Use newsletter templates for assignments

Image : Microsoft Office templates

I have used Pages and Microsoft Office newsletter templates for – er  – well, newsletters. If I have run a team, I have produced a weekly newsletter to keep us all up to date. It has never occurred to me before to use them to set up assignments and now I have done my first one, there will be lots more! In 2013 they are the perfect way to set up detailed and colourful assignment sheets. My MacBook has the latest version of Microsoft Office for Mac. The template I chose (not the one shown) has some good colours and plenty of spots for pictures. It meant I could easily theme the assignment, organise the instructions and don’t forgets, insert texts to support our learning and the listening exercises I have. I could use some of the boxes for exercises to learn things like the passive voice and the imperfect tense. I could use other boxes for vocabulary  specific to the assignment. There is room to add performance criteria and/or assessment criteria but I have to put that on a separate sheet for this particular group of students. With a newsletter format I noticed it made me think logically about what specific content I wanted the students to learn and then what else I could do as scaffolding. I used the plain block coloured boxes to put little bits of reminder information. It meant I could not be too wordy. My belief is this new found newsletter approach will aid clarity of what to learn and how to learn it. I am looking forward to seeing what the students think of this new approach. What I have actually done in a sense is turned my assignment into electronic book format. Now, there’s a thought.