Planning the structure of a page can be a challenge. Our goals are to design a doodle note page that is set up specifically so that the students can remember the visual triggers easily.
A few ways that this commonly breaks down for a particular lesson include:
– categories or subtopics of information
– steps or stages of a process
– relationships between ideas
– key terms or layers of material
These samples will help get your own wheels turning as you think of ways to plan out a doodle note page for your own upcoming lesson!
TOPICS / CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION
This page, shared in the share zone by Leah, uses 4 subtopics. Each is a cause that helped lead up to World War I.
These are the 4 main ideas that she wants her students to remember for this lesson. They fill in the notes for each, and then remember that the fuse at the top is the key piece that set the whole base (the barrel with the 4 reasons) off!
This creative visual is memorable for the students and sticks in their brains as they focus in on the key ideas for the lesson.
Leah’s structure here is simple but so creative and shows a visual analogy. Any time we can incorporate a visual analogy, we boost all those brain benefits we have come to love with the doodle note strategy!
Another great example of structuring a page with a set of subtopics is this doodle note by Richelle. She is teaching properties of logarithms and focusing in on three main subtopics: Product Property, Quotient Property, and Power Property. She also incorporates the Change of Base Formula into the lesson.
To organize these, she used a log cabin, not only because it’s made of logs, but because just like Leah, she is able to incorporate a visual analogy into the page!
Check out Richelle’s note to the teacher inside the sharing zone to see how she helps her students remember the visual analogy. This is amazing for retention!
The story about how you cannot have a 3-story log cabin is genius! Once her students draw the little cockroaches on the roof and the flamingo in the yard, they will never forget the way these properties work!
It’s a perfect blend of clear organization and creative visual analogies to boost retention.
This is an inspirational example of a way to maximize the brain benefits of visual, interactive notes.
STEPS / STAGES
Sometimes, when you are teaching a particular process, you need to organize your page by giving students phases or steps to follow.
Some great ways to structure this type of lesson include stairs, a ladder, a pyramid, or flowcharts, depending on whether it is a hierarchy or a linear process, etc.
If you’d like to use the exact images depicted in the image above, you can download them free from openclipart.org. Then, you can tweak them to fit your needs using some of the image tips I showed in Unit 3 of the video training.
The ladder and pyramid are really nice for typing into or leaving nice big spaces for students to write in. Here are the links:
– ladder
– pyramid
– flowchart
A different example of this type of structure from one of our own members is in this page from Stephanie. She creates beautiful doodle notes in French for her students.
This one, that she generously shared in the share zone, is for her lesson on measuring angles.
Her setup is so student-friendly, because the image of the protractor helps them with labeling parts. They can color right on this and get the idea. Then, she structures her steps/stages differently. She just has four circles labeled as steps 1, 2, 3, and 4. They flow right around the page and are so clear for students to follow.
This shows you that there are so many options for embedding student tasks (coloring and labeling the protractor itself) as well as organizing a process for your students to follow. Her additional pages offer some really fun, hands-on practice.
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN IDEAS
Sometimes, we need to organize information based on how it fits together.
Is there a central idea with “spokes” or sub-ideas coming from it? Then maybe a web or branches from a tree would be appropriate. Are we working with three separate categories with no overlap? A table may be best for this. What about categories with overlap? Try a venn diagram. Think back to the more basic graphic organizers that we have been using for years. How can one of those structures inspire your layout?
If the parts fit together, you can try gears or puzzle pieces. This little puzzle piece image can be arranged easily by rotating it to form any number of topics as an interconnected puzzle. The web and venn diagram are also available as free images.
LAYERS / STACKS
For more basic lessons that don’t seem to have much room for creativity in the structure, try stacking or layering instead of just listing.
This works well for vocabulary-based lessons or topics that just are generally approached with a long boring list. At least you can spice it up a bit with an appropriate picture that will fit the topic and help students remember this set of information.
Something with just a bit of shape to it can help, because students remember key terms better when they fit it into a particular shape and adjust their lettering. Think about an image that relates to your topic and is stackable. These images are already stacked, but you can also create your own stack by layering an image using the “bring to front/back” tips in Unit 3 of the video training.
If you want these exact images, download the clipart pictures here and tweak them to fit your needs:
– stack of books
– layered cake
– coin stack
For more ideas for planning your structure, page layout, and images as visual triggers, make sure you have downloaded the page planning guide from the resource zone.