Drawing Class Notes Boosts Memory and Focus
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I used to get in trouble for drawing in class. I, like many others, find it easier to listen when I'm drawing. This presentation explains how drawing became a strength for my note-taking, rather than a detraction, and gives you some steps to get started along that road too. (Originally presented at TEDxUFM, Guatemala City, August 19, 2012.)
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Drawing Class Notes Boosts Memory and Focus
- 5. guess what I do for a living now.
- 10. I’m not saying this is the only way to take notes.
- 16. It helped me remember better because I could place the information with a picture that’s relevant.
- 17. what’s stopping you and your students* from doing this too? *and quite a lot of other people
- 18. but I can’t draw.
- 19. 3 simple steps 1. pick a tool. 2. develop a few basic icons. 3. listen for and capture key points.
- 20. 1. pick a tool. photo: Mike Rohde photo: Alan Levine
- 21. 2. develop basic icons.
- 22. 3. capture key points.
- 23. You don’t want to take too long, because then you get sucked into the drawing and you can’t hear what they’re saying.
- 37. thank you Rachel Smith @ninmah rachel_smith@grove.com digitalfacilitation.net photo: Alan Levine
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Rachel S. Smith | Director, Digital Facilitation Services | The Grove Consultants International | blog: http://digitalfacilitation.net | Twitter:@ninmah | Flickr: ninmah\n
- When I was in high school, I took great notes. Very detailed. And as long as my notes looked something like this, my teachers were thrilled. Clearly, this is note taking! No doubt about it, that’s what that is. You look at these notes and you say, here’s a student who is paying attention.\n
- But, when my notes looked more like this, the reaction was a little different. My teachers would see me drawing in the margins, and they would think I wasn’t paying attention. For me, it was just as easy to listen deeply whether I was writing words, or drawing images. In some cases, it was easier to capture the sense of what I heard in a drawing. In other cases, it was just easier to listen if my pen was moving, and it didn't seem to matter what came out on the paper.\n
- But to my teachers, I was just drawing in class. And if I was drawing, I obviously wasn’t listening. So they would tell me to stop drawing. Then I usually had to stand up and answer questions in front of the class to induce me to listen better next time, or I had to do extra homework, or I had to stay and clean the blackboard after class, or something similar. And I would always get the same lecture. It went something like this: “Rachel, you’re such a good student. But if you don’t pay attention in class, you won’t do well.” Well...\n
- Guess what I do for a living now? As it turns out, some twenty-five years later, what I do for a living is to pay attention. I get up in front of a group, and they talk, and I pay attention totally and completely. And at the same time that I’m paying attention, I take notes...\n
- ...that look like this. This is called graphic recording. Using huge sheets of paper, I capture words and images that reflect the group’s conversation. Sometimes there are more drawings and fewer words, and sometimes there are more words and fewer drawings. This gives the group another way to look at the problem they are discussing. It supports the group by letting them see the big picture -- they can see their work in a way that is not normally possible in a meeting. I can help them make connections between different pieces of information, follow the thread of discussion through a multi-day meeting, and really see what they are accomplishing. I make their work visible. [Traditional graphic recording on paper, using markers and colored chalks. For more information on graphic recording, please see the International Forum of Visual Practitioners (ifvp.org) or The Grove Consultans (www.grove.com). Photo courtesy of Alan Wolf.]\n
- I also draw when I take notes for my personal use, just like I did in school, although my notes look a little different than they used to. Now, I’m using different tools, I’ve built a mental library of visual imagery that I use over and over again, and I’ve learned better how to pull out key points. I’ve had a lot more practice. I’ve also stopped worrying that someone will make me stay after the meeting and clean up because I was drawing.\n
- The thing is, it's possible to write down word for word what a teacher says, and still not understand it. In order to create visual notes, students have to listen, hear, and understand. When they take notes of any kind, students need to attach the lesson material to their internal frame of reference. Being able to use drawings opens the door for them to make playful connections between pieces of information, to engage their imagination during what can be a very passive activity, and to create unique personal memory aids. What a teacher really does is tell a story about something he or she is passionate about. When students take visual notes, they make that story visible. [Example of visual note-taking on the iPad, created at IFVP 2011.]\n\n\n
- With any kind of visual note taking, it’s critical for the drawings to be simple and relevant. If you find yourself drawing something that has nothing to do with what the speaker is saying -- and this happens to all visual note takers sometime -- then you've fallen behind. When this happens, leave a space, jot a note, but move on and keep up. When I created these notes, I wanted to illustrate the difference between low-success and high-success teams in the lower left. I had the idea to draw them as you see them here, but I didn’t have time to develop them during the talk. So, I left a space and added them right after the talk was done. Now they remind me of how the speaker described those two kinds of teams, because that was the image that came to my mind as he spoke. [Example of visual note-taking on the iPad, created at IFVP 2012.]\n\n
- Of course, I’m not saying this is the only way, or even the best way, to take notes. I’m just saying it’s another way. For some people, it’s very helpful. Some people have trouble writing words while they listen, so taking traditional notes can be a struggle for them. Some people naturally find images coming to mind when they listen deeply. Other people find that it’s easier to pay attention to what they’re hearing if their hands are busy in some way. For people like this, learning to take visual notes can be very liberating.\n
- We like to think things have changed in education in the past 30 years or so, right? Well, let me tell you about my niece. Her name is Elizabeth. She’s 13 years old and just starting eighth grade. She does really well in school -- most of the time. Last year, Elizabeth got caught drawing in class. Astoundingly, she got in trouble for it. Her teacher saw her drawing during the lecture and called her up after class to assign her a detention for doodling in class. But before he could do that, Elizabeth, who is obviously sharper at 13 than I was, showed him her paper.\n
- This is what she showed him. She explained that she really was taking notes. She went over the page with him and she repeated the key points of the lesson, referring to the words and drawings to bring back his story. She explained that she was taking visual notes, just like her Aunt Rachel. And when she was done, her teacher said, “That actually looks really good. If you’d like to take notes that way, go ahead.” So she did.\n
- These are more of her notes from the same class. All through the semester, Elizabeth took visual notes in class.\n
- You can see how she got better at organizing the information and at choosing what to illustrate and what to capture in words.\n
- Elizabeth can still read her notes and repeat the lesson, even now. Because she was able to demonstrate that her notes helped her retain the content, her other teachers allowed her to use this method in their classes, too. I asked her about the experience recently, and she said...\n
- “It helped me remember better because I could place the information with a picture that’s relevant.” Which is the whole point. The information and the picture are not just connected in her notebook. The information and the picture are connected in Elizabeth’s mind. That’s why visual note taking works.\n
- What do you think is the first objection I usually hear when I teach people how to take visual notes?\n
- Say it with me: “But I can’t draw!” Visual note taking is not about drawing beautiful pictures. It’s not about whether you can draw a realistic person, or car, or light bulb. It’s not even about drawing something that anyone other than you can recognize. Visual note taking is about listening for key points and using your own personal visual language to create something that will bring back what you heard -- for you personally. That’s all. So let’s say you or your students would like to give this a try. I’m going to give you three easy steps that will get you started. Ready?\n
- First, choose a tool that works for you. Next, develop some quick-draw icons that you know by heart. Then just listen for, and capture, the key points that you hear. After that, it’s just a whole lot of practice!\n
- The tool you choose is up to you. You can use paper and pen or pencil; you can use a tablet computer or an iPad; you might prefer to work in many colors, just a few, or only one. The key is to be completely comfortable with the tool you are using. It must not get in the way of capturing what you are hearing. Practice a lot with your chosen tools before you rely on them to record important classes or meetings. If you use paper, it might look something like the notebook pictured here. This image shows a page from Mike Rohde’s sketchnotes describing why he thinks it’s a good idea to take sketchnotes -- or visual notes -- while traveling. Mike Rohde’s pictures and books are a great inspiration, especially if you decide paper is for you. Myself, I prefer to use an iPad. The personal visual notes you’ve been seeing on these slides are ones I created using my iPad while listening to live presentations. On the right is a picture of me taking notes on my iPad using an app called Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk. There are a lot of different choices for apps you can use. Pick one you like. You’ll need to be able to zoom in and out if you want to do very detailed work, so make sure the app you choose has that feature. [Shown here, left to right: Mike Rohde’s Sketchnotes (photo, Mike Rohde, 2011 Creative Commons by-nc-nd); me taking notes on my iPad (photo courtesy of Alan Levine).]\n
- Your most important tool, though, is the library of images you carry in your head. When I add visuals to my notes, I’m using ones that I’ve drawn dozens and dozens of times. I might modify one while I’m listening, but if I need to draw something totally new, I leave a space and make a note and develop it later. Listening attentively and recording visually takes up your whole attention. Working out how to represent a totally new object also takes up your whole attention. You can’t do both at once. Think of it this way. If you were listening to a lecture, you would never take notes by inventing a whole new language as you listen. Imagine creating entirely new words to represent what you are hearing! If you were to take notes in a second language -- which I’m sure some of you are doing now -- you most likely would use a language you had already learned before you started taking the notes. It’s the same with your personal visual language. Begin by learning one or two images, and slowly build your visual library from there. Over time, you’ll create a personal icon library of imagery that you can draw quickly and easily. Icons that can be adapted to many different contexts are the most useful.\n
- If you forget everything else I said today, perhaps because you are busy trying to draw something very detailed, remember this: the most important thing to do when you are taking visual notes is to capture the speaker’s key points. Illustrate a key point with an icon and a few words. Using the speaker’s exact words is best. As you practice, you’ll be able to add details to your icons that will remind you of the supporting details in the speaker’s story, and you won’t that information even if you don’t write it all out in words. In this example, the key point that patience is a core competency for virtual meetings is illustrated by an exploding computer, which reminds me that the speaker was talking about being patient with technical difficulties, rather than with, say, difficult people. When Elizabeth first started taking visual notes, she asked me for advice, and this is what I told her: What really makes visual note taking work is not how detailed and lovely your images are. What makes visual note taking work is capturing the main points of a lesson or talk, quickly and in a memorable way. Now that she’s had a few months of practice, I asked her what one piece of advice she would like to share with you.\n\n
- She said, “You don’t want to take too long because then you get sucked into the drawing and you can’t hear what they’re saying.” She told me that’s why she does “triangle things” for hands — because “individual fingers takes up too much time.” The drawings are useful to help reinforce understanding and memory. But a detailed, irrelevant drawing is worse than taking no notes at all, because if the drawing becomes the focus, then you’ve stopped listening — at least, to the speaker. You might be listening to your inner critic, or to that voice in your mind that tells you how zebras are supposed to look, but you’re not listening to the speaker.\n
- If you can look at your notes afterward and tell the same story you heard from the speaker, then you’re doing it right. That’s all there is to it.\n
- Once you’ve gotten comfortable with it, visual note taking can be very meditative. It’s a conversation between you and the speaker that takes place in your notebook or tablet. Like anything else, it will take practice to get to the meditative stage, but I hope you will give it a try. In fact, I hope you’ll give it a try right now -- let’s start building your icon library with one that often stops people in their tracks. Let’s draw a person.\n
- It’s useful to visualize the outcome before you begin. This is the person we’re going to draw. Grab something to draw with -- pen and paper, a drawing app on your tablet, or even just your finger in the air. The person we have here is affectionately known as a star person...\n
- ... because in its simplest form it looks like a star. But people don’t often stand like this, so we’re going to give him a little more expression. Ready? (Slides from here to the end represent a live drawing activity.)\n
- Star people start with an oval for the head. Put it near, but not at the top, of your page.\n
- A slightly curved line upward becomes the top of the first arm.\n
- Add a short line down and two outward bumps to make a hand gesturing with excitement.\n
- Bring the arm down to just under where it starts. Be careful not to go too close under the head, or the chest will look strange later.\n
- The other arm curves out from under the head and then back toward the body. Notice that it also ends underneath where it started, and not farther in toward the body.\n
- Two lines, tapering just slightly toward each other, form the outsides of the legs and the chest under the upraised arm.\n
- The feet are two bumps, a little like a “W”, that connect the ends of the leg-lines.\n
- Final details: a triangle inside the arm on the left; two lines for eyes; and one line to divide the legs. There’s the first entry in your new icon library! This person is very flexible and adaptable. For instance, you can make him look the other way...\n
- ...just by changing the position of the eyes. There you go! Some of you may have walked in here convinced you couldn’t draw a person, but you have just done it. Practice him a few times, and he’ll be ready to add to your visual notes any time you want. He can hail a taxi, make an announcement, lodge an objection, or rally a group of people -- all depending on what you need him to do. And that’s how you draw in class.\n
- Thanks for viewing my slide show. I hope you found the information useful! I write about digital facilitation and digital note-taking on my blog at http://digitalfacilitation.net. I welcome questions and comments. -- Rachel [Photo courtesy of Alan Levine.]\n