Of course, all vocabulary was thematic to the course, so it was an anticipatory set of words (and interactive). Here's a drawing of 'adolescence' as the course is a content literacy course for teaching reading 6h- 12th grade. This, a nonchalant, spur-of-the-moment drawing from a student who happened to get this word. Granted, I've had this student in another class and I know that she is an artist/poet by nature, but I had to stop and say, "Okay. this is just a doodle."
I want to write about that...just a doodle. Others drew stick figures, and suns, and caveman drawings, and they moved the literacy forward, but I am thinking about this drawing....why are we not encouraging all young people to similarly sketch their existence?
I know. I taught at the Brown in Louisville, Kentucky, and I became used to the creative, artistic, and outside the box thinkers. I am just wondering, why isn't this the standard for what we want from students in schools and from the teachers who teach them? Visual literacy is literacy (and, yes, I'm a text-heavy kind of guy).
It was a five-minute activity and this is what a student sketched. There's a reason for this. I need to know more. How? What lessons? Why can you do this in a matter of seconds? Why can't everyone in this class do this in a similar amount of time?
Ah, but, there was a purpose for the activity. I had students take four words from the word list provided, after definitions, sentences, and drawings, to write sentences that provide knowledge of word-meaning, by writing with context for the words.
Context. Visualization. Creativity. Word-Play. This is the way language is taught. Vocabulary is central. Shared definitions build community. We all should apply any and all students who can do such doodling in a matter of seconds. It's beautiful, and it should be the norm (if our schools promoted and celebrated it).
And we're off. Spring '5 academic calendar has begun.
