Recently, I had two middle school ELA teachers ask me if I would be willing to come into their classrooms and talk to their students about sketchnotes. You bet I will! I love talking about sketchnotes!
So, over the course of two days, I was in two middle school classrooms and did the same presentation for each hour I visited. Earlier in the year, I had spoken to a couple of other classes about sketchnotes and new there would be some overlap with the students I would be presenting to, so I changed up my presentation a little so that those students who had already heard me talk about sketchnotes would still have an opportunity to try new things.
It is always nice when you get to spend a day with students and you have a nice welcome on the board! :)
So, over the course of two days, I was in two middle school classrooms and did the same presentation for each hour I visited. Earlier in the year, I had spoken to a couple of other classes about sketchnotes and new there would be some overlap with the students I would be presenting to, so I changed up my presentation a little so that those students who had already heard me talk about sketchnotes would still have an opportunity to try new things.
It is always nice when you get to spend a day with students and you have a nice welcome on the board! :)
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As mentioned in the presentation, students used the 5 Frozen Facts About Winter video to practice their sketchnoting.
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While following along with the presentation and video, I used the handout on the right. Students could take their own notes right on the sheet and use them as a reference as we worked through the material. After giving this presentation a couple of times, I really like this format as it allows students to follow along easily, but also allows them to have a quick reference guide for the future.
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Sharing Time!
As I always ask teachers to participant in this presentation and share what they did with their students, I like to do the same myself. On the left is an image of my text notes from watching the video and on the right are my sketchnotes.
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My Starter Text Notes
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My Finished Sketchnotes
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Teacher Work
When I come into classrooms to talk about sketchnotes, I always encourage the teacher(s) to follow along and do the activities with students. I feel this is especially important (especially if the concept of sketchnotes and visual note-taking is new to the teacher), that the students have the opportunity to see their teacher learning alongside them. The students always flock to see what their teacher(s) have sketched and it opens up to interesting dialogue about what they were sketchnoting about. This is also a great opportunity for students to see their teachers as learners and not always "knowing everything."
Below are some images I captured of what the teachers sketched during my time in their classrooms.
Below are some images I captured of what the teachers sketched during my time in their classrooms.
Student Work
When I come and speak to students about sketchnotes, I feel that doing a gallery walk at the end may be one of the most powerful parts of my time with them. They have an opportunity to see what their classmates designed and see a visual representation of their thought process. It is always interesting to me how there are students who gravitate to different representations when doing their notes - some mostly bullet points, others full of images and few words, and another group that lies between those two groups. I always tell them that there is not a "right way" or "wrong way" to sketchnote, but the purpose of our exercises are to learn to step outside our comfort zone and learn to use both text and images to represent our thoughts and ideas.
Below are some pictures I collected throughout my 2 days in the classrooms. It is always amazing to see student growth (throughout the hour) and their amazing creativity!
Below are some pictures I collected throughout my 2 days in the classrooms. It is always amazing to see student growth (throughout the hour) and their amazing creativity!
