Sketchnotes in the Classroom

Why Sketchnotes Belong in Secondary and Higher Education

Lectures, dense texts, and tight schedules strain memory. Sketchnotes mix words, structure, and simple visuals. The brain forms more links, so recall rises. A University of Waterloo study found drawing beat writing for recall. Sketchnotes fit high school and college.

How can teachers and educators use Sketchnotes

Plan the lesson with visuals

• Start with drawing one visual per idea
• Map lesson flow as a sketchnote, key questions, vocabulary, and transitions.
• Sketch some common charts for recurring concepts. Give the unit’s big picture on day one.
• Build discussion prompts as storyboards, support seminars and lab brefings.

Teaching with sketchnotes

• Try a two minute warm up. Annotate a short passage together.
• Sketchnote mini lectures on a document camera or tablet.
• Groups can summarize labs, case studies, or timelines into a note.

Check visual understanding

• Offer sketchnoting for quick writes, or unit summaries. This helps multilingual learners.
• Suggest students to submit digital sketchnotes alongside essays. Give feedback on structure, order/flow, and emphasis.

How Students Can Make Sketchnotes Work

Prepare before class

• Preview readings. Sketch key terms, questions, and prior knowledge. Lectures will feel more familiar.
• Build page templates with a title area, columns, and connectors. Use a notebook or tablet. Reduce decisions during class.

Capture lectures and discussions

• When taking notes, maintain the order of the lecture so you can make a story for it
• Keep the notes short with just one phrase for each idea.

Add notes

• After the class, add some clarifying notes. Mark gaps. Link related concepts across pages.
• Turn group projects into shared sketchnote boards. Align scope before you build slides or essays.
• Photograph paper sketchnotes into a digital archive. Tag and search by unit or exam.

Student Tip: Practice ten common icons, people, arrows, lightbulb, clock, book, globe, gears, question mark, graph, chat bubble. These cover most classroom scenarios and keep you moving during lectures.

High School vs. College Considerations

• In high school, use weekly sketchnote routines. Monday concept maps, midweek labs, Friday reflections. Build habits.
• In college, start seminars with five minute visual warm ups. End with synthesis overviews that prepare students for research papers.
• For STEM labs, alternate between quick process diagrams and annotated data plots. Show procedure and outcome.
• World History example. Monday concept map on trade routes. Midweek source study. Friday short reflection.

Use AI Support

Sketchnote.app speeds up your workflow when you need ready made visuals.

• Upload lesson outlines or reading summaries. Generate draft sketchnotes to project or share as scaffolds.
• Turn raw lecture notes into polished review sheets for office hours or study groups.
• Give students AI generated layouts as guides. Ask them to iterate by hand to personalize learning.
• Paste a unit outline on acids and bases. Get a draft layout with annotations.

Make your classroom visuals today

Sketchnoting focuses on organizing ideas in an open canvas, not creating an art piece. Model the technique. Ask students to practice with purpose. You will see more participation. Multilingual learners stay engaged. Study sessions get shorter and more effective. Use visual thinking in ninth grade biology and in capstone seminars.