Tag Archives: sketchnoting

Daily Doodle 2021

February 2, 2021Uncategorized2021, Doodle, Newbery Winner, sketchnotingpaulabourque

Sure 2021 is well under way…we have one month behind us and a groundhog telling us how the next 6 weeks are going to go, but it is the perfect time to try one of my favorite documenting activities…THE DAILY DOODLE.

All you need is some kind of weekly planner (and the prices are slashed on these for 2021!!) or notebook paper, pens, colored pencils, or your favorite writing tools.

Then you reflect on each day and choose an image or two that comes to mind that documents some part of your day. It can be personal, political, historical, comical…ANYTHING. You create a quick doodle to capture what you visualize. Use icons, stick people, scribbles or play with your drawing skills if you enjoy that. Color it in if you like color, or leave it as a line drawing. Add a caption or brief description of the event and you have a DAILY DOODLE!

One of my favorite tools to help me doodle is The Noun Project https://thenounproject.com/ Here you can type in any word (and it does not have to be a noun) and they will share a collection of icons that are easy for anyone to use.

Here is a snapshot of some of my recent doodles.

When I look back over my 2020 Book of Daily Doodles I can see at a glance how wild the year was. Each image brings me back to certain moments without having to read an entire journal entry . It is pretty powerful stuff. I hope you give it a try this year. You certainly won’t regret it!

READS THAT FEED ME

WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER by Tae KellerI can see why this book won the Newbery Award– a beautiful tale about the power of love and of stories. Lily and her mother and sister move in with their sick Halmoni (Korean for grandmother). Lily is startled when she is visited by a tiger who claims her Halmoni stole something from the tigers and tries to make a deal with Lily to get it back. However, Halmoni has always cautioned to never trust the tigers. This realistic fantasy will have you questioning who/what to believe when you want so desperately for reality to be different. Loved it.

Literacy for All? I Can Visualize That!

November 4, 2018UncategorizedLiteracy for All, sketchnotes, sketchnotingpaulabourque

This past week I attended the Literacy for All Conference in Providence, Rhode Island with the literacy specialists from my district. It was wonderful to go with a group of passionate peeps so we could discuss we we heard and learned. Again I used sketchnoting as a way to capture the big ideas from presentations and encourage me to revisit my thinking, as I revised with colors and doodles.

Sketchnotes from Donalyn Miller’s Keynote Address

Sketchnotes from Katie Cunningham and Jodi Falk’s Joyful PD Session

While I value my own personal sketchnotes and enjoy sharing them with others, something even more important came from this approach. One of the other literacy specialists began to experiment with this practice and shared her notes with me. Erika told me as she was sitting in a session, a woman was observing her doodling and asked, “Do you know Paula Bourque?” Erika chuckled and let her know that we work together.

When she returned to her school, Erika shared her notes with her para-professional colleagues and we had a discussion about how this approach could benefit the Title I students they serve. We talked about how it can be intimidating to see more polished and practiced sketchnotes, but Erika assured them that her initial attempts were quite simple- and as we looked at them, we could see the quick progress that can be made with intentional practice.

Erika’s sketchnote samples over a three day period.

Erika and I shared how this approach can actually change the way you think about information you are processing. She talked about how she was worried at first that she couldn’t sketch and listen, but found that with a little practice, those concerns were ameliorated. Erika took her notes to a far more artistic level than I use, and that is part of the joy that is sketchnoting–it is individualized, creative, and generative.

So whether you will be attending a conference, participating in PD, reading a text, or listening to a podcast- grab a pen and paper and start doodling. See where it takes you. That’s a form of Literacy for All that I will continue to advocate for.

One More Off My TBR Stack!

AN UNINTERRUPTED VIEW OF THE SKY by Melanie Crowder

How is there so much I’ve never heard about in our world’s history? I am fascinated by the people and places that I know so little about-especially the indigenous people who are often unfairly marginalized. Melanie Crowder’s novel is set in Bolivia in 1999. Francisco lives with his sister, Pilar and his parents. He’s in his final year of school and has little ambition. Then his father is arrested on false charges and sent to prison, his mother realizes she cannot support the family alone, so abandons them. Francisco and Pilar have no where to go other than to live at the prison with their father. They realize prisoners have to pay for their cells and their food. They cannot afford a lawyer to plead their father’s case. All seems lost. Somehow Francisco must find a way to help his family, and another desperate girl trying to survive in the men’s prison. He begins to appreciate the gifts he had in life-and still has. I love this story and the beautiful prose and poetry that bring it to life. A Maine Student Book Award (MSBA) 2018-19 nominee for older readers.

Sketchnote Coaching

June 2, 2018Uncategorizedcoaching, Ghost Boys, Jewell Parker Rhodes, sketchnotes, sketchnotingpaulabourque

I’m back to blogging after a bit of a hiatus. I finished my second book for Stenhouse and turned over the manuscript recently, so my writing time was pretty focused. I’ll write more about that process, but today I wanted to share a new way I’ve been using sketchnoting in classrooms.

During this year of coaching, as teachers have asked me to observe lessons, I’ve been sketchnoting the activity, interactions, and movement of the class and teacher with visual notes. These have become a powerful tool for post observation conferences.

As I take notes, I try very hard to be non-evaluative and encourage teachers to self-reflect and self-evaluate their lessons. Sketchnoting has made that so much easier for me. I capture what I see in words and images that are not filtered through my descriptive vocabulary. This has opened up greater conversations with teachers, and they love keeping a copy of the sketchnote for their portfolios.

This last week I tried something new. I often ask the teachers what they are focusing in their lessons, what their learning targets or success criteria may be, or even what they want me to notice-this guides my observation and allows me to get targeted feedback. However, this time I created a color key for the literacy areas Caroline, a 2nd grade teacher, was trying to incorporate into her science lesson. I sketchnoted her lesson and then afterwards asked her to reflect on her lesson with those areas in mind. Where did she feel like she was able to incorporate them? Where did the students engage with them? She then coded the sketchnote with those colors as we discussed the lesson.

Before color coding

After color coding

Caroline told me this was the best observation she ever had. She is already an incredibly reflective teacher, and this let her tangibly reflect and document her self-assessment. I think this could be a powerful tool for teachers to use when observing student group or independent work as well.

If you haven’t tried sketchnoting yet, I’d encourage you to check out some resources over the summer. I’ll be presenting with Tanny McGregor and Buffy Hamilton at ILA in Austin on sketchnoting. I’ll share more information on this in future blogs as well. You can check out my Padlet of resources to get started.

One More Off My TBR Stack!

Screen Shot 2018-06-02 at 8.49.43 AM Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Jerome is shot and killed by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real weapon. The story is told from his perspective as a ghost as he watches his family’s agonizing struggle to seek justice for his death. The only human who can see Jerome is the police officer’s daughter Sarah, who is also struggling as her family’s life has been upended. Sarah wants to right a wrong done by her father and help Jerome, but she isn’t sure how. Jerome also meets another ghost-Emmett Till- who was lynched in 1955 and is the presumed leader of the ghost boys-murdered young black men. What does justice look like? How do people (or ghosts) heal from these tragedies. How do we face unconscious bias in our world? Jewell Parker Rhodes’ book may help start that conversation for many readers as she shows us not everything is as black and white as we see it.