Draw and Tell

Would insight into how your students think be helpful?

Would a simple classroom teaching tool for virtually any subject be useful?

How about the freedom to make that tool your own?

The Draw and Tell Method Classroom Workbook could be the difference maker.

Great teaching has a new place to happen.

It's in this purple book.

You can open windows into students' thinking with these pages. Gain insight into how they learn, how they solve problems, and how they express themselves.

How you use those insights is up to you.

With its alternating blank-page, lined-page layout, this workbook gives students a place to

Explore ideas visually

Develop ideas intellectually

Organize thoughts in writing

Prepare mentally for meaningful discussion

Discussion can happen anytime you feel it best serves the lesson -- in one-on-one sessions, small-group, or whole-class settings.

Always teachers' choice.

The Draw and Tell Method Classroom Workbook becomes the student's personal think-lab...

Drawing reveals thought.

Writing organizes thought.

Discussion deepens understanding.

The Draw and Tell Method is easy to implement and easy to make your own.

A workbook designed to complement your teaching style -- not change it.

You can adapt the method to work for you, your students and your subjects.

There are no student-directed instructions in the workbook.

This is your classroom.

Here's an example:

You begin with a prompt, question, observation, or assignment.

The student responds by drawing or marking on the blank page, then writing by hand on the adjacent lined page.

Discussion follows whenever you feel the time is right.

How you use the method is entirely up to you.

Questions?

Let's answer a few.

Q: Is this another art book? Do my students need artistic ability?

A: No. Not unless you choose to use it that way.

The Draw and Tell Method Classroom Workbook is designed to help students think visually. The goal is not to produce artwork. It's to make thinking visible.

Drawing can be as simple as stick figures, circles, shapes, arrows, connected lines, or any mark that helps articulate a thought before writing about it.

Q: Will this change the way I teach?

A: It doesn't have to. It can only improve outcomes.

The advantage lies in all the ways you can make Draw and Tell your own. The method and workbook are not here to interrupt the way you teach. They're here to complement what you already do well, and to reinforce your objectives.

Q: Does this method require a computer or any other digital technology?

A: Absolutely not. One pencil, one workbook, one student, one teacher -- and a prompt. That's all you need to get started. No device required.

No login, no username, no password, no charging, no software, no Wi-Fi... no screen between the teacher and the student -- which makes Draw and Tell portable. Meaning the classroom can go where you decide to take it.

Always teachers' choice.

Q: Does this work with the curriculum I already use?

A: It certainly can, if you choose.

The Draw and Tell Method Classroom Workbook can be used entirely on its own or alongside textbooks, videos, and online learning platforms. A lesson or practice exercise can become your prompt. Students can then use the blank page to represent what they understand and the lined page to explain their thinking. You don't have to change or work around your existing curriculum to make room for Draw and Tell.

Q: How am I supposed to grade something like this?

A: You don't have to.

Draw and Tell is not a grade-centered activity -- unless you want it to be one. The value is seeing how the student approaches your prompt, what they notice and what they don't -- and how they express their thinking. That's the tell.

The draw can be anything. The tell can be everything.

Q: Will I be making more work for myself?

A: Draw and Tell is meant to work with you, not add to your workload.

You don't need a Draw and Tell schedule -- unless you want one. You can use this every day, once per week, once per month -- or only when a situation calls for it.

There is no complicated learning curve, however you may enjoy the discovery curve -- finding new ways to use Draw and Tell, and new ways to see how your students think.

Use it when and where it best serves you and your students.