Doodling to Focus
Tags
Skills
Doodling to Focus
If your student struggles to focus or is very anxious and you are confident they won't misuse the approach
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Objective: Doodling will help a student sustain focus for key information or relieve some anxiety. -
Considerations: Only use this strategy with students who have the maturity to know how to use it to help them pay attention and not allow it to be a further distraction. It will take experimentation and self-awareness to know if doodling helps with focus or takes away.
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Direct Instruction: For students you think might benefit, explain how doodling might help and offer pointers. a) Doodling can help you use excess energy so your mind does not wander off while the teacher is speaking. In other words, doodling takes up just enough of your focus so that your mind does not move to an entirely different topic from what is going on in class. b) Doodling is not drawing. Doodling is random line movements, shapes or patterns, not drawing a picture that requires focus on details that would take your mind off what the teacher is saying. c) Keep your doodles in the margins so that they do not interfere with the legibility of your notes. d) Consider extending doodling to visual note taking.