Cartoon Doodle Mats

This past week I took a simple concept and it evolved into something I now plan on using weekly.  I subscribe to a magazine called The Week ( www.theweek.com ) and it contains a center piece of political cartoons.  Everyone who knows me or has browsed my site knows I love discussing political cartoons with my students.  They can be an excellent tool for discussing current events. 

I often copy these cartoons and hand them out to my students.  This last time, the copier was set on the “legal” paper mode.  The large copies I now had in my possession reminded me of cheap placemat settings at a restaurant that also serve as something to “doodle” on (especially for kids).  When I passed them out to my class they thought that was funny and asked if they could “doodle” while I was talking.  I figured it didn’t harm anything so I said go ahead.  For what it’s worth, I found some research ( http://news.softpedia.com/news/Doodling-May-Be-Good-for-the-Memory-105581.shtml ) from the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology that states a 29% recall rate for people that doodled compared to people that just listened. 

Regardless of the research, my students enjoyed it and listened to me at the same time.  The best part is that some of them actually took them to the cafeteria to use as placemats!!!!!!!

I will now use this method each time I pass out political cartoons (usually weekly).  For teachers that don’t use current events, you could copy any topic, picture, theme, etc. and pass it out.  It just may work!

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Be sure to check out the “idea of the week” at www.energizetheclassroom.com .

It provides more political cartoon websites.

-Paul Richmond

 E.T.C.