Les notes visuelles/ Sketchnoting in FSL Part 2

As a sort-of bridging unit, my class and I learned a bit about the value of sketchnoting, and how to start the process.  As a class, we found out that sketchnoting is counter to the notetaking we've been taught for most of our education, so we have to learn step-by-step about creating visual notes.

We looked at the major themes in sketchnoting: 5 elements of drawing (les 5 éléments), creating personalized icons (les îcones), containers (les cases), people (les personnes), and structure (la structure). For each section, we had a brief lesson and then a lot of practice using some of the worksheets I created.

 Here's an example of the worksheet we used to create our personal icons.  What we learned is that sketchnoting is about replacing some parts of our written language with a more visual one.  In order to be successful at that, you need to have a visual vocabulary ready so that those substitutions can happen almost automatically.

To get us started, we created a visual vocabulary for the words and ideas we thought we would use most often.  the goal was to make these icons simple and memorable so that when we heard these specific words, we would recall our icons and use them instead of the words.

To help my students understand what an icon is, and why we would use them, I created a short video for the students to watch about "Les îcones":


Our final activity looked at structure.  I think that this is the most difficult part of sketchnoting.  In order to choose a structure, one has to recognize the patterns in the speakers presentation.  To keep things simple, I taught my students about 7 structures that one can use for any sketchnote without recognizing the structure of the presentation.  For this acticity, students had to either retell their day, or choose a story and retell it through a sketchnote.  Here is the example I made:

 

Students were to use all of the elements of sketchnoting that we learned.   Now that we have moved onto researching about La Francophonie, my students are using sketchnoting to record some of the information they find.  The sidebar we took to explore sketchnoting has been really helpful to my students.  I even use it more in my personal notetaking and found it helps me tackle difficult concepts.  If you are interested in using some of the worksheets I have made, help yourself!

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Click on the links below to go to a downloadable PDF of each worksheet:


5 éléments worksheet

Les îcones worksheet

Les cases worksheet

Les personnes worksheet

La structure worksheet