I've noticed in my own classroom that students love to draw. They'll doodle while listening, and that's fine with me. I enjoy watching students have fun. I heard the term "SmashDoodle" from a very smart Spanish teacher, Karen Rowan, not too long ago.
It's a way for students to show in pictures and words that they understand the lesson (unit, theme, etc.) I used this idea in my Spanish class as we read Comprehensible Input (CI) novels together. Students would listen, translate, discuss as we went along, then they drew the main points and added words as needed. I discovered that many of my students are talented artists. Music adds to the atmosphere as they draw. This week I played Celia Cruz singing Guantanamera and Gloria Estefan with Mi Tierra since my students were illustrating what they'd learned about Cuba.
