Teaching K-8 students to visualize what they are reading and to create graphic symbols helps them develop as readers. Doodle Splash interactive combines the process of drawing with analytical thinking about a text by pairing an online drawing space with writing prompts that encourage students to make connections between their visual designs and the text. The tool can be used for whole-class discussion of a short story (or part of a novel), small-group work, or individually, where students use doodles, symbols, drawings, shapes, and colors to construct a graphic of their story or chapter. After completing their individual or group images, students have the ability to print out their final versions for feedback and assessment.

Visit this interactive tool at: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/doodle/.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

3, 2, 1...Blast Off! Vocabulary Instruction Using a Virtual Trip to the Moon (K-2)
Capture the qualities of field-trip learning in the classroom. Working independently and in groups students learn vocabulary about the moon; however, the activities can be applied to any content area topic.

A Race With Grace: Sports Poetry in Motion (3-5)
Sports are not the only way for students to play! In this lesson, athletics, aesthetics, and poetry writing intersect in new ways as developing literacy learners experiment together with the forms of language.

Artistic Elements: Exploring Art Through Descriptive Writing (3-5)
In this lesson, students become engaged in the studies of both art and written language, as they create descriptive writing pieces in which adjectives are used to describe the artistic elements present within a work.

Doodle Splash: Using Graphics to Discuss Literature (6-8)
Taking advantage of students’ natural tendency to doodle, students keep a doodle journal while reading short stories by a common author. In small groups, students combine their doodles into a graphic representation of the text that they present to the class while discussing their story. Students also do individual graphics and, ultimately, write group essays analyzing the author’s themes.

Investigating the Holocaust: A Collaborative Inquiry Project (6-8)
As students progress though this inquiry project, they explore a variety of resources—texts, images, sounds, photos, and other artifacts—as they learn about the Holocaust. Working collaboratively, they investigate the materials, prepare response to share orally with the class, and produce a topic-based newspaper to complete their research.

Let's Talk About Stories: Shared Discussion With Amazing Grace (K-2)
Make space for critical literacy in your classroom and engage your students in meaningful and thoughtful discussions. This lesson uses Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, as an example, to dig deep into themes such as prejudice, courage, and self-confidence.

Literature Circle Roles Reframed: Reading as a Film Crew (6-8)
Capture students’ enthusiasm for film and transfer it to reading and literature by substituting film production roles for the traditional literature circle roles.

Storytelling in the Social Studies Classroom (3-5)
This lesson invites third- to fifth-grade students to explore their personal and cultural histories by becoming super storytellers! Students begin by telling personal stories about themselves and their families before moving on to stories about famous Americans.

Using Picture Books to Explore Identity, Stereotyping, and Discrimination (6-8)
This lesson exposes students in sixth through eighth grade to picture books, which, although intended for younger readers, contain complex stories that explore the meaning of identity, stereotypes, and discrimination. Students discuss the books, practice summarizing them, and compare them before discussing what they can do to fight discrimination.