Joy in Doodling – peacedoodle

April 10, 2020April 10, 2020

Sketching Lewis and Clark

Here is what I do.
Inspire
Empower
Collaborate
Support
Show up
Repeat

Working with individual teachers is one of my greatest joys. When that collaboration is spearheaded by someone who has attended one of my trainings it is doubly rewarding. That is what happened at a local middle school recently after a district-wide training sparked personal interest. Shelly was enamored by Sketchnoting/Visual Notetaking after participating in a 3 hour workshop for media specialists.

Shelly Sketches — Shelly at the Media Specialists’ workshop – all smiles while sketching her icon.

She was a natural – creative, daring, curious, and eager. The whole prospect clicked and she wanted more. I had prepared a variety of resources for attendees so that they could go back to their schools and begin implementing sketchnotes with their students. I assured her everything she needed was there, but also said “if you need help, just call.”

Call she did.
A social studies teacher took the bait and declared that Sketchnoting would be a perfect addition to their study of Lewis and Clark and Westward expansion. My resources did the trick with introducing sketchnoting. Shelly facilitated the introduction to sketchnoting in individual classes, but for phase two I was asked to facilitate live sessions to deepen student learning.

In advance of my visit I asked Ms. Brown, the content area teacher for as much background knowledge as possible. I also asked her to identify the objective for our lesson. She sent me her learning targets, key vocabulary and important events, and also a link to a Youtube video that was to be used as both scaffold and support. I watched the video and made a sketchnote to share. I also researched the expedition through primary source journal entries from which I created an icon sheet as reference.
We started with brainstorming key vocabulary terms. Students were asked to share ideas for which terms spoke to them for complete understanding of the unit. Of these, their teacher selected the key terms (at first this was done randomly, then we had the teacher select the most important remaining terms for exploration). Many students chose the same terms. We completed graphic jams for the selected terms, about 4 per class meeting, moving the sticky notes to charts around the room. We then invited those whose term was selected to come view the images to choose the most effective icons. Listening to 8th graders debate the merits of a collection of icon sketches was delightful. Their reasoning and thought process spread laughter and enthusiasm in each group. The sketches filled up the space acting as anchor charts for the active learning part of the class time.
Students worked in groups of 4 or 5, each group was given a large piece of paper. Students were asked to use their learning targets and their notes to come up with an image that would best represent their learning. After 5 minutes, the students rotated clockwise to view and investigate the sketch of their peer – adding to the drawing, clarifying a connection, or commenting on the importance of the image. The rotations continued till all students were back at their own original drawing. Once there, students evaluated the additions of their peers and finalized the learning target/objective from which they began.

Groups then evaluated the whole poster, adding connectors or borders where necessary and showing the interactive fluidity of their work. At this point we instructed them to come up with one main idea that best represented their results and write that in the center if it was not already noted. The final products were posted on the walls of the room and a gallery walk ensued.

As an exit ticket, students were asked for one word to describe the visual review and their learning: Educational, good, exhilerating, amazing, decent, extraordinary, surprising, beautiful, challenging, lovely, awesome, glorious, neat, interesting, fantastic, memorable, informational, enthusiastic, creative, informative, artistic, reminding, collaboration, art, fantastic, imagination, creative, smart, exciting, spectacular, intriguing, education, communication, contributing, interesting, alright, responsibility, engaging, adventurous, special, expression, were some of the words shared. Wouldn’t you want to engage in a lesson that could claim an adjective such as these? The students were going to continue the path during their next unit of study. Teacher empowered, media specialist the conduit, Peacedoodle the delivery.

Onward.

October 6, 2019October 9, 2019

Get Your Sketchnote On – 3 hour workshop for Media Specialists

Collaborating with Media Specialists is one of the perks of my job. I support teachers and learners K-12 and working with folks who love books and advocate for reading is pure pleasure. Being asked to present a 3-hour pre-conference workshop on Sketchnoting for the North Carolina School School Library Media Association’s (NCSLMA) annual conference last week was an honor. Preparing for this group held a few atypical challenges as I would have to wait to find out if their interest in sketchnoting was from an individual or professional perspective. Basically, did they want to learn for personal enjoyment and their professional knowlege OR were they planning to share the skill with their students in a specific content area? It was going to be fun.

The typical agenda involves discussing the what and why’s of Sketchnoting, then practicing, building skills, and exploring the different opportunities to try on Sketchnoting. We opened up with a sketchnote selfie, or trading card. This is my way of starting slow and warming everyone up. The objective is to create your image then visualize 3 items that bring you joy or that could represent you, and draw those too. My group set to work, and before long they were all smiling at their introductions. In different settings I then use these cards to organize groups, pick participants, or personalize instruction. Today, we would use them as visual prompts to introduce ourselves. On the back, they were to think of that person or thing that could perch on their shoulders and cheer them on when life got tough. Mascot, cheerleader, talisman, buddy or champion which is the noun the group chose for this selection. This too, was a task that was undertaken with gusto. The sensitive nature of each person’s sharing brought a reverance to the room.

Selfies — Selfie-Trading Cards and Personal Champions

My favorite part of our time was introducing the book “We Don’t Eat Our Classmates” by Ryan T. Higgins. Perusing the attendee list prior to the event I noticed that most attendees served elementary schools, I wanted to personalize the activities to showcase the reading standards that would be apporpriate learning outcomes for K-2, I settled on first grade standards and shared those outcomes with the group. They could choose from identifying the beginning, middle and end of the story. The main problem and solution. The character and emotions from the events in the story, or any of the other apropriate reading standards for younger grades. I showed the cover and we listened to the book being read. The smiles and chuckles from the group were worth the prep, travel, and delivery time. This book is a gem. We discussed creating a dinosaur using only the basic shapes and I shared my own rough sketch of Penelope in rectangle, triangles, and circles. I had also prepared a template of sorts by drawing the main character, Penelope Rex on my iPad Pro and printing those sheets.

I distributed Penelope Rex, but also gave out plenty of blank paper for personal exploration. The quiet was palpable as attendees smiled and thought, remembered and then asked clarifying questions. I had a printed copy of the standards and a hard copy of the book for back up, but for the most part the adult learners in the room took off running.

Storyboard2 — Marci used two pages and numbered events to showcase her learning.

Jerry and Jennifer chose my template and redrew Penelope. Jerry focusing on events and emotions by using arrows to show the stages (connectors in sketchnoting). Jennifer nailed the emotions and Penelope’s reactions in her pages.

Marina opted for a different set-up and a fabulous emotion meter to assist. This activity was not open-ended and once time was up, we shared out. Marina said she wanted to give the emotion meter to each of the stages, but ran out of time.

Vertical Approach — Marina used a vertical approach to retell the story.

Here is my final product.

We discussed each submission with awe and upon seeing my outcome, Marci commented on my use of object (symbol) to designate event. She reflected that focusing on redrawing Penelope in action was a challenge and that this choice of object (icon/symbol) was something she would remember and use again with her students. This activity was inspiring and fun. It has educational support in a standards focus, and is easily adopted in the younger grades. The challenge is to work the same magic with literature on a higher level that might require a deeper understanding of symbol, and other text features. I envision more words in those sketchnotes, but an equal amount of joy.

Get your Sketchnote On, indeed. It was such a pleasure exploring together.
Do you have books or poetry that you like to explore with visuals? We would love to hear from you and see your examples as well.

Category: Joy in Doodling

Get Your Sketchnote On – 3 hour workshop for Media Specialists

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