next type, when the team arranges properly, they
get the points. And the team that does in the shortest time wins.

Conclusion

Poster writing is a typical, creative, and précised representation of a task on sheet of paper. It is a
systematic yet subtle way of projecting an idea, message or announcement to a large public in a short
period of time. But as far as academic syllabus is concerned, poster writing is meant to be taught to enhance
writing skills. Thus it has taken a special place in the course book and exercise books of various syllabus
but the problem behind writing a poster, at the proper time with apt words are not easily possible.
 As from the findings, it is clear that the students actually don’t know why they write posters. And they
feel very difficult in writing the same. Few even don’t know the format of writing poster. The investigator
hopes that, by formatting and integrating the innovative methods, it could be easy for the learner to learn
fast. Let’s make them able, and not disabled in learning.

Reference

 http://www.learnnext.com/CBSE/Class-10/English-Writing-Skills/Poster-and-Pamphlet/Posters-Format-and-
Sample/L-2249620.html

 https://rodrickwrites.blogspot.in/2014/02/poster-writing-for-grade-twelve-cbse.html

 http://www.slideshare.net/ideam4u/poster-designing-class-xii-cbse

 http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/PosterPresentations.html