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During March, she read a different poet each day and made a CENTO poem using lines from her reading.

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I am the reading teacher at DHMS and have a passion for making my thinking visible in my Reading Notebook. I sometimes give poetry a try, both reading and writing. This summer, I want to try even more! Reach me by email: sally.donnelly11@gmail.com

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Thank you to Colleen Cruz who shared this during her co-taught May Institute - Teach Latine/x Heritage All Year.

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Freedman has come to see sketchnoting as a bridge between early elementary, when students necessarily think visually because they are still learning to read, and middle school, where suddenly all visual thinking seems to stop.

"One of my girls at the end of the year said that, 'I learned that sketchnoting helps me remember things more,' " Freedman said.

Freedman uses sketchnoting resources on the website of Sylvia Duckworth, a former teacher and author who has become a sketchnoting celebrity. Duckworth breaks down the elements of a sketchnote like icons, containers and font to help the artist think about organizing the sketch. Freedman has found those tools help her students organize their thinking as well.

"My students have their own podcast and they sketchnote their segments on notecards," she explained. Storyboarding in this segmented way allows them to move things around, finding a structure and coherence that doesn't come as naturally when writing is the first step in the process. "They wouldn't have been able to do that if it were on paper. They just don't see it that way."

She's also found that allowing students to sketchnote an outline or first draft of a writing assignment can dramatically improve the quality of the thinking and writing she receives. Freedman says her students always want the first draft to be the final draft, and they often write the bare minimum. But when they sketch first, not only do they organize their thoughts better, but they also tend to add more detail and evidence from what they've read. They have a template to follow, one that didn't feel as intimidating to make.

Since the genius project experiment, Freedman has offered sketchnoting as an option to her students in many other ways. She's found that student sketches are a great jumping-off point to ask them more about their thinking -- they look at what they've drawn and can tell her far more than they used to. And, she can easily spot when there are misconceptions.

For example, she quickly realized her students didn't understand what theme was because, when she asked them to sketchnote the story's theme, they would draw characters and setting. That was an immediate sign to Freedman she needed to reteach the idea of theme, something she might not have known from the cryptic sentences her students used to write in response to the same kinds of questions.

"It allows me to ask better questions because I'm not just looking at a simple answer or a paragraph," Freedman said. "I'm trying to interpret what's in front of me, too."

Freedman has also found sketchnoting to be surprisingly helpful dealing with the inevitable conflicts that crop up in the middle grades.

Ss learning about what sketchnoting is @HeckAwesome #sketchnote @manuelherrera33 @ZajacSLP #jjpride pic.twitter.com/hIwdRg2vgN

- Rayna Freedman (@rlfreedm) October 1, 2018

"I had these two girls that were up each other's throats," Freedman said. She asked them to stay in from recess one day, but rather than lecturing them, she asked each girl to sketchnote how she was feeling. Then they each looked at the other person's drawing and drew what it made them think. The drawings revealed the misunderstanding at the bottom of the conflict, and gave each girl enough emotional distance to truthfully express how they were feeling.

Kim Zajac is the speech and language pathologist at Freedman's school. She has also found sketchnoting to be a powerful tool for her students. One boy was regularly in conflict with other classmates. Zajac encouraged him to sketch out what happened in those interactions and to imagine and sketch alternative ways to handle it next time.

"Make it less of a criticism process and more of a social expectation process," Zajac said. This student wouldn't have been able to talk about how these interactions made him feel without the sketches. They gave him a concrete reference for his feelings and reactions to other kids.

In another instance, Zojac had a student who struggled to keep his speech rate up when he presented. To support him, she first had him explain his ideas to her while she sketched them. Later, when he presented in front of the class, he had the sketch as reference, which helped him stay on track.

"If they can just dump it out, put it in some symbolic form, then it allows them to recall it back, think deeper, and present it in a different form," Zojac said. And for the kids she supports, who have speech and language issues, sketchnoting offers important insights into their thinking that is otherwise difficult to access.

"It isn't about things being pretty," Zojac said. "It's not about creating a piece of art. It's about creating a piece of thinking."

Sketchnoting With Special Needs Students
Carrie Baughcum teaches students with special learning needs at South Middle in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Her students have a range of disabilities from motor challenges, to language challenges, to emotional and behavioral issues. She usually has students for English, math, social studies and a resource class, but they are integrated into other subjects throughout the day. And, as they become more independent learners throughout their time in middle school, they often transition out to the general classroom more often.

Before Baughcum discovered sketchnoting, she used a fairly traditional approach with her students. She was focused on building their comprehension skills and did a lot of skill practice with them. She always saw gains and made solid progress on her students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), but she hadn't done a lot of thinking about how to get them excited about what they were learning.

Baughcum had begun drawing at home with her daughters as a way of spending time with them. It was an uncomfortable experience for her. She didn't feel like a good artist, but noticed herself improving as she kept at it. And, she loved the insight she got into her own children's minds through their drawings.

"I was certain that the students in my special education classroom, two to three years below grade level, that they couldn't do it," Baughcum said at the Building Learning Communities conference. But she decided to test the theory one year with a group of students that happened to be all boys.

"It was one of the most challenging groups I've had in 20 years of teaching," Baughcum said.

They were reading an adapted version of Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." Baughcum asked her students, "What movie is playing in your head when we read this paragraph?" No one said anything. So, she started narrating out loud what she imagined as she read.

She modeled drawing those thoughts into the margin of the book. Her students dutifully copied down what she had drawn. That went on for a while. Baughcum would walk around the room and ask her students questions about what they were drawing, even though the drawings were copies of what she had described. One day, a student decided to draw something different. Baughcum calls it the "going rogue moment." It transformed her classroom; overnight every student wanted to show that they imagined something unique.

"Since that moment when he went rogue, all the other students embraced the idea that they had these ideas in their head and we can draw them," Baughcum said.

Her students didn't have a lot of experience visualizing, but once she started asking them to do so, and they got comfortable with the idea, Baughcum has seen the practice deepen their comprehension. But, she cautions, it doesn't always look how she expects. She's even written a guide to sketchnoting in the classroom called My Pencil Made Me Do It.

"Their drawing could be so off base, but if I can go over and ask them about it, and they can connect it, then that's the right image for them," Baughcum said. She's adamant that the drawings themselves are not the point. It's the thinking behind the drawing that interests her. To keep her students focused on the process and not the product she's careful to use phrases like "visual thinking" and "doodling to learn."

Baughcum doesn't care what the drawings look like, as long as her students can talk about the ideas they represent. She never gives feedback on the drawings themselves, only on the thinking. She often spots misconceptions in the drawings her students have made -- valuable information for her -- but also opportunities to discuss editing the drawing to fill in those comprehension holes.

"The conversations we have in my classroom have become richer," Baughcum said, and there's less lag time retrieving thoughts. She points out to students how much cognitive processing is happening as they sketchnote. They're listening to information, making sense of it, connecting it to other information they know and to a visual image, and then drawing it. It's an active process, which is why Baughcum has found it to be so powerful for her students.

"That offers this really wonderful desire to want to do it more because they're feeling good about what they're thinking," Baughcum said.

Sketchnoting has changed what she expects from her students. But she acknowledges that using this practice in class is a marathon, not a race. It takes time to help students learn how to visualize, to see a picture in their heads. And, she's worked with them to think carefully about the icons, fonts and containers they're sketching. She wants them to have a reason for each choice they make in their sketchnote because those choices are directly connected to the material they are learning.

"When we're sketchnoting in class I tell students is it new, is it interesting, does it make you feel something? If so, it's probably worth taking down."

Baughcum also says it's important for teachers to sketchnote with their students. Drawing can make people feel vulnerable, so when the teacher acknowledges she's new to this as well, and makes mistakes, it creates room for students to try new things, too.

"Before I started sketchnoting with my students, I wasn't really a drawer," Baughcum said. "I have noted that opening up this new permission to draw and learn has opened up opportunities for students to show me parts of themselves they may not have shown before."

And she's seen huge successes. Like the first-year student who struggled tremendously with reading. Getting through a whole paragraph was almost impossible for him. But by visualizing the story as it was read to him, doodling in the margins, and connecting the ideas on the first read-through, he could then read it on his own. Baughcum was also quick to point out that students can sketch on Post-it notes pasted into books if they aren't allowed to write in the texts themselves.

"It surprised me that my students, no matter how impaired their cognitive level might be, or their reading level might be, how well their potential to visualize and connect to doodling is," Baughcum said. She even has students who use assistive technology to write because their motor skills make handwriting very difficult, but they can sketch. And the social worker on her team has picked up on the sketchnoting success to help make social and emotional learning themes more concrete for students as well. Students have created an icon library of their feelings that they use to express their emotions.

Baughcum isn't suggesting that every teacher drop what they've been doing for years to start sketchnoting. But she says if teachers open the door for sketchnoting, even allowing students to sketch as part of another note-taking strategy -- like Cornell notes -- it may be helpful to some students. She thinks of it as a layering strategy. She didn't stop covering her curriculum to only sketchnote. She gradually exposed her students to different elements of sketchnoting, building up their visualizing capacity and organization skills by practicing it alongside existing social studies or reading activities.

She also says teachers have to be patient with themselves and with their students. Often mindsets are the hardest things to overcome. Baughcum has had students who refuse to draw. But she's found ways around that. One student was adamant that she could not draw, but Baughcum still wanted her to visualize because she saw how much it helped her other students in their comprehension. She let the student print out pictures and glue them to her sketchnote to make visible her thinking. And ultimately, the girl decided to give sketchnoting a shot after all.

Baughcum says she's always been a fearless teacher, ready to try anything that might help her students learn. But sketchnoting has stretched her in ways she didn't know she needed to be stretched. It's revealed some of her own mindsets about what she believed students with learning disabilities could and couldn't do. Her students have shown her those beliefs just weren't true.

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Why Teachers Are So Excited About the Power Of Sketchnoting - MindShift

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Many teachers are using sketchnoting or "doodling for learning" in their classrooms as a way to make thinking visible. Many are finding the practice improves memory, engagement and comprehension.

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1. COMMIT to reading either the two designated books - 44 Poems on Being With Each Other by Padraig O Tuama & Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham & Charles Waters &/or read poetry by a new or favorite poet (like blogger Kim Johnson or Beth Sanderson) and make a notebook page OR a blog post based on your reading. It may or may not include poetry writing. 

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1. COMMIT to reading either the two designated books - 44 Poems on Being With Each Other by Padraig O Tuama & Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham & Charles Waters &/or read poetry by a new or favorite poet (like blogger Kim Johnson or Beth Sanderson) and make a notebook page OR a blog post based on your reading. It may or may not include poetry writing. 

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By July 15th - explore poetry and post for the first time.

By August 1st - explore more poetry and post for the 2nd and last time. JUST 2x (it's summer!)

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2. THINK - commit to really thinking about what each book and/or blogger is sharing about poetry. 

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2. THINK - commit to really thinking about what each book and/or blogger is sharing about poetry. 

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3. Create a Reading Notebook Page which shares your thinking and give poetry writing a try, based on what each book inspires. OR write a blog post sharing your thinking and/or poetry writing.

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3. Create a Reading Notebook Page which shares your thinking and give poetry writing a try, based on what each book inspires. OR write a blog post sharing your thinking and/or poetry writing.

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4. Post a photo of your Reading Notebook page under the matching column by July 15th and August 1st, respectively. the end of each week. JUST 2x

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4. Post a photo of your Reading Notebook page under the matching column by July 15th and August 1st, respectively. the end of each week. JUST 2x

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2020 - Book by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

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2020 - Book by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

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5. Respectfully read and respond to the postings of others in this Summer Virtual Book Club.

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5. Respectfully read and respond to the postings of others in this Summer Virtual Book Club.

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Beth writes LOTS of poems!

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Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.

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The poet James Crews is the editor of several bestselling anthologies, including The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy, and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. He is the author of four prize-winning books of poetry and also leads workshops on kindness, mindfulness, and wr

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Haha, possibly the worst picture of me, but I have a one take rule, even with wet hair blowing in the breeze of the fan while dressed in my prejamas.

I am a grade 5 teacher who LOVES poetry, teaching in Phnom Penh, Cambodia/

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Coffee hot, poetry book open, eyes reading! I’m gearing up for the summer, Sally! I can’t wait!

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I’m Kim Johnson, District Literacy Specialist with Pike County Schools in Georgia, and I can’t wait to read with y’all! Give me large-print books and fun-loving characters and a comfy chair with a cup of coffee in the corner of the cafe by a window. I’ll meet you there!

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I am a retired teacher who writes, among other things. I am happy to be influenced for the good by Sally once again, and to join you writing friends in reading poetry that matters this summer.

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Hello, friends. I'm a retired teacher--In my career of about 30 years, I taught elementary, junior high, and TESOL. I stay busy volunteering with the Friends of the Library, studying paralegal courses, and visiting my kids and two grandsons.

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She lists 10 poems she read with her 5th graders. I want to read the poem on her list!

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Hi Fellow Poetry Lovers! I look forward to sharing this summer poetry exploration with you. I have been a follower of Pádraig for several years and even got to meet him in Portland (OR) last fall in conversation with Patricia Smith. I am retired now after a long and happy teaching career, not even substituting, so I have time to be outside walking in woods and beside waves. I love to read, swim, and cook—especially baking. Let the conversation begin!

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Hi Poetry Friends,

I am a retired teacher of gifted students. This year I worked as a teaching artist in schools. I loved this new gig! This Spring my first baby board book was published by UL Press. It all started with a poem. “What’s That Sound? The Birds of the Bayou. The photo is me with Pia, The Peace sculpture in Bainbridge Island, Washington. We stopped there on our recent family vacation to the Pacific Northwest. I look forward to talking about poetry with you this summer. Thanks, Sally!

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Hello all! My name is Angie and I worked at DHMS with Sally, assisting her and the students in reading classes! Now, I assist at Kenmore MS also in English, Reading and ELD classes. I am honored to join the summer book club again (thank you for the invite) and look forward to reading the chosen poetry books.

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There is so much that I loved about this book. Many of the quotes, words and anecdotes really resonated with me personally. I enjoyed the graphics, artwork and layout of each unique page. As visual leaner myself, I found each page creatively engaging. I thought it was clever of the authors to add the "try it" section at the bottom with suggestions on implementing the action or intent. In a world filled with turmoil and uncertainty, this book brought a little calm and peace to my heart.

BONUS: I purchased this book from Amazon and surprisingly it is a signed copy!

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Of the 44 poems in this book that I devoured like blackberry cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, 21 of them have a direct association to some form of art, whether watercolor painting, photography, song, carving, map illustration, ink stampings, mosaics, tapestry, quilting, jewelry design, or building tiny replicas. An art teacher intent on using poetry to inspire art would find O'Tuama's book just the ticket for bridging poetry with other art forms. The structure he uses (dark pages as introduction, the poem itself, and the lighter pages behind each poem as his own response) makes each poem in this creatively curated collection one that each reader can read, understand, and own. Poets that curate collections about poems that mean a lot to them are the kinds of poets that build others up and share the spotlight of the art. What a gift and a treasure!

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I enjoyed reading all 44 Poems. I decided to record my Top Five here on my reading notebook page.

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I enjoyed reading all 44 Poems. I decided to choose my Top Five and reflect on them here on my reading notebook page.

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I also was inspired by The Rungs on page 92 to write this Slice, just as school year 2025-26 was ending.

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While reading the Dictionary For a Better World, I learned about the poetry form, PANTOUM, and I wrote one HERE!

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Hello, Sally and Kim, and all, I haven't forgotten about the book club, but I haven't been here yet. I enjoyed reading all the poems in O'Tuama's collection. I got so much more when I read the editor's remarks after each poem. I would inevitably have to go back and read the poem again. He added such insight and made me love the poems more. One example is "Eurydice, Turning" by Rita Dove. I loved the poem and was right there with her in the phone conversation, but then reading about grief in the pages that follow was so poignant and rich. Another favorite poem for me was "Facts About the Moon" by Dorianne Laux. That parent's love she describes is heartbreaking.

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I tried to buy Padraig OTuama's book while in the US, but none of the bookstores I went to had it in stock. I have read (and LOVE) Dictionary for a Better World many times. I meant to bring my copy home from school, but I forgot, but I have access to the e-version via Epic. I started Georgia Heard's Field Guide to the Heart, but I left it at home (away for three weeks right now). Tonight I wrote a cinquain about my view from my window- a beautiful sunset. At first I wrote in free verse, then I decided to try a different structure- I like the cinquain better. I am going to push myself to try more different forms (I loved your pantoum, Sally!).

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O’Tuama’s book may be my favorite anthology for now…

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O’Tuama’s book may be my favorite anthology for now…

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I decided, for this journal experience, to pull one image from each poem. I really like it when poems have details that just hit you. So here I found those details memorable to me. This is just the first half; I’m working on the second! It is lovely to be revisiting the poems that really grabbed me, this way, and it’s making me focus on those I just glossed over, and finding more personal meaning in them.

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… the rest of the poems, memorable details

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… the rest of the poems, memorable details

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Sorry I didn't post this before the 15th. (I wrote it for "Slice of Life" Tuesday.)

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Inspired by all your talk about how great the 44 Poems on Being is, I searched and found the title page, so bit by bit I am trying to find the poems I can. I was happy to find (so far) one of the poems on Padraig's podcast, so I got to hear him read it and discuss it and read it again. Also, he shared another one on On Being, so again I got to listen to him (my Siri voice is an Irish man; I do love the accent!). Inspired by Sally, I made a list from DfaBW of poem forms I wanted to try, and so far this week I have tried five different forms: byte, decima, naani, tanka, and tricubes. I wrote about the same topic (a snail I was watching outside) in my byet and decima, so it was fun to try that out. My other three centered on my summer. Two weeks from today will be my first day officially back to school- eek!

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Poetry found me while visiting a museum in Finland. A large wall had magnetic word tiles on it. With this direction.

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I was touring a museum exhibit on the works of Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto. (I recommend you look him up to appreciate his contribution to modern architecture in the world!). Thinking of this space and all I was learning, I “wrote” this poem with the magnetic English words. (Note: half the tiles were in Finnish! So others around me wrote their poem in their native language!)

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Then my husband, the architect and fan of Aalto, revised and wrote his poem, too!

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Sally, thank you so much for this summer invitation for reading poetry. These book choices were both excellent suggestions, so inspiring and empowering. As I considered all the art opportunities in the poems themselves, I kept reflecting on my "through line" of all poetry: accessibility for all. How can I do my small part to get it out there into the hands of those who may never seek a book of poetry? How can I do my part to bring poetry to the forefront? I think it's in the everyday presence of poetry, and in the ways we can create those encounters. My thoughts go to plant placards. I have one I ordered with a line from Robert Frost that was used in my mother's 1964 wedding album (see the picture), but I'm thinking of writing lines of poetry onto the kinds of smaller, inexpensive plant placards that I can put in plants along the town square and in the flower beds of the parks in the small towns in my community. This book inspires me to think about those golden lines I could use for such a project that would catch the eye of someone who might stop long enough to read it and let their mind churn with its message. Thank you again for inspiring us in creative and meaningful ways this summer! Blessings to all!

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Two poems, using forms from Dictionary for a Better World

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Two poems, using forms from Dictionary for a Better World

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…though I’ll be darned if I can get wordpress to respected my line gaps between verses

https://pencilonmybackporch.home.blog/2026/07/21/photograph-of-my-grandmother/

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my intrepid grandmother, preserved in silvered photograph courted by my grandfather, maybe 1912, in Ohio she is on her own rowing her canoe I search for her in the distance courted by my grandfathe…

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… and friends! I read more, wrote more, and thought more about poetry this summer, thanks to you

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I tried describing a trip to the playground with Aden and Luca using an acrostic poem like the one on page 28