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Sketchbooks as tools to help personalise learning
Posted by AccessArt on May 21, 2009 · 1 Comment
Sketchbooks provide an excellent opportunity for pupils to reflect and absorb upon their learning. They provide a platform for powerful reinforcement, and to nurture further understanding… and for teachers to gain insight into pupils thought processes.
Used either after a lesson, or at the end of the school day, sketchbooks can give pupils the opportunity:
to quieten and reflect upon their days learning
to recall their new knowledge in ways which suits them – i.e. visually through drawing or doodling, through writing or through notemaking (words which are not forced into sentences)
to encourage enquiring minds, and to emcourage pupils to check their own understanding
to identify areas of personal interest, or areas which pupils would like further information/clarification about
For the teacher:
the opportunity to gain insight into pupils understanding.
To encourage post-learning reflection:
Use sketchbooks at the end of a lesson, or the end of a day
Invite pupils to externalise their thoughts about either the preceding lesson, or day. The way a pupil chooses to externalise should be left to them (i.e. through words, through images, through colour…), so that they can express their understanding in whichever medium suits them. As the pupils understanding of how one can work in sketchbooks grows, their choices will become more intuitive.
After an allocated time, invite pupils to extend their sketchbook work by considering any areas of particular interest to them…
Again after an allocated time, invite pupils to consider areas of the days lesson which they still feel uncertain about.
Think about how best to share this sketchbook knowledge/insight between pupil and teacher.
Please share your thoughts and experiences below.
My pupils love to work in their “thinking books” for the last twenty minutes or so of the day. They take to their books with glee and settle down right away, sometimes to complete tasks set by me previously, sometimes to begin or finish work of their own choosing and creation. Working in the thinking book has become a kind of meditation for them. They work intently, sometimes fiercely so, sharing what they are doing with each other and with me as the classroom fills with that most beautiful of sounds: the quiet hum of children fully engaged in their own thinking, learning, and doing.