Quick Draw

Quick Draw is a student participation strategy.

Steps:

  1. Select a "big idea" or major concept within your lesson.
  2. Ask students to reflect on the meaning of the concept and create a visual image that represents that concept (allow approximately three to five minutes).
  3. Have students share and explain their image with a partner, in a small group, or in a Chalkboard Splash.

Discussion:

Excerpted from: Himmele, PĂ©rsida; Himmele, William (2011-07-21). Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

Quick-Draws (Himmele & Himmele, 2009) are opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding of an abstract term or concept by representing it in a drawing. This TPT can be used with almost any age group, from young children through adults. Quick-Draws can be used in any content area, not only for vocabulary concepts like renewable resource, but also for abstract concepts like sustainability. We even use Quick-Draws in our university classes to ensure that students are able to understand and deeply analyze concepts. We are always amazed at the depth and the variety of images that students create as a result of having to analyze and represent abstract concepts in a drawing.

Ensuring Higher Order Thinking: The thinking processes that occur when you ask students to demonstrate an abstract concept in the form of a drawing lend themselves to the analysis of the different components that make up the meaning of the concept, as well as to the synthesis of these components into a visual representation.

After students create their drawings, give them an opportunity to share and explain the reasons they chose their particular visual to represent the concept.

The example below is Bram's Quick-Draw depiction of the term vulnerability, a major theme from Meghan Babcock and Keely Potter's unit on symbolism. In Bram's analysis, he explained that "the Death Star [in Star Wars] without the armor is vulnerable. But with the armor, it is not vulnerable." According to 6th grader Hannah, "What helped me out the most was the drawing and writing time [Quick-Draws with accompanying analyses] because it really made me think about the situation."