A writing instructor, my sister Angela recently told her high school students how doodling is important to their education. Write in your books! Draw along the margin! Mark them up! Underline, highlight, scribble! I gave her a fist bump when she told me that. I'm a huge proponent of doodling. (Yep, I even signed the Doodle Manifesto.) The importance of doodling cannot be underestimated in the process of learning.
If you only have about five minutes, here's a quick fun TED talk about the history and importance of doodling from Sunni Brown, a leader in the Doodle Revolution: (If you'd rather look at images instead, you can see her slide deck from another talk, which hits the same important points.)
If you have some time, I highly recommend checking out the fantastic Doodle Revolution site. You'll get a glimpse of how people use doodles to process huge amounts of information, plan ideas, and make sense of the world around them. (You might spot a familiar name in the Showcase, too.)
4 comments:
Thanks for posting this! I have always been a believer in doodling, and encourage my youth that I've given journals to to doodle freely during our catechetical sessions (I always present them with unlined journals/sketchbooks so they'll think outside the lines, as it were). My experience has always been that people that doodle actually engage much better in learning than those that are looking at their watches, drumming their fingers, counting the minutes to their next meal, etc. Yay, doodling!
Wayhip,
You're welcome. And, wow, what a fantastic gift you are giving your students. They must retain so much of what is being taught ...
I'm forever doodling, too. During meetings. During talks with friends. I have an exceptional memory, which I think is helped by doodling.
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment.
Long live the doodle!
Peace and blessings,
Vee
Hi, Vee! It's me! :)
Just wanted to say that one of my students is now going to be taking doodling to the next level and using his gift of drawing to create a "graphic essay" for Captain Blood! Drawing is allowing him to tap into his analytical ability in a way that writing does not provide. He will still be doing some writing, but the emphasis will be on the artwork.
Thanks for a great post!
Cheers!
Hey, Angela.
Were your ears burning since I mentioned you in this post? ;-)
That is just such an awesome thing that one of your students is doing. Just a spectacular idea. How fab that he has a teacher who understands that drawing unleashes other parts of our thinking and lets us digest knowledge ...
Nice!
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