Ideas for Posters or Pamphlets

• This would be an interesting project for a literacy group that is studying local history and wants to raise community awareness. Posters and pamphlets can contain information that is quickly and easily read and is attractive visually.
• When your literacy group has completed its research, decide what your message or messages will be. How many pamphlets or posters do you want to make to illustrate what you have learned?
• Divide into pairs or small groups to do the work. You may choose themes or historical periods for each group to work on, for example: Thule history, precontact Inuit history and modern community history; or location of traditional hunting grounds, trading posts and Catholic or Anglican missions.
• You may decide that each small group creates both a poster and a pamphlet based on a theme. The pamphlet will involve more writing practice than the poster, but the poster will get the creative juices lowing and give people ideas to write about.
• Bring in samples of posters and pamphlets and discuss their format and content. Talk about which approach seems the most effective for your project.
• For pamphlets, you may want to use a pamphlet template on your word processing program to make the process easier. Add photographs, maps and graphics, as well as text.
• For posters, you could use photographs – prints, scanned or digital, drawings or paintings, graphics or diagrams. Create the text on the computer. The poster could take the form of a collage of many overlapping visual images and some text, which come together to illustrate the point the group wants to make. Laminate the posters when they are complete.
• The facilitator teaches mini-lessons on the writing process, syllabic keyboarding, grammar and any other topics as they come up.
• Offer to display the posters and pamphlets in a public place. Make an envelope to put the pamphlets in; attach one envelope beneath each poster and leave a stack of pamphlets, so people can take one home if they want.
• If you decide that historical tourist information is needed in your community, consider translating the posters and pamphlets into English and making them available at the airport or visitors centre.