I love the idea of teaching students a variety of ways of taking notes. My favorite way to show them is through sketchnoting. It has been noted through many articles that when students can process information with visuals and short phrases, they are more apt to remember the information longer. It also helps to make studying easier too.
- Photo credit: Luigi Mengato via Visualhunt.com / CC BY
They practice this at the beginning of the year, but I have often struggle finding ways to incorporate it into an English Language & Literature class. We don’t necessarily do a lot of notes.
We begin by watching a video on Sketchnoting:
Then, I had students complete some sketchnoting on a video, 10 Hacks for Time Management, for practice.
I decided to have them try to put their novel into sketchnotes focusing on characters, conflict, major events in the story, and theme.
I referred them to the amazing videos at Verbal To Visual for their precision, information about sketchnoting, and the appropriate length to capture middle schoolers attention.
A few examples of their novel sketchnotes:
What I loved is that no two students processed this information in the same way, but all undoubtedly understood their novel.
Visual Notetaking folder that has some amazing resources that was given to me during the Learning 2 conference & others I have found along the way.
A Few Articles on Sketchnoting:
- The Scientific Case for Doodling While Taking Notes
- Dual Coding Theory & Visual Note Taking
- The Benefits of Using Doodling and Sketchnotes in the Classroom
- Visual Note-Taking: Keep Focus and Improve Retention
- Sketchnoting 101, For Those With Little Artistic Talent
- 10 Brilliant Examples Of Sketch Notes: Notetaking For The 21st Century
Many of these articles also have links to research and other articles. Another google search, and I am sure that there are many many more!
- Photo credit: sylviaduckworth via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND
I have been inspired by these various artists and their amazing sketchnotes:
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