"Drawing to Learn" as a Component of "Writing to Learn"

There IS a difference between learning to write and writing to learn.  Writing to learn includes a multitude of opportunities where teachers intentionally pause and engage students in low stakes writing practices so students can think critically, clarify ideas, capture big ideas, and transfer thinking down on paper. (In a digital world, the process of blogging is connected to writing to learn.) To learn more, read another blog post of mine on the core ideas of writing to learn.

This brings me to the focus of this post; is drawing to learn a component of writing to learn? Yes! Absolutely! Most definitely!  Let me explain...if the practice of using writing to learn is focused on its purpose, then surely drawing can serve the exact same purpose. Drawing can be used so students capture the big ideas. Drawing can be used so students transfer thinking down on paper. Drawing can be used to think critically. In fact, using drawing may be a greater benefit to students who are more visual. (Personally speaking, I AM a visual learner. It DRIVES ME CRAZY when I can't explain my ideas through drawing or a graphic organizer.)

When I reflect on this graphic, it reminds me that teachers can always use brief writing and drawing experiences to support thinking. These experiences are intentionally designed so students are able to to express their ideas without feeling like the writing is a formal, published piece of writing. Don't get me wrong...we want students to express their ideas with clarity - we want students to use academic vocabulary - we want writing to have a sense of organization...but we must be cautious to ask for products that involve planning, revising, editing, and publishing. Writing is NOT always the writing process, writing is frequently connected to the thinking process. You might think of the difference as "high stakes writing" and "low stakes writing."   (In addition, writing to learn provides the perfect pathway for students apply critical thinking skills of analyzing, comparing/contrasting, summarizing, synthesizing, etc. Here's a comprehensive list of critical thinking skills.)

Writing to learn is about communicating ideas informally in multiple ways. While words can communicate ideas, so can drawings. In "education speak," we often think of drawings (and graphic organizers such as Thinking Maps) as being included in the general group of nonlinguistic representations. We can encourage students to think abstractly and in different ways as they step out of their comfort zone to demonstrate ideas in drawings. Now that you're with me, take a peek at this video on Why Nonlinguistic Representations Are Important.

So, how might you use drawing as a way of supporting student thinking? Here are some potential ways.

• When young readers employ the strategy of visualization, we might ask students to draw what they are visualizing.
• When young historians learn about an event in history, we might ask students to capture the event in a drawing and write a few sentences to describe the event.
• When young scientists are learning about chemical reactions, we might ask students to draw the chemical reaction and use words to describe what's happening in the drawing.
• When we ask students to "take notes," we're asking students to capture the big ideas and supporting details. We might ask students to include simple drawings with each big idea. 
• When young geographers gather data about a physical region, we might ask them to draw a picture that shows how a particular element of the physical region would impact people.
• When young mathematicians are working through a problem, we might ask them to draw the problem as a tool to think about the problem solving process. 

To learn more, access some of these links.

• The Power of Student Created Visuals (Blog Posting)
• Drawing to Learn (Learning Sciences Research Institute)
• Representing Knowledge Non-linguistically (ASCD)
• Silvia Rosenthal's archived blog posts on Using Sketchnoting in Learning
• Brain Rules: Vision (and Effective Visuals) Trumps All the Other Senses

Critical Thinking and the Development of Disciplined Minds

One of the most difficult things is escaping tradition.  In education, we have strong traditions influenced by our past...one of those involves memorizing information to regurgitate it on a test.  While developing factual content knowledge is still a significant component of student learning, there is SOOOOOO much more to a 21st century education.

In the 2008 ASCD edition of Educational Leadership, this notion is challenged in an article on Disciplining the Mind.  

Students need more than a large information base to understand their ever-changing world. They need to master disciplinary thinking. 

(Source: Boix Mansilla, Veronica, and Howard Gardner. "Disciplining the Mind." Educational Leadership. 65.5 (2008): 14-19. Print. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb08/vol65/num05/Disciplining-the-Mind.asp&xgt)

But, what is disciplinary thinking? Disciplinary thinking is directly connected to the fundamental shift in how we look at our role as educators in the 21st century. Shift happens...and shift MUST happen if we are to prepare students for their future (and NOT our past).

• We don't teach students writing, we teach them to be writers.
• We don't teach students reading, we teach them to be readers.
• We don't teach students art, we teach them to be artists.
• We don't teach students music, we teach them to be musicians.
• We don't teach students science, we teach them to be scientists (biologists, physicists, chemists).  
• We don't teach students social studies, we teach them to be social scientists (historians, geographers, economists, and informed/engaged citizens).

As educators, when we embrace this shift, then we start to utilize instructional practice that teaches students to have disciplined, engaged minds. This is precisely what it means for students to practice the 21st century skill of CRITICAL THINKING and REASONING.

The first part of developing the disciplined mind involves incorporating the most common cross-content critical thinking skills and strategies in EVERY content area.  While our tradition might involve learning and practicing these skills and strategies as part of reading instruction, they are crucial to the thinking that takes place as students engage with information and resources in EVERY content area.  Students must transfer and reapply these skills all the time. (To remind yourself about cross-content critical thinking skills and strategies, take a gander at this list.) The image you see shows thinking skills at the top and shows how those skills are transferred and reapplied every day in every content area.

The second part of developing a disciplined mind involves looking at skills, or what students should be able to do.  Today, teachers are engaging with planning documents that consistently call out skills, or what students should be able to do.  As educators, we must challenge ourselves to look at these goals and ask ourselves, "How do these skills ask students to think like the practitioners of these disciplines?"  To build your thinking about disciplinary thinking, check out this collection of quotes that I gathered. In the image below, you see how cross-content skills are transferred and reapplied in every content area. It also shows how students apply discipline-specific thinking. This is the type of thinking that takes place within a particular content. For example, how does a geographer think? How does an economist think? How does an astronomer think? If we are to bring education into the 21st century, we must USE knowledge and resources to help students THINK like PRACTITiONERS of a DISCIPLINE.

It's easy to hold on to traditions, especially the tradition of knowing as much information as possible. I challenge you to let go of that tradition, and embrace instruction that highlights THINKING.  When you do, you'll begin to see the thinking minds of students like never before.  When we (as educators) open our minds to new ways of thinking and new ways of approaching our work, our students and the larger society are the ones who benefit.  WE ALL BENEFIT!