Core-Concept One-Pagers: A Fast, Meaningful Content Wrap-Up

To be honest, this isn’t really a writing post.

Students do write in this activity, but truly this has much more to do with reading comprehension and synthesis. It was a lightning bolt that struck me at just the right time to help me quickly wrap up a reading unit, so I wanted to share it with you in case you could use something like this to round out your year, too!

Here’s the Big Idea…

A Core-Concept One-Pager has all the elements of a traditional one-pager: quotes, thoughts, questions, opinions, sketches, aha moments, connections. But this one-pager is focused around one central concept and uses four sources to share the creator’s individual learning.

It’s a little bit like hexagonal thinking. It’s a little bit like a two-page spread. It’s a little bit like a language field note.

I used this to wrap up a non-fiction reading unit. My seventh graders read four articles (provided by their history teacher — what a lifesaver that collaboration is!) about the legacy of the Cold War. (They had just finished their Cold War unit in history class.) I wanted to know how these four articles changed or expanded their understanding of this time period.

And the Core-Concept One-Pager was born!

Here are the instructions:

My students have a lot of experience making two-page spreads this year as a reflection of their reading, so I also reminded them of those expectations:

Here are some examples of what students created:

This activity took about 45 minutes and students were able to synthesize lots of learning and reflect on what they personally got out of each article!

What core concepts in your class could students quicky explore through a Core-Concept One-Pager? How might this help you wrap up content this year? I’d love to hear how you use this tool!