Dr. Richard Mayer from U.C. Santa Barbara and a proponent of multimedia learning believes it is more effective to explain concepts using multiple methods of sensory inputs— auditory, visual and kinesthetic.

credit: David Burnett 

credit: Eddie Adams

Pictures are processed in several channels, which gives the brain a more deeper and meaningful encoding experience. According to Allan Paivio of the University of Western Ontario, pictures are more richly stamped in our brains and are easier to recall than words.

Exercises

You can use these exercises as part of a daily activity or assign them as homework:

• Fill a page
  • Sketch different shapes of different sizes
  • Sketch different arrows of sizes, styles and intentions
  • Sketch alphabets in different sizes and styles
  • Sketch different styles of lines
• Playful
  • Create imagery for 7 things you see
  • Look for objects, sketch them and fill them with related words
  • Opena a book to a random page, find a random word and sketch that word
  • Create your own weather icons
  • Create a street sign with a law you wish existed
    
    Sign by Jay Shells
• Purposeful
  • Watch a TED talk of your choice and sketch it out
  • Sketch out a chapter of a fiction book
  • Sketch out a chapter of a nonfiction book
  • Find a topic. write down subtopics on index cards. Organize the cards and sketch out the big picture
  • Pick a topic that you are interested in, research it, sketch out a timeline of key events
  • Find a problem. Identify the stakeholders, their interests and their motivations. Sketch their relationships and try to come up with a potential solution.
• Personal
  • Sketch out your ideal day
  • Sketch out an event that changed your thinking
  • Sketch out six things that happened yesterday
  • Sketch a goal and the barriers that exist that prevent you from reaching it. Also sketch how you will get around these barriers.
  • Sketch out a space that you occupy and how you us
  • Sketch out a diagram of your interests
  • Next time you are about to text someone, sketch it instead and send the image
• Mapping
  • Sketch out an image for five different professions
  • Storyboard a personal narrative
  • Sketch out a story
  • Sketch out a movie
  • Select a sport or activity and sketch stick figures of all the body positions required for that practice
  • Map your path to school: include only the essentials
  • Sketch an idiomatic expression using type in an illustrative way