Including sketchnotes in my teaching
The first time I heard about sketchnoting, I thought it was a great way to enhance notetaking. I was looking for new ways for students to show understanding of concepts and I bumped into this strategy online. However, I was a little hesitant on how my students would respond. I didn’t know if they would reject the idea based on their own drawing skills, so I bought a couple of books to understand better how they could used and what they consisted of. Mike Rodhe (2013) defines sketchnotes as “rich visual notes created from a mix of handwriting, drawings, hand-drawn typography, shapes, and visual elements” (p. 2). In his book The Sketchnote Handbook, Rodhe writes that anyone can draw. I loved that! I, myself, have not developed my drawing skills YET, but I do know how to make basic shapes, so I took the plunge with my students. However, instead of using them for listening or lectures, I decided to try them out with flipped content and eventually for speaking and task preparation.
After two years of using sketchnotes as an active learning strategy in my classes, I think it’s time to share with you what I have done and what I have learned. I will share different ways they can be used to show how versatile this strategy is and how students’ creativity blooms when you create spaces for them to think and take notes outside the box.
Lessons with sketchnotes
These are some of the lessons I have used sketchnotes for:
What I have learned
If you are hesitant (as I was), I encourage you to give it a try! You will be surprised by what students come up with. Hopefully, like me, you will discover this is a strategy you definitely want to include in your reliable teaching toolbox.