Ventura, CA (PRWEB) March 10, 2005
Did you know that students are still being sent to the principal’s office for doodling?
Yes, even though terms such as multiple intelligences and learning styles roll off the tongues of educators and administrators, students who doodle continue to be seen as rule breakers who need to be punished!
When a student is doodling the conclusions that are drawn by parents and teachers are:
YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION
YOU ARE BEING RUDE
YOU ARE MESSING UP YOUR PAPER
Have you ever been to a lecture or workshop and seen people knitting or crocheting? How about adults who doodle while the presenter is speaking? Would it ever occur to anyone to say, stop that and pay attention to me?
Of course not… in the adult world we sort of just know that these people are listening, that keeping their hands busy helps them to focus and process the information.
The truth is that tactile-kinesthetic learners more often than not need to be moving in order to pay attention to auditory information or to the task at hand. It is precisely when they are not occupied in some tactile or kinesthetic activity that they are not able to pay attention or concentrate on their work.
Those people whose specific modality is Tactile-Kinesthetic Sketching, need to sketch!
Sketching or doodling not only helps these students focus on information presented verbally; this activity can also be encouraged to increase reading and math comprehension for these learners. Sketching learners can draw things out to understand a math word problem, or the paragraph or chapter they are reading. Sketching can also be used to take picture notes during a lesson or lecture, or to organize thoughts and literally “get the picture” when preparing to write something. Students who doodle on their worksheets need this activity to help them get through the worksheets!
Remember a picture is worth a thousand words? Why do we forget that in the classroom? Even seminar presenters these days are hiring sketch artists to take picture notes that become available to all participants after the seminar.
Sketching is a powerful tool for learning. Instead of treating it as a crime, let’s give it and the students who use it the recognition and appreciation they deserve. And let’s empower students to use the tools they need that will lead them to success.