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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: Studies show that sketching and doodling improve our comprehension -- and our creative thinking. So why do we still feel embarrassed when we're caught doodling in a meeting? Sunni Brown says: Doodlers, unite! She makes the case for unlocking your brain via pad and pen.

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My goal here is help you overcome any barriers you might be feeling about incorporating more visuals into your note-taking process.

With that goal in mind, I've developed a set of practice activities and compiled them into a resource called The Verbal To Visual Notebook.

Every page of that notebook is 100% hand-sketched. With my simple sketches as a guide and the engaging prompts alongside them, you can't help but put pen to paper and start sketching out ideas yourself.

Let me send you a preview of The Verbal To Visual Notebook!

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Getting Started with Sketchnoting - Verbal to Visual

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My goal here is help you overcome any barriers you might be feeling about incorporating more visuals into your note-taking process. With that goal in mind, I've developed a set of practice activities and compiled them into a resource called The Verbal To Visual Notebook . Every page of that notebook is 100% hand-sketched.

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Kathy Schrock's Guide to Sketchnoting in the Classroom 

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Kathy Schrock's Guide to Sketchnoting in the Classroom 

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@dianasoriat and @sam_hh to help users begin to feel comfortable with sketchnoting.
Right-click and download the ilinked file or click on it and drag it to your desktop or tap on it to save it to the Camera Roll on your tablet.
​Use it as a background in your favorite drawing program or screencasting program or print it off to use the analog version!

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Sketchnoting, in its purest form, is creating a personal visual story as one is listening to a speaker or reading a text. I also believe the interactive notebook, which includes the process of taking...

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Many of us have found ourselves doodling during a lecture or presentation. It keeps our brain engaged while we listen, or try to at least. You've probably caught your students drawing or sketching during class too.

But what if those doodles had a purpose? Sketchnoting, or visual note-taking, can transform those doodles into a tool that helps our students deepen their understanding of a concept. It's a fun and brain-friendly way to organize ideas visually and makes them easy to remember.

So how can we get started sketchnoting? And how do we begin to utilize the power of visual note-taking in the classroom?

In honor of the #Sketch50 challenge happening during March-May, we decided to kick things off with a sketchnoting themed #Ditchbook chat. Moderator Mandi Tolen challenged the community to share their best tips, tools, and resources for visual note-taking.

12 ways to get started with sketchnotes in your classroom

1. Sketchnoting guru Carrie Baughcum has an entire YouTube channel dedicated to visual thinking and doodling to learn resources for you and your students.

A2: @HeckAwesome has some fab YouTube resources to help classes get started with #sketchnotes . I like to use graphic organizers too for #sketchnoting . Helps Ss get started if the paper isn't blank. #DitchBook pic.twitter.com/tHGEfP8e85

- Lᴀᴜʀᴀ Sᴛᴇɪɴʙʀɪɴᴋ (@SteinbrinkLaura) March 29, 2019

2. Feeling less than artistic yourself? You don't have to be an artist to begin using visual note-taking in your classroom. Check out this past post, Sketchnoting 101, for those with little artistic talent for even more tips and tools.

A2 One of my favorite #sketchnote resources! #Sketchnoting 101, for those with little artistic talent https://t.co/pAwyTTT3Z1 via @jmattmiller #ditchbook pic.twitter.com/WS2REJQ2OR

- Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) March 29, 2019

3. Sylvia Duckworth has lots of resources available online for you (and your students) to get started sketchnoting right away. Visit sylviaduckworth.com/sketchnotefever for 21 free sketchnoting lessons! Also, be sure to read Sylvia's guest post 5 tips for live sketchnoting if you are looking for ways to level up your skills.

A2. I love @sylviaduckworth books. They were very helpful. Her online resources and tutorials were great for Ss. We were able to pause and learn from her! #sketchnotefever #ditchbook https://t.co/YGWWEqvjQo

- Rayna Freedman (@rlfreedm) March 29, 2019

4. Sometimes starting at a blank sheet of paper can be daunting. A grid, dot paper, graphic organizers, or even an icon board can help students get started with visual note-taking.

A2 - I give out dot paper or grid paper or I have boxes so that kids can start to organize their ideas. Blank paper can be scary. #ditchbook #sktech50

- KerryParrish (@KerryParrishArt) March 29, 2019

5. There are many fantastic educators on social media who are sharing lots or resources, tips, and tools to help guide you. You can find many by following hashtags like #sketch50, #sketchnotefever, or #sketchnotes on Twitter or Instagram.

A2 part 2: I also love to follow @Kdmiller4, @manuelherrera33 @sylviaduckworth, @wterral, and @mospillman on Twitter and/or Instagram. @HeckAwesome
has some super fun Idea Floods and monthly sketch and chats which I never seem to be able to make 🙁#ditchbook

- Mandi Tolen (@MandiTolenEDU) March 29, 2019

6. Middle school teacher Heather Mashall uses sketch quotes in English class to help her students capture their thinking while reading a novel. You can make a copy of her Sketch Quotes: A Visual Notetaking HyperDoc Lesson and adapt it for your class.

A2.b Check out this incredible #HyperDoc on #Sketch Quotes by @MsMarshallCMS! https://t.co/H3Jc7XV3hU
#ditchbook pic.twitter.com/tFk3lBm15Z

- Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) March 29, 2019

7. Sketchnotes can be a great way for students to plan out something in design class, writing, video creation or other subject areas using a storyboard. In his December 2018 #DitchSummit presentation Manuel Herrera recommends using a storyboard to plan out writing. Begin by just drawing it out as you retell the story orally. Students can even use emojis to add emotions to pictures that you will include in your story!

A3: Uses for sketchnoting:

Recapping/reviewing learning
Brain dumps
Organizing new material
Storytelling/storyboarding
Visual vocabulary list

I use them to take notes during the sermon at church on Sundays. (For real, at church! Right @karlyb?)#DitchBook

- Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) March 29, 2019

8. Even our youngest learners can use sketchnoting in the classroom. Try giving students some post-it notes while reading or a copy of the text for them to sketch on.

A3: I have used sketchnoting with my second graders while we are reading stories. Sometimes they can sketch whatever comes to mind, other times we sketch the different parts of the story! #ditchbook

- Elizabeth McCartney (@mccartney2grade) March 29, 2019

9. A library of icons can help you and your students by giving you a place to begin. If you want to go digital with visual note-taking resources like The Noun Project can help you collect icons to create your own library.

I created this set of ideas for a teacher interested in #sketchnoting a while back. It's good to create a little library of icons for your students to make it easier for them to sketch on the go. #ditchbook pic.twitter.com/YsIooPqWgT

- Omar Lopez (@OmarLopez0207) March 29, 2019

10. Using sketchnoting to teach vocabulary is a great way to get started. How about using the sketches your students create as Kahoot questions to review vocabulary? Heather Marshall explains how she uses this mashup in her class in this blog post and shares how you can too.

Too bad I've missed the #ditchbook chat. I love talking #Sketchnotes Check out this post I wrote about a #sketchnote #eduprotocol mash up. My kids love this one. https://t.co/HWwzJEkXkM pic.twitter.com/8G86FIbcjA

- Heather Marshall (@MsMarshallCMS) March 29, 2019

11. There are lots of books available for anyone who wants to get started with sketchnoting. Here are just a few to check out.

12. Hone your sketchnoting skills with the Sketch50 challenge! A 50 day event running from March through May. Visit sketch50.org/resources-2 for everything you need to get started. Also check out Sketchnotes: A mini-course and #Sketch50 challenges with resources, tips, and ideas from last year's event.

Thanks for joining us tonight. Don't forget to check out #sketch50 and follow grow your PLN with ditchers and sketchers.#ditchbook pic.twitter.com/M7QnmPfTi0

- Mandi Tolen (@MandiTolenEDU) March 29, 2019

Want to get in on the next #DitchBook Twitter chat? For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links: Interested in having Matt present at your event or school? Contact him by e-mail! Matt is scheduled to present at the following upcoming events:
[getnoticed-event-table scope="upcoming" max="15″ expanding="false"]

Sign up for Tech to Learn online course!

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Sketchnoting in the classroom: 12 ways to get started - Ditch That Textbook

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Many of us have found ourselves doodling during a lecture or presentation. It keeps our brain engaged while we listen, or try to at least. You've probably caught your students drawing or sketching during class too. But what if those doodles had a purpose?

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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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Ready to start learning? Here's a recap of what you'll find within this course:

Once you pick up this course you'll have lifetime access to all current and future resources contained within it.

I want you to be able to experience this course from the inside to see whether or not it's a good fit for you. With that in mind, if you're not satisfied with what you see after your first 30 days, I'd be happy to return your money.

Want to save money by picking up a few courses at once? An Introduction To Visual Note-Taking is included in the following course bundles:

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An Introduction To Visual Note-Taking - Verbal To Visual

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Tap into the power of your visual brain. Reconnect to making marks by hand as you learn to use text, layout, imagery, and color within your notes to engage your visual brain and reach your full creative and professional potential.

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Hello sketchnoter friends!

Please click here to receive regular email updates to this page (Note: Not necessary to sign up again if you already signed up on the pop-up form to this website).

Welcome to the page for #SKETCHNOTEFEVER resources. This campaign was designed to bring awareness to sketchnoting and to build people's visual dictionaries or vocabularies for use in sketchnotes.

What is sketchnoting? Sketchnoting, or visual note-taking, is an effective and fun way to take notes using doodles and text. It has many other benefits such as increased focus and engagement in class, improved comprehension and memory retention, helps develop creative thinking skills and allows students an alternative way to display their learning and make connections to course content. It has a calming and relaxing effect too! ( Click here for articles and studies that support sketchnoting.)

Please click the links below for the 3-minute video lessons (Note that you might need to pause the video from time to time while you and your students are drawing if it goes too fast). There is also a link to a slide with the icons which you can use or show your students afterwards.

Please note that these are only mini-lessons for sketchnoting. For a detailed teacher's manual on how to sketchnote, check out my new book published by ElevateBooksEdu which you can order from

Please note that a new, UPDATED VERSION of my book is now available with 100+ new icons, new fonts, a new "Icons with shapes" activity and all thirty-four #sketchnotefever lessons below!

(Animation above by the amazing Brian Briggs)

1. School icons: for the video. for the slide.
2. Easy fonts: for the video. for the slide.
3. Animal icons: for the video. for the slide.
4. Fancy fonts: for the video. for the slide.
5. Transportation icons: for the video. for the slide.
6. More fancy fonts: for the video. for the slide.
7. Weather icons: for the video. for the slide.
8. Food and drink icons: for the video. for the slide.
9. Halloween icons: for the video. for the slide.
10. Banners: for the video. for the slide.
11. Containers/frames: for the video. for the slide.
12. Arrows: for the video. for the slide.
13. Bullets and Dividers: for the video. for the slide.
14. Faces: for the video. for the slide.
15. Female hairstyles: for the video. for the slide.
16. Male Hairstyles: for the video. for the slide.
17. People: for the video. for the slide.
18. School subject icons: for the video. for the slide.
19. More icons: for the video. for the slide.
20. Remembrance Day/Veteran's Day icons: for the video. for the slide. Bonus lesson: Even more icons! for the video. for the slide.
21. Winter Holidays: for the video. for the slide.

22. Spring icons: for the video. for the slide.
23. Summer icons: for the video. for the slide.
24. Fall icons: for the video. for the slide.
25. Sports icons: for the video. for the slide.
26. Space icons: for the video. for the slide.
27. Travelling icons: for the video. for the slide.
28. Musical instruments: for the video. for the slide.
29. Hands: for the video. for the slide.
30. Baby icons: for the video. for the slide.
31. Wedding icons: for the video. for the slide.
32. Social Media icons: for the video. for the slide.
33. Table icons: for the video. for the slide.
34. Kitchen icons: for the video. for the slide.
Please use the hashtag #SKETCHNOTEFEVER to tweet/Instagram/Facebook your drawings so that we can all share in our progress.
(Another creation by the brilliant Brian Briggs . Yes, he sketchnoted this. With a Google Tilt Brush!)

Did you complete all 34 #SKETCHNOTEFEVER lessons and post your drawings on social media? If so, contact me (with your full name) on or (@sylviaduckworth) or by email (sduckworth100@gmail.com) and you will receive a personalized certificate!

Or did you complete all 13 NEW #SKETCHNOTEFEVER lessons?

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Hello sketchnoter friends! Please click here to receive regular email updates to this page (Note: Not necessary to sign up again if you already signed up on the pop-up form to this website). Welcome to the page for #SKETCHNOTEFEVER resources. This campaign was designed to bring awareness to sketchnoting and to build people's visual...

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When I tell my students we are going to take notes, they cheer. Some students take notes when I don't ask them to, just because they like doing it.

I love visual note taking (sketch notes) and have been introducing it to my students this year. After reading several books, articles, and blogs on this topic, I decided it would be best to start small with my students; focusing on the three elements of visual note taking mentioned in Mike Rhode's The Sketchnote Handbook. Some students can be "put off" by this note taking strategy citing that they do not like to draw. I felt like introducing the elements (text, structure, image) separately might help with that, and I started with text. We watched these great videos:
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As they were sketching, I walked around and snapped some photos with my phone. I asked why they had chosen that to quote, and gained some insight into their understanding of the text from these brief conversations. Later I posted some of their work on our class Instagram. Some students complimented or commented on each others books or their quotes, which always makes me so happy to see. This is my second year trying to get kids engaged on social media and I am finding that getting them to comment is difficult.

I have had the class do sketch quotes from TEDed videos, articles, and their text book in History class. This week we are using sketch quotes to share what we are reading in English class. I am reading "Fish in a Tree" to a different group of students during lunch for the Global Read Aloud (#GRA15) and I have been doing sketch quotes from that book. I shared my sketch quotes and talked about why I had chosen those particular quotes to sketch. This one was especially powerful because I think many of my students connected with the feeling I was quoting:

I talked about why I chose that quote and together we came up with a list of reasons that we might chose a quote from our reading.

If you are familiar with the book "Notice and Note" ( Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst) you will recognize some similarities to their "sign posts" on the list. I don't have them posted in my class but I did read the book a couple of years ago. I notice and note things when I read aloud in class that the students must be picking up on because they are on our list.

A final word about sketch notes & sketch quotes: When I tell my students we are going to take notes, they cheer. Some students take notes when I don't ask them to, just because they like doing it. I got a new book the other day (The Omnivore's Dilemma Junior Edition)and I was really excited about it. I shared a little snippet from it as a read aloud and I noticed this boy and his pencil scribbling at a feverish pace. "Are you making sketch notes?" I asked. He nodded and any doubts that I had about the value of doodling in class were erased.
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When I tell my students we are going to take notes, they cheer. Some students take notes when I don't ask them to, just because they like doing it. I love visual note taking (sketch notes) and have been introducing it to my students this year.

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There Are No Rules | Visual Note Taking Resources - YouTube

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Sign in now to see your channels and recommendations!

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It is early in the school year and I am talking to my class about sketchnotes when I see the light bulb go off over someone's head.

You mean we don't have to copy everything out of the textbook?

The realization actually made this student's face light up.

I try to introduce the concept of sketchnotes, or visual note taking, in snack size portions before asking the students to try out this style of note taking. I start with practice in the areas of three basic elements: text (heirarchy), image and structure. Vocabulary terms are a great opportunity for students to practice visual representations of concepts, and apparently more fun than copying definitions from the text book. But do they learn the words? Look at this student's example, I feel like this student has a better understanding of this concept than a student that copied words and definitions from a glossary.

Drawing Concepts

Check out Mike Rohde's Sketchnote podcast. He does three of examples of drawing concepts in each of his four minute videos. I like to show a few of these videos and then have students practice drawing some different concepts, which they then leave on their table. We do a "gallery walk" and students can see how many different ideas their classmates had for the same concept. Then we follow that up with a reflection and some time for sharing and asking questions. It's a great activity for introducing visual representations of vocabulary.

Check out some of the History concepts that my students have created:

﻿ The communication of concepts can be simple drawings done by students, or more complex drawings that a teacher does. As a History teacher, I get asked what culture is quite often, so I made a sketchnote of the elements of culture to share with my class:

Speaking of sharing with the class, I will often take a picture of a student's work that is really good and share it with the class on our Instagram account. As I was cropping one of these images to share the other day I thought:
What if I crop the image and the vocabulary word is missing?
The simple act of highlighting a students work then becomes a guessing game that engages all of the students! (See below)
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While in theory this seemed like a great idea... the response to my Instagram posts were not what I was hoping for. Actually, with only about five of my sixty students engaging in my new game, this was a major FAIL. I think the problem is that too few of my students have cell phones and/or Instagram accounts and I wanted 100% engagement. Still, I was convinced that I was really onto something with this idea, but Instagram was maybe not the right format.

Creative teachers fail often, but that is just because we are trying new things. Failures force me to rethink and reiterate, and that's an important part of the process because my best ideas aren't usually the first ideas I have.

​Time for iteration #2.

The classroom protocol is this: each week new vocabulary words connected to our learning are introduced, students work to create sketches of these concepts each day when they enter the room (as a warm-up), and I collect their paper with six sketches on Friday. On Friday I look through the pages and snap pictures with my phone. I crop the images so that the picture is visible but the word is not. Then I upload them to a folder in my Google drive. I create a Kahoot with the student created drawings that follows a simple format-a picture, "Which word matches this picture?", and multiple choice of four of our vocabulary words. On Monday we have a Kahoot! Students love getting their images put in the Kahoot, they learn from seeing how others visualized the words, and I get real time feedback on which concepts were not understood. Engagement is now at 100%.

For those who are wondering "How do you teach them to do that?"

These are the slides that I use to teach this lesson to my class. Feel free to make a copy of it and use it with your own students. This mini-lesson on how to sketch concepts would work in any subject area, just substitute my History examples with your own subject area examples.

﻿Some more occasions for drawing concepts:

​Sketchnotes in September:
When student's are starting off a new school year, it is the perfect time to talk about goal setting and what they hope to accomplish. One year I made a sketchnote of my bucket list. I uploaded a picture of it to Thinglink and added "touches" to it so that I could collect resources that would help me to accomplish my goals. As I checked things off of my bucket list, I added "touches" to my image that were in the form of text and photo as evidence of completion.

​Sketchnotes in January:
The #OneWord version of a New Year's Resolution was a great opportunity for us to practice drawing concepts. My #OneWord was CULTIVATE. We practice mindful meditation, so our #OneWord sketches became our anchor word during our mindfulness practice. Sketching the concept really helped us to have a deeper understanding of our anchor words and what they meant to us.

Sketchnotes in February:
What is something new that you learned about one of your classmates?
Although I did this sketch titled "Things That I Love" as a Valentine's Day activity, it would also be a good one to do at the beginning of the year when you are getting to know each other. Reflection and sharing are really important; don't leave these parts out of the experience. You can just have students leave their sketch on their desk or table and then allow time for wandering around the room to look at other student's sketches as if they were in an art gallery. When gallery walk time is up, ask the student's to share by asking follow up questions:
What is something that you have in common with another classmate?

This is my second post with a digital lesson on teaching the elements of visual note taking. Did you miss the first one?

Click on the button below to go back to lesson one (Sketch Quotes).

​I will be posting another lesson on structure and a final lesson on pulling it all together, or incorporating all three elements into a single sketchnote in the future.

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PROTOCOLS: TEACHING VOCABULARY WITH SKETCHNOTES

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It is early in the school year and I am talking to my class about sketchnotes when I see the light bulb go off over someone's head. You mean we don't have to copy everything out of the textbook? The realization actually made this student's face light up.

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What if taking notes could put a smile on your students' faces? Just imagine if you could get your kids excited about an exercise in higher-order thinking. Picture your students begging to take notes because it involves gel pens and doodles. Enter, sketchnotes in the classroom.

The sketchnotes phenomenon is the brainchild of designer Mike Rohde, and it is rapidly spreading beyond the design world. Now we're seeing sketchnotes in the classroom on a regular basis. For instance, a student might use it to process information visually, use bold lettering for key points, making containers or boxes for special points-the list can go on and on. Basically, you can use it for anything that makes the information pop off the page and stick to the brain. Here are 8 examples from Instagram with ideas of how you can use sketchnotes in the classroom. Give it a try.

1. Sketch an event.

You'll see a whole new level of engagement if you assign students to take sketchnotes when you have a guest speaker or your class attends an event.

Source: @overflowstorylab

2. Sketch without boundaries.

Sketchnotes can be any size, so invite your students to cover your whiteboards with everything they've learned in a unit as a form of pre-assessment review. Then let them walk around and study the gallery of learning.

3. Sketch to organize.

This professor has used sketchnotes to organize her own thoughts before a lecture, and you could do the same by sharing the idea with your students before they give oral presentations.

Source: @profdiberjones

4. Sketch for research.

This could relate to many lessons and classroom ideas. Invite students to do research sketchnotes before writing a paper or creating a video.

5. Sketch with a different focus.

You can help students explore a variety of tools by asking them to focus on sketches, symbols, containers or unique text. This example shows just how much someone can convey visually through drawn elements.

6. Sketch a book.

Students can do sketchnotes on text, taking note of the main ideas and essential quotations before writing a paper or doing a project on it.

7. Sketch for fun.

This teacher simply explored meaning with color. Do something similar by having your students create performance posters, book displays, bulletin boards, or event programs.

8. Sketch complex thinking.

As students get more comfortable in the medium, you can show them more and more complex examples to inspire them to improve. This creative person skillfully mixes and matches all the layers of visual meaning with her words, incorporating symbols, connecters, containers, sketches, and varied forms of text.

Introduce students to sketchnotes with one of these activities and see what happens. You just might be surprised by what they come up with.
Have you tried using sketchnotes in the classroom? How did it go? We'd love to hear in the comments.

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Sketchnotes in the Classroom: 8 Ideas to Get Started

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What if taking notes could put a smile on your students' faces? Just imagine if you could get your kids excited about an exercise in higher-order thinking. Picture your students begging to take notes because it involves gel pens and doodles. Enter, sketchnotes in the classroom.