Principal's Message
This Week in Titan Nation
What is Visual Note Taking/Sketchnoting?
In its simplest form, Visual Note Taking (which we'll call Sketchnoting) is a way to take notes that utilizes images for big ideas/concepts. Colors and lettering can also be a part of the Sketchnoting process. According to Ditch That Textbook author Matt Miller:
- What if we did more of this in class? These types of notes could be huge for visual learners, and fellow classmates’ representations of the day’s lesson could be huge for a learner who is struggling with a particular topic.
- What if we put more emphasis on the big take-away lessons? So often, we have our list of content to cover in a unit or a school year. At times, we lay the lessons out wide and shallow instead of digging deep to emphasize the most important ideas. Sometimes, those key take-away lessons can get lost in a sea of lesser facts.
Sketchnoting and Science
Why Sketchnoting?
Going back through the Sketchnote with colors and jazzing up the fonts after the initial sketch reinforces the idea that reviewing notes shortly after taking them helps the information absorb better.
As for students, especially those identified as gifted, there are many who are visual-spatial learners. Traditional note taking methods such as Cornell, although a strong strategy, are not always the best way for these type of learners to take notes. Sketchnoting allows these students to see "the big picture" and concepts visually. The layout of the images engages the spatial reasoning in a student.
"Eye to Eye: connecting with visual-spatial learners"
"Gifted Students with Spatial Strengths and Sequential Weaknesses"
"Effective Teaching Strategies for Gifted/Learning-Disabled Students with Spatial Strengths"
When Do You Sketchnote?
Students should start with Sketchnoting articles for class or perhaps taking traditional notes and turning them into Sketchnotes. This gives the students time to visualize and review with colors/lettering. Eventually, students can begin to Sketchnote lectures, videos, presentations, etc.
More Examples
How Do I Start Sketchnoting?
Sylvia's Sketchnotes are well known. The above Google Slides presentation is her "how to" for anyone interested in Sketchnoting.
iTunesU
There is an entire course created in iTunes to teach Sketchnoting.
EdTech Take Out
This is a fantastic podcast for educators to subscribe to. They had an entire episode on Sketchnoting.
A Couple More
Both Core 77 and UX Master have a 101 course for Sketchnotes and Sketchnoting.
Tools
There are plenty of online drawing courses to help with images and lettering. A couple are Brain Doodles and Made Vibrant's Better Lettering Course.