One of the things I’ve found really helpful to introduce sketchnoting and visual noting taking into my own teaching, is to look at different fantastic books around using visuals for learning and effective communication. After all, communicating and aiding learning are vital tasks that we do as teachers everyday. These great sketchnoting books can help stimulate your thinking and provide you with new ideas for how you can implement visual effectively in your teaching.
Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde
The first book on Sketchnoting is from Mike Rohde, the man who invented (or came up with the term) sketchnoting. In this book, Mike introduces the concept of sketchnoting, why you should Sketchnote, different elements in sketchnotes and he covers some basic techniques that will aid your sketchnoting.
Sketchnote Workbook by Mike Rohde
Personally I feel this book is even better than the handbook as it covers practical assignments to start experimenting with sketchnoting in different areas of your life. This will help you discover different tools and design ideas to use in your sketchnotes as well as see examples of sketchnotes and get you practicing your chops as well!
Visual Notetaking for Teachers
This book is targeted towards general education teachers in America. It includes a lot about how the brain works and how using doodling can help. The writer mentions about teaching English in a “second language context” (people living in a country where English is spoken) and towards the end of the book there are some practical ideas of how to implement sketching in your classrooms.
It’s a good book but it’s not a definitive guide for how to implement these ideas in your own context
Sketchnotes for Educators
This books is by Sylvia Duckworth whom has become quite famous for her sketchnotes around education principles. If you’ve seen someone share a sketchnote about education online, it’s probably one of hers. In this book, there is a collection of her 100 most popular sketchnotes that you can use, share and adapt as well as links to online versions.
The Doodle Revolution
This books isn’t strictly about sketchnoting but it is about using visuals and drawing to aid in thinking. This is certainly targeted more towards adults and business settings, but there is some useful information on how using visuals can be an aid in “non visual tasks”
What Other Great Sketchnoting Books do you Know?
This isn’t a definitive list, there are many more books on sketchnoting, visual notetaking, and graphical facilitating, mostly looking at things from a business perspective, but these are a great starting point.
Do you know of any other great sketchnoting books?
P.s. Check out this list of great analogue sketchnoting tools
Hope you don’t mind, but can I plug my own book for this list, Presto Sketching? http://prestosketching.com. It’s got a fair bit in there about sketchnoting, but takes it further with tips and ideas about storyboarding, conceptual modelling, and using metaphor to explore and explain topics. I’ve had some great feedback from teachers here in Australia about it, plus it has a number of interviews about how people use sketching in various ways, including a secondary school teacher.
It’s probably more suited to secondary school age… as well as adults, of course. 🙂
Hey Ben, nice to see you here. I accepted your comment but haven’t added your book to the post yet as every item is one I have read and can vouch for. I’m looking to get a copy of presto sketching so I can add it as I’ve heard only good things.
Thanks again for the recommendation and good luck with the new book. I’ve already pre-ordered.
Hi Chris, thank you very much for including my first book, “Sketchnotes for Educators”. Please note that the Amazon link has changed since I have a new publisher. It’s now: https://www.amazon.com/Sketchnotes-Educators-Inspiring-Illustrations-Lifelong/dp/1733646884/ (much less expensive than the old link!). Also, would you mind adding a link to my new book? “How to Sketchnote: A Step-by-Step Manual for Teachers and Students”: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1733646868
Thanks very much, love your website!
Hi Slyvia, thanks for letting me know about the updated link. I’ll update your book link straight away. I had tried to avoid recommending books I hadn’t read but now I’m thinking of adding a section with recommended books that I haven’t had the chance to properly review yet. I can add your new book there.