Why and How to Use Posters in Your Classroom

Have you ever actually thought about why you put up posters to decorate your classroom?  Sure, they look pretty and add color to your walls, but do they really serve a purpose?  In this blog post, I’m going to break down the reasons you should use posters with information on them, different kinds of posters, what you should be on the lookout for when displaying posters, and a few ways to use posters.  I’ll also share some examples of the different types of posters discussed in this post.

Find all 3 types of posters HERE; source: The ESL Nexus

Benefits of Using Posters

* Posters help reinforce what you are teaching.  They provide visual support of academic concepts, vocabulary words, and/or classroom rules and procedures.  Information on posters can be easier for students to remember because the text and images work together and are presented in comprehensible ways.  This is particularly helpful for Multilingual Learners of English.
* Posters enhance your classroom environment.  They add color and create a positive learning atmosphere.  In turn, that helps motivate students.
* It shows that your classroom welcomes all students when you display posters that reflect your students cultural, religious, and linguistic backgrounds.  Newcomer English Learners and students from a variety of ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds will be more engaged when they see posters that include people from diverse backgrounds.
 

Types of Posters

* Academic content posters: These posters display information about specific academic topics.  They can be for core content subjects as well as for Health, Music, and other Specials.  Information on these posters may be about historical time periods, math or science concepts, literary genres, grammar structures, biographies of famous musicians, or nutrition, for example.
* Inspirational posters: These posters may display quotations from famous people about learning, respect, perseverance, and may also include drawings or photos that illustrate the quotes.
* Posters that represent diverse groups: These posters show people from a variety of backgrounds and are intended to help your cultural and linguistically diverse students feel valued and they help develop cross-cultural understanding among all your students.  These kinds of posters can, for example, showcase holidays, languages, and the flags and countries your students come from.
 

What to Be Aware of When Using Posters

* Plastering posters all over your room can lead to cognitive overload.  Some students may feel overwhelmed when they see lots of colorful posters.  In this case, less is more becaue you don’t want students to get so distracted by what’s on the walls that they don’t pay attention to what you’re teaching.
* Do your best to ensure that the posters are accessible.  What I mean by that is display posters whose text is easy to read by students who have learning difficulties, visual impairments, or are learning English.  For example, avoid displaying posters that use a lot of cursive text or text in small print sizes.  Choose posters that use colors that contrast well with each other.
* Make sure that the content and images on your posters is culturally appropriate and won’t be offensive to anyone.
 

Ways to Use Posters

* As references: When teaching an academic concept, you can refer students to posters that present information about that concept.  Examples are posters that include scientific formulas, that explain how to use punctuation marks correctly, and the legacies of famous people.
* Anchor charts: Student-created posters that summarize key ideas about topics help students to better remember the information.
* When teaching an academic subject, each time you begin a new unit you can display a poster related to the content of the unit.  That way, students don’t get bored by seeing the same posters all year long.  When using motivational quote posters, you can use the quotations as writing and discussion prompts.  When using diversity-focused posters, you can use them to introduce the cultures, religions, languages, and so on of your students and promote intercultural understanding.
 

Examples of the 3 Types of Posters

* Academic poster: This poster explains what the scientific method is in kid-friendly language that Multilingual Learners of English at intermediate levels of proficiency should be able to understand.  The resource also includes additional materials that help students learn what the scientific method is.
* Inspirational poster: This resource includes 5 posters with quotes about respect and 5 quotes about kindness.  With writing prompts to stimulate students’ thoughts, these posters help create a positive learning environment at the beginning of the school year.
* Culturally-appropriate posters: This resource contains multilingual posters that say welcome in 71 different languages.  You can use them at the entrance to your school to greet families and community members as well as in your classroom to welcome your students. 
 
I hope this post has given you some ideas about why and how you can use posters in your classroom.  You can see all my poster products in my TPT by clicking on this link.
 

Great Back To School Deals During the TPT Bonus Sale!

If you’re a teacher whose district goes back to school just before or right after Labor Day, you might’ve still been in vacation mode during TPT’s Back to School sale earlier this month.  But time is fast approaching when you’ll be in the classroom again, so TPT is having a Bonus Sale on August 27th and 28th to help you make this the best year ever.
 
All resources in my store, The ESL Nexus, are 20% off.  But when you use the promo code BTSBONUS24 you’ll get an additional 5% off when you check out, for a total savings of 25% off everything in my store.  Even my already-discounted bundles will be on sale, making them especially good deals because many will be approximately half off the original price when you use the promo code.  Yay!

Shop The ESL Nexus for great deals! Graphic by PavelVectors

Back to School Resources for the First Week of School

Below are some resources you can use at the beginning of the year with your students.  Just click on the orange title links for more info about each resource.

* All About Me Back to School Digital Poster Lesson Plan


Use the detailed lesson plan in this resource to have your students create digital posters.  It’s a great way for students to introduce themselves to each other and for you to get to know them.  The posters also give you an idea of your students' writing proficiency and teach them technology skills they can use for future projects in your class.

* Back to School Ancient History & World History Pre-Test & Post-Test Lesson Plan


Give the pre-test in this resource to your students to see what they know about ancient history or world history (there's a version for each subject) before you start teaching.  Then give the post-test at the end of the year to see what your students learned.  A detailed lesson plan gives step-by-step directions for administering the test.

* Multilingual Welcome Posters - Back to School Classroom Decor

Recently featured in the TPT Sunday newsletter, this product includes 93 posters that say Welcome in 71 different languages.  Display them on a bulletin board in your classroom or around your school to greet students, their families, and the community and create a welcoming environment for everyone.

* Posters and Checklists for Editing and Revising Paragraphs

Are you teaching writing skills?  The posters in this resource explain what makes a good paragraph and the checklists guide students when writing paragraphs

* Labor Day Word Search & Crossword Puzzles

This resource helps you teach students about Labor Day in the U.S. There are 3 word search puzzles at different levels of difficulty and 1 crossword puzzle with a word bank.  They teach 20 vocab words about the holiday and are great for early finishers or to use as a reward at the end of the day.  All puzzles are in both print and digital formats.
 
To see all of my Back to School and Beginning of the Year resources, please click HERE.  Remember to use the promo code BTSBonus24 to save 25% on all my resources.

Happy Shopping & Have a Great Year!

Why Use Posters with Multilingual Greetings on a Back to School Bulletin Board?

As you get ready for the new school year, you’re probably thinking of how to decorate your classroom.  Here's an idea: Create a bulletin board display with multilingual greetings!
 

Click HERE for more info about this Welcome poster resource; source: The ESL Nexus

I have many poster resources with multilingual greetings, with borders in a variety of designs, that make a wonderful Back to School display.  Each poster shows the greeting in the center, a flag at the top left, and the language at the bottom right.  (A few posters with greetings in Indigenous languages show an image other than a flag.)

Money-saving bundles that include both Welcome and Hello posters are also available.  One large bundle includes 2 Welcome resources and 2 Hello resources, with 86 posters in every resource -- that's 344 posters in all.

Why Use Multilingual Posters

* Using posters that say Welcome or Hello in many languages is a great way to create a positive classroom and school atmosphere.

* Your English Learners will appreciate seeing their native languages represented and your other students will enjoy them as well.

Where to Display the Posters

* Bulletin board in your classroom
* Around the door to your classroom
* Bulletin board in a hallway near where you teach
* At the entrance to your school

When to Display the Posters

* At the beginning of the new school year
* During your school's Back to School Open House
* During report card conference time and other family conference times
* At international/multicultural events organized for your school community
* All through the school year.

What Teachers Say

* Michelle said, "I get so many compliments on my door now that these signs are decorating it! Students of all ages love to try to read the various languages.  :) "

* Cat said, "I work at a school where there are MANY languages spoken. We have these all over the entry of our school.  It creates a very welcoming environment."
 
Even if it’s the middle of the school year for you, these multilingual posters make great bulletin board displays.  You can find all my multilingual poster resources HERE.

Do You Want to Find Great Back to School Deals on Amazon Prime Day?

Are you getting ready to go back to school?  Many educators in the U.S. just finished teaching only a few weeks ago but in some places, teachers go back to school at the end of July.  If you have started thinking about what you'll need to get your classroom ready for the beginning of the school year, it's a good thing Amazon Prime Day is happening July 16 – 17, 2024.

This blog post tells you how to get ready for it and offers links to materials and supplies you'll probably want to have in your classroom.  Each link is to a general page on Amazon that shows all kinds of items in that product category.  Products are for both teacher and student use.

Some of the items available on Amazon; graphic created by The ESL Nexus

(Please note that the links below are affiliate links. That means I make a small commission if you purchase anything after clicking on them but it's at no additional cost to you.  Thank you for your support!)

Getting Ready for Amazon Prime Day

Signing Up

To take advantage of Prime Day deals, you need an Amazon Prime account.  Just sign up here to get a free 30-day trial.  After that, you can pay monthly or yearly.  If for some reason you don't want to continue after your free trial ends, just cancel and you won't be charged.  

5 Benefits of Amazon Prime

Click on the green links for more info.

* Free shipping on items you purchase – regardless of the price of the item.
* Prime Video – watch some movies and TV shows for free or which aren't available anywhere else.
* Kindle Unlimited – read books from Amazon's online library, including books not available elsewhere.
* Audible Premium Plus – listen to audiobooks for the first 3 months for free.
* Amazon Music – get your first 5 months free.

How to Shop on Amazon Prime Day

Actually, there are 2 days so I don't know why it's called Amazon Prime Day.  Unless it's because the first time they did it, it was just for 1 day.
 
Anyway, after you've signed up, you'll want to go to the webpage where all the deals are listed.  There, you can scroll down the page and through the categories to find what you're looking for.  But if you're only interested in Back to School supplies, you can find lots of ideas in the section below.
 
It's helpful to create a wish list where you can put in one place everything you're interested in.  In case you've never created a wish list before, when you find something you want, you'll see a small box that says "Add to Wish List" under the section at the right of your screen with the info about buying an item.  Click the "Add to Wish List" button, then click the plus sign to create a list and click the yellow button to actually make it, and lastly, tap the name of your list to add the item you're looking at to that list.  Repeat with all the other things you're thinking of buying.
 
Before and during Prime Day, you can refer to this list to see if the price has changed on any of your selections.  If a price has decreased, then you should probably buy it quickly because you never know when the cost might go up or if the item will sell out and become unavailable.

Back to School Supplies for Teachers

To save you some time, below are 12 categories of Back to School supplies.  Instead of specific items, each link takes you to the first of several webpages offering products in that category.  This way, you can choose the items that will work best for your own teaching situation.  Just click on the green links to go to those webpages.
 
* Flip Charts
Write lesson objectives, vocabulary lists, timelines, and word webs and mind maps you display to your students, or have students use them for work they display to their classmates.
 
* Expo Markers
These are perfect for writing on whiteboards.
 
* Other Markers
Use these for posters and flip charts you make or give them to students to use in their projects.
 
* Notebooks
Give notebooks to your students for their classwork and homework.  They can use 1 notebook for taking notes and doing writing tasks in class.  Students can use a different notebook for vocabulary work so they can keep it all in the same place and easily refer back to it.
 
* Pocket Folders
Help students stay organized with folders!  Give each student 2 folders: 1 for class work that stays in school and 1 for homework so it never gets misplaced.  You can let students choose what colors they want or give the same color to everyone for their classwork and a different color for their homework.  If you teach multiple subjects, you can color-coordinate that way, with each subject getting their own color.
 
* Sticky Notes
Perfect for your own notes you make about your lessons and also to send home with positive news about your students' work.  Students can use them to take notes when reading novels and textbooks.
 
* Pens
You'll want to have a stash of these on hand to write comments on your students' work as well as write notes home to families, fill out forms, and write up lesson plans if you do them by hand.
 
* Pencils
It's so easy for students to lose pencils so having a supply on hand is helpful.
 
* Index Cards
There are so many uses for them!  You can use them to label objects in your classroom for Multilingual Learners of English, create vocabulary flashcards for playing Concentration or Charades, list historical events that students have to put in order, and write questions and answers to help students prepare for tests.  Students can use them to take notes for research projects, to make their own flashcards, and to create their own study guides.
 
* Scissors
If your students are making models or doing any kind of project, they will probably need scissors to cut things.  And you'll need scissors if, for example, you've created printables that duplicate a text on the same page or you need to cut sentence strips apart.
 
* Glue Sticks
If you or your students are creating things, gluing pieces together may be necessary.
 
* Printer Paper
If your school doesn't supply you with paper, or if you run out, here are lots of options.
 
Good luck scoring great deals during Amazon Prime Day!