Mastering Your Knowledge through Note-Taking

Unlike conventional note-taking, which can “border on the edge of transcription,” allowing pupils to try more visual, interpretive methods of processing materials assists them to “identify connections between topics and themes,” writes Nimah Gobir for KQED.

One method known as sketchnoting—simple, hand-drawn renderings of things like facts, dates, or abstract concepts—allows the pupil to answer to complex new ideas by engaging multiple parts of the brain simultaneously to deepen learning and retention, says Gobir. Instead of passively writing down everything a speaker says, the practice pushes pupils to actively process and make sense of what they’re acquiring.

“Sketchnoting doesn’t just lead to gains in keeping students’ attention, and it’s a useful way for learners to organize and retain information,” she writes. “They’re actively listening and creating a visual representation of their learning while continuing to stay engaged in class.”

Rethink Your Paper:?

Note-taking doesn’t need to occur between the lines and within the margins of notebook paper. The “more rigid structure of lines and lines of text” can bind the minds of some learners, while the freedom to reimagine the space can free them, writes Gobir. Promote students to play with spacing and varying text sizes, and add symbols anywhere on the piece of paper “to create a hierarchy of information that might be harder to capture in linear text.”

Start With a Little Scribbling:?

Not all pupils will initially accept the idea of sketchnoting and other visual note-taking methods, so encourage them to start scribbling. Artist and educator Todd Berman have students “scribble for the duration of a song,” Gobir explains. This gets the creative juices flowing and creates a comfortable setting for introducing the concept. Berman then asks pupils to share what they’ve made with the class.

Create a Symbolic Language:?

Educator Wendi Pillars has students “identify 10 keywords or concepts” from the current learning materials and develop a visual library of shorthand—like an icon or character—to represent them, shares Gobir. Getting students’ input for the library, too, recommends Pillars, so “you have a co-created visual vocabulary that everybody can refer to when they take their notes.” In time, pupils will acquire their vocabularies and visual note-taking styles independently.

Pass over the Grading:?

Sketchnoting, diagrams, freehand drawing, mind-mapping, and similar methods are vehicles to get student ideas down on paper—not practices meant to demonstrate their mastery of subject material. Educator Sarah Schroeder advises directing on grading what is “construct relevant” or “avoiding measuring what is irrelevant or can’t be measured,” like creativity. Attaching a grade to visual note-taking might inhibit the pupil as they struggle to make sense of complex material, make them feel self-conscious, or be so subjective as to be meaningless—so provide feedback rather than a grade.

To learn visual notes, focusing on content.

Think you can’t draw? That is in no way what visual note-taking is all about. The thinking behind visual note-taking is about listening to content and getting key points. You don’t ever show off your notes to different people just yet. Try this; take the period to practice, and your visuals will fall into place.

A study found that a group who doodled during a monitoring task recalled 29% more information?than the non-doodlers.

Drawing while listening helps you in this way:

• You stay engaged with the content
• You remember more information
• It improves your listening skills
• You enhance your ability to organize and connect ideas

If you’ve seen Ink Factory take visual notes live, you may find that visual note-taking organises and captures content through hand-drawn images and text in real time. Drawing live means you can react to what is said at that moment, and you are more engaged with the key messages behind the content.

Instructing the Visual Note Taking Strategy

The following points are in use to introduce the strategy in your classroom:

• Illustrate:?Students can buck up to explore their creativity when illustrating information. The only rule is that it should be graspable.
• Recording content:?The important topic or central idea is recorded in the centre of the page. It sums up that other pieces of information are to be added surrounding this topic. Unfamiliar concepts or words can be written on one side of the page under the title ‘further research’ as a reminder for students to look them up. The importance of paraphrasing should be emphasized.
• ?Finding relations:?Some information recorded may seem disconnected to the student. Please encourage them to review the material and find connections and organize them. This is redrawn and represented using arrow marks, charts, or graphs. This activity can be assigned in pairs or groups and will help to facilitate the development of critical analysis and reasoning.

Teaching visually:

?Introduce the key topic before a lesson and inquire pupils to list points and content they feel contribute to the case. They can also discuss the elements they believe should be covered in the class. The instructor can then visually represent these points while instructing. Always utilize different coloured markers to highlight essential information and link sub-topics. At the end of the class, ask students to explain the schema drawn on the board. Another technique of using the strategy is to draw randomly placed pictures and words on one side of the board and, following the lesson, inquire the pupils to reorganize the material on the other side according to the content.

Discussions using whiteboard:?

Do talk using a whiteboard in the class. Pick a student to be the artist. The teacher then tells the student to represent other students' thoughts by drawing pictures on the board. Once the ideas are in recording, the students can look at the representations and determine the relations or links between the subject matter. The role of the illustrator is in allotment in turns.

Assignments or Presentations:?

Alternatively, instead of written content, pupils can be told to turn in their assignments or presentations using the Visual Note-Taking Strategy. The teacher tells them to include some aspects of a lesson to check that they followed along or to draw a picture showing they comprehended the task.

Exit card:

With Visual Note Taking as an exit card, the teacher tells pupils to visually represent three key elements from the lesson or day on an exit card before going from the classroom.