But, I've also had quite a few questions about the best ways to use them in the classroom, and requests for tips when trying them out. So I wanted to put together a post to help guide people who are getting started (but beware, you are very likely to become a doodle addict once you start!)
I'm going to kick it off with some of my top strategies for actually using doodle notes, but I would love if those who are enjoying them in your own classroom would jump in. Please leave a comment so I can add to the list! If we can all share different ways they have worked, or tips we develop as we go, it would really benefit everyone! I'd love to hear from you all. First of All...
There is no way to write a one-size-fits-all doodle manual. They are extremely flexible, and the best way to use them really depends on your own students and your classroom culture.
Using the same page can go completely differently in your 1st period class than in your 2nd period class. Some classes will take it and run with it, and some will walk through it right alongside you as you fill it in together like a whole class graphic organizer. There are really no "right ways" or "wrong ways" to teach with doodle notes. Be flexible, because you'll be amazed how that one kid who has never been engaged in math class is suddenly focused, excited, and begging for more! Brain Benefits
Be sure to keep the research in mind as you implement doodling in math class. Keep your focus on the brain benefits as you guide your students through these.
Of course, just by coloring or doodling, they will get some visual connections and will activate both sides of the brain, but to maximize the benefits, this should ideally occur while also getting verbal input. Review the brain benefits of crossing the midline in these posts:
The study in which people listened to a boring phone conversation showed that the group who was doodling while listening was able to remember all the people that the little old lady was going to invite to her party, what was on her menu, etc. much better than those in the room without doodling supplies.
Scientists learned that the act of coloring or doodling requires just enough focus to keep you from zoning out, but not enough to actually distract you. So, to maximize that effect, there should be focused, active teaching occurring during the doodle note lesson. Use a Teacher Copy
The easiest way to do this is to project/display a blank copy of the same doodle page that you hand out. Then, complete your "teacher copy" as you give notes. You can expand past it and add notes on the board, talk through the lesson, and lecture as you normally would.
Even if you keep your note page "bare bones" and just fill in the blanks, your main job is to talk and model the concept and examples, just as you normally would. Students will have plenty of time while you talk and explain to embellish their pages.
Your teacher copy can look as boring as this answer key. You won't need to model the doodling and coloring. That's where their own creativity comes in. All those little right brain hemispheres will automatically turn on and get excited to make the page their own as soon as you let them know they are allowed.
Show a Sample
However, some will need just a little guidance, or official permission to do whatever they want on their own page. You really do want to encourage and allow personalization and creativity.
So, the first few times you use a doodle note approach, show a student sample just briefly to give them the idea. I include a photo in each one that I create so that you can use it as an example until your students get the hang of it and develop their own styles. Another Approach
Depending on your students, you may want to forget the lecture approach, and let your students complete these as a study guide or graphic organizer using a textbook as a reference.
If you choose to try this strategy, be sure to have students work in pairs, so that the conversation is still happening. This way, you can get a variety of input going into their brains while they complete the page and fill in the information. They can work together to decide what key information should go where. This will work if you are comfortable with variation. They may not write exactly what you would have written on the board, but you can walk around and check that they have the concept, key ideas, vocabulary, and examples all correct. This method allows a little more freedom for the students, but may not work for all classes. Doodle Tools
Limit Time
When it is time to cut off the lecture or the lesson, be sure to stop. Just as you would have with regular notes. Move on. Students who want to add to it can do so later during free time or at home.
Do not add class time for just coloring. That is not the purpose. If students do want to color, embellish, add a million little doodle spirals, that's fine. But once the learning and teaching portion is over, the brain benefits start dwindling. Coloring the corners is not the valuable use of class time that completing the note sheet is. Guide your class to doodle AS they fill the page, during the moments that they are still listening and learning. Let them do fancy lettering of a vocabulary word to help it stick in their minds. Let them color ideas that go together using the same pattern. Show them how to focus in on the visual triggers that will stick in their brain.
Even myself, I still notice that I can remember something better if I was doodling while I heard it. A few times recently, I've said something like "oh yeah, I do remember when you said that in our meeting. It was while I was drawing little triangles around the words "Singapore Math." Students create the same brain triggers by doing these pages. During a test, they'll think "oh, right, I remember making the "s" really small and the "t" really tall to fit the word "sector" inside the circle just right.
The Visuals & Graphics Will Work for Themselves
Really, you can't go wrong. The visual connections are built in. Doodle notes are like a twist on a graphic organizer. They have the benefits that a basic graphic organizer has, plus more, and those benefits will come automatically.
It's all about shapes, layout, and graphics. These act as brain triggers. Students will visualize the page, plus they will have formed connections in their minds that will help them retain the information. Since math is usually left-brained, and any creativity that they put into the page (coloring, doodling, fancy lettering) is right-brained, the two hemispheres of the brain will be working together. By crossing the midline of their brains (the corpus callosum), they will automatically maximize their focus, learning, and retention of the content. Working Document / Reference Sheet
One of the most unexpected benefits that comes along with this teaching strategy is how proud the students are of their note sheets!
They will pull it out over and over again to use as a reference. (Which they should be doing with a standard notebook as well, but often don't.) Instead of reminding them to pull out their notes when they get stuck, you'll see them jump to grab their doodle note sheet so they can show it off and add to it. Encourage this! Let their note pages become working documents that are always on hand as graphic organizers or study guides. They love to make these their own. So don't sweat it too much as you implement them. Just print it out. When you hand your kids these pages, the benefits will happen automatically. They will get excited and engage with the page in all the right ways.
If you are ready to give it a try, this post will lead you to two different sets of free doodle notes.
More tips and specifics
Use this link to hear from teachers using the doodle note method in their classrooms: Doodle Notes in The Classroom - Tips, Tricks, and Testimonials Video Training: Teaching with Doodle Notes
To support you in implementing the doodle note method in your own classroom, I've created a video tutorial on teaching with visual notes. These strategies will help you get started right away. To get some of the resources shown, you can access my free toolkit here.
Teach the BenefitsAdvanced: For True Doodle Note Addicts
If you have already gotten into your doodle groove, first of all, please leave a comment below to share any experience you have had in your own classroom. We all need your tips! Tell us any little tricks, benefits you have noticed, or approaches you have tried.
Then, you may want to check out a little more on sketchnoting, hand lettering, icon drawing, and more to get your students (or yourself) some more doodle skills! I've got some links in my "Doodle Addict" pinterest board that you may enjoy! Check it out. To Learn More & Get Started with Doodle Notes:
To Read Next:
35 Comments
Patricia Westin
8/1/2016 10:33:05 am
Thank you so much for posting this. I am excited to give the doodle notes a try. I too, have read this research study you are referring to. I am a middle school math teacher and a summer school college statistics instructor. I use the study for a discussion in my statistics class to discuss random samples. The study itself is riddled with mistakes but the overall idea is awesome and I am a huge advocate of doodling in class. I have not created notes like you and am excited to try your notes out within my middle school classroom. You have been a life saver with all you post and sell on TPT. Keep up the great work.
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8/1/2016 07:56:31 pm
Hi Patricia,
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Glennan
8/4/2016 05:02:54 pm
Doodle Notes are a wonderful thing. The prepared ones are terriffic, as are ones that happen in situ. Diagrams in any form make things soooo much better, and who doesn't love coloring.
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8/4/2016 07:21:58 pm
Hi Glennan!
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Sherry
8/7/2016 10:13:15 pm
I'm very interested in trying these but I teach junior high (= US middle school) math in French. I would need to do a lot of translating but I'm happy to have the foundations to work with. I will be purchasing something from your TPT store to get me going.
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8/8/2016 05:00:29 pm
Hi Sherry,
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8/15/2016 10:06:06 pm
I was wondering if there is anyway you can send me the template for the doodle syllabus. I recently has downloaded it but then our district got new laptops and I guess I downloaded it after I had already transferred everything :( I was really excited about those notes. I love these notes and I'm going to show your blog to all of the math people on my campus, I teach ELAR.
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8/16/2016 12:59:50 pm
Hi Leanne,
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Lynn Emrich
8/19/2016 10:31:57 am
I am very excited to try doodle notes. I teach 6th grade math, and think my kids will love these. I was wondering if you could send me the template for the doodle syllabus. I can't seem to find it anywhere.
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8/19/2016 07:52:20 pm
Hi Lynn,
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Erin
9/21/2016 10:53:22 pm
I am trying them in 6th grade this year and they love it!!
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9/22/2016 08:11:34 am
That's awesome! Thanks so much, Erin!
Ann
9/1/2016 10:26:07 am
I love your doodle notes and am excited to see them in action. Do you have any advice for creating my own for subjects you have not published yet? What program do you use, for example?
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9/1/2016 09:58:25 pm
Hi Ann,
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Janice Barton
9/22/2016 11:53:22 am
Thanks for sharing!
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9/22/2016 04:52:21 pm
Hi Janice!
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Ashley
7/2/2017 10:57:31 pm
Hi i''ve been out of school for about 10 and have not been retaining most of the courses except for what i was interested in. I also never really learned how to take notes rather then just copying.I'm so glad to have found this as i am partly a visual learning and love to draw.I'm planning on giving this a try if it works well for the left side of the brain as well^^. do you have any resources regarding programming and languages for doodle notes? I would love to try it this way to remember al the terms better^^.
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7/8/2017 10:49:15 am
Hi Ashley,
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Connie Grogan
7/17/2017 03:07:12 pm
I know you say grades 6-12, but I am busy creating doodle sheets for the math vocabulary in my second grade math class. I.e. I used a pic of lego blocks put together for compose and spread apart for decompose with with numbers in front. My plan is to post those same pics and words together on my vocabulary board. I also put a few problems at the bottom of the page for them to do when they get to their math station. Any other suggestions?
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7/19/2017 07:20:24 am
Hi Connie!
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Amiee
8/8/2018 03:24:29 pm
I was wondering how you have your students store these notes. Do they keep them in a folder/binder or do you have them glue them into a notebook? I want to use these this year but also have a place to do practice work as well. Thanks!
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8/10/2018 08:11:22 pm
Hi Amiee,
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Jacob Stone
11/26/2018 11:51:18 am
I have never been an artist of any kind but I do find myself making connections like these and that's my most effective study method. This works because as you said I remember the connections and the information during the test. I assume once I try this out it will be even easier to make these connections. Any advice for us non-artists?
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11/27/2018 01:51:39 pm
Hi Jacob,
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Frances, New Jersey
1/5/2019 08:03:35 am
Hello! I finally got my Pre-Algebra Doodle Notebook today, and I can't wait to start doodle-ing in my 7th and 8th Grade Classes. Thank you so much for creating this notebook as a resource for teachers like me. I was just wondering if you an an answer sheet for all of the pages? If so, how do I get access to them? Thanks!
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1/5/2019 08:17:54 am
Hi Frances,
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My 6th graders (all boys) have interactive notebooks, and I have used many of your doodle notes -- they do love them. I read in your blog to limit the time they can doodle, but we only have 45 minute classes (barely). Some can barely get any doodling done in that time and they aren't always motivated enough to finish later. Do you think I'd see the same benefits as a class that had longer time? I guess something is better than nothing, and I am hoping to present this as an option for next year. :)
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1/21/2019 01:11:13 pm
Hi Kristina,
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Barbara
7/11/2020 11:46:24 pm
I am so excited about Doddle Notes!
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7/15/2020 01:26:34 pm
Hi Barbara,
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Barbara
7/15/2020 02:26:06 pm
Having discovered Doodle Notes less than a week ago I can say I have been having a blast. I am working on curriculum development for our school (Alg 1 and credit recovery) and I truly believe this may be just the thing to help some of the students who don't connect online. With the help of TPT and the DNC, I have been building and matching like crazy! 7/5/2021 01:31:02 am
Really This Was Great information. Thank You For Sharing valuable information.
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9/12/2024 10:58:40 am
Fantastic tips on implementing Doodle Notes effectively! Your guidance on how to use this creative approach to enhance understanding and retention is very practical. It’s exciting to see how visual and interactive methods can make learning math more engaging. Thanks for sharing these valuable insights on making the most out of Doodle Notes!
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