Lesson: Sketchnoting The Cold War & An Introduction To Audience Awareness

Recently I was overjoyed to share with my students a mutual affection for sketchnotes and Soviet era art and propaganda. I should preface this post by sharing that once upon a time, I felt the wrath of a a handful teachers growing frustrated with my unorthodox style of note taking... 

I'm not claiming that kids like me were persecuted for busting-out the multi-colored pens to take notes, draw pictures and charts, and jazz-up an extra few sheets of wide-rule filler-paper. We were just misunderstood... And, what we once referred to as doodling in our notebooks has now found legitimacy in today's classroom: Awesome Possum! 

A student's sketchnote of Churchill's "Iron Curtain Speech".

I like to read speeches aloud--they are meant to be savored by the ear. I really like coupling this delivery method with the processing that sketchnotes afford. Think about it: the act of slowing down to incorporate both words and images helps students to personalize the lesson and make the take-away a very unique experience for every learner in the classroom. 

The materials for this lesson came from the unit "Cold War Culture" via Stanford History Education Group's Reading Like a Historian series. I will dedicate a future post to singing their praises--the resources are spectacular.

Above, we used an excerpt from Churchill's speech. The full text is available online--just register for a free account on the Stanford History Education Group's site. The readings come with accompanying guides, too. I incorporated the questions from the guides and used them to supplement class discussion. 

I especially liked the way that the questions prepared by SHEG focused upon audience-awareness. This is a sophisticated step for students to make--the jump from "What is Churchill saying?" to "Why is he saying it this way?" or "Why is Churchill addressing an American audience in the first place?"

The benefit of introducing a sophisticated notion such as audience awareness in tandem with a seemingly juvenile technique as sketchnoting is that the student drawn images can help to articulate this difficult concept--that the substance of a speech is only part of the equation... It's the audience's ability to receive that message that is telling.

A thoughtful illustration can bring that concept to light in a way that a developing writers' voice is still sounding-out.

To complete the analysis, I created a Google Doc note taking sheet... Because sketchnoting all four primary sources would be just too much of a good thing.

The sheet above is appropriate for individual efforts and collaborative endeavors, as with all GAFE resources. If you plan to have your students work in cooperative learning groups, dividing the readings is a must:
-Documents A & B suggest that the Soviets are primarily responsible for starting the Cold War
-Documents C & D suggest that the US shoulders the burden for starting the Cold War


Hope you check out both sketchnotes & Stanford History Education Group's resources!

-Jennifer Sylves Lanas

Note:
In hindsight, my doodles were not taboo in every single subject when I was in school. I recall making a cartoon series in high school starring my AP Bio teacher as a studio wrestler our entire class named "The (protein) Inhibitor, and his collection of side-kicks from the lab--including a cameo appearance by the fabled Three Little Pigs... And who could forget the comics I drew and posted in the Saint Vincent College Philosophy Tutor's office--Philososaurus Rex...

Lesson: Be kind to those students who color outside the lines.
You might end up reading their blog one day...