Do your students moan and groan when note day comes around? Can you really blame them, though? Sitting and writing down notes does not sound very thrilling to most people! Want to eliminate all the grumbling? Imagine your students actually loving and looking forward to note day!
With the Doodle Note Strategy, your students not only love note days, but their learning and retention is also improved!
What are Doodle Notes?
Doodle Notes are the perfect way to bring visual note-taking into your classroom. They are doodle-it-in, color-friendly note sheets that your students will be so excited about.
Wouldn’t you love note days like the one described below?
Imagine: your students enter the classroom; it’s just another average day at school…or so they think. You announce it’s a note day, and this is followed by understandable moans and groans. “Do NOT take out your notebooks, though,” you begin. “Instead get out your coloring supplies and put your creative hat on; we’re trying the Doodle Note strategy today!”
You can feel the excitement in the air as your students instantly relax and settle down, curious to try this. You pass out the doodle note sheets, and show a finished sample. There is visible enthusiasm as you explain the sample is only to be used as a guide and to provide inspiration; they can fill in their doodle notes however they please.
You begin your lesson and for the entire class period, your students are actively doodling, absorbing the material and fully engaged, (even the ones you wouldn’t normally expect!)
Fast-forward to test day!
Incredibly, your students can recall everything from that doodle note day, and ace the test. The visual triggers, sense of ownership, activation of the right hemisphere all are incredible aspects to improve learning and retention! They are able to mentally envision their layout, remember their lettering and images, and recall the content because the visual notes help to activate neural pathways and convert the information to long-term memory.
Why Doodle Notes Work:
- Cross-Lateral Brain Connections:
When we can activate both the right (artsy) hemisphere of the brain and the left (logical) side of the brain at the same time, the two hemispheres communicate across the corpus callosum. Any time this happens, the brain is better able to remember the lesson material and focus in on the concepts.
- Dual Coding Theory
The principle of Dual Coding is one of the biggest reasons that the doodle note strategy leads to stronger retention of lesson material.
The student brain processes text information separately from visual input. However, when we can combine the two, we activate the neural pathways that allow new information to more easily be transferred into long-term memory. The key is the BLEND of visual and linguistic input.
- Picture Superiority Effect
Studies show that blending images with text offers a stronger learning experience than using text alone. It turns out that this boosts both the memory of the individual terms and ideas as well as the associations and connections between the concepts.
So your students will recall the big picture, the details, and the relationships BETWEEN the ideas within each lesson.
Become a Doodle Notes Club Member and have fun and rigorous lessons like this whenever you want!
All you need is:
- A computer
- PowerPoint
- Adobe Reader (Free Online!)
As a Doodle Note Club member you get:
- Doodle Note Templates
- Video training to show you how to make your own using the materials provided, plus how to build your own from scratch!
- Graphics and clipart to help you build your pages
- Community support
- BONUS Doodle Note stickers and a deck of 100 bite-sized graphic organizer cards
- And so much more!
Here is a peek at just some of the downloads and resources that are inside:
TEMPLATES
GRAPHICS
VIDEO TRAINING
EVERYTHING YOU NEED
Why Doodle Notes?
The doodle note strategy is backed by research and offers a fun but rigorous combination of interactive note-taking and brain-boosting! It has all the best features of a graphic organizer or guided note sheet, but with brain-friendly upgrades.
When working through a doodle note page, students complete a variety of tasks, including coloring, doodling, embellishing. They are introduced to new information, perform tasks, practice new skills, build memory connections in their brains. Visual analogies are embedded into the page.
Strategic memory triggers are another key visual feature. Doodle note pages blend brain research with high student engagement to maximize learning and retention. The student’s pride in ownership, relaxation in class, and easy implementation for the teacher are all just bonuses!
What teachers are saying:
– I’m hooked on this concept of using doodling to increase the brain’s ability to soak up details. It’s been very successful in class and most of my students seemed to like how colorful they could be.
– My 8th grade summer school who are mostly boys loved coloring the notes. I’m pleasantly surprised!
– Really liked how my students responded to using Doodle Notes.
– My students absolutely love the doodle notes, and they feel like they retain more information.
– No notes left behind… Students value these reference pages enough to keep up with them!
– You’ve unleashed something here!
– Kids love this activity! Keeps them extremely focused.
– My students love these Doodle notes and keep asking for more!
– The other classes told them they are jealous.
– I wish that I’d had Doodle notes as a student…
– I love being able to engage some of my quieter, more artsy students in a different way!
– I am using as many of these different concepts as additional support as each skill or concept is introduced. They really get students quieted down.
– … not only a great note taking tool but a reference they can be proud of ..
