Lesson 01

Building Blocks

ALLAYING FEARS: GROUP DISCUSSION

Its never easy to start drawing if you havent done so in a while or letting others see your work. Many
give up drawing after elementary school because they feel too self-conscious about showing their work to
anyone (let alone a group of people). Work at allaying their fears about drawing. Remember, its
something we were doing from our most early months through elementary school without giving it a
second thought!

Begin by asking students to list all the difficulties involved in writing one's own ideas on paper, or the problems of
recording the ideas of others during lectures or meetings. The group will probably generate ideas such as the
following common problems:
it's hard to begin, so I postpone writing papers until the last minutes
It's difficult to think of ideas in the right order
the process is often painfully slow and boring
It's hard to begin with a sense of the whole
It's difficult to listen and record ideas at the same time
My notes don't help me remember the material
There is no way to fit in new ideas where they belong in the notes
[exercise adapted from: Margulies, Nancy, with Mall, Nusa. Mapping Inner Space: Learning and Teaching Visual Mind Mapping.
2nd Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2002. Print.]

BASIC SHAPES AND COMBINATIONS

Brainstorm

Take each basic shape and brainstorm all the places you see it, meanings associated with it, phrases, songs, and
colloquialisms (e.g. missing the point). All of these provide hints of meaning. Create a map of your associations,
and use variations of the symbols to illustrate each concept. If you can do this in a group, it's fun to get everyone's
associations and input. After you have gotten out that first flush of ideas, step back and look for the symbolic
meaninga few key associations that you have for each shape.
[exercise from: Sonneman, Milly R. Beyond Words: A Guide to Drawing Out Ideas. New York: Crown Publishing. 1997. Print.]

YOUR FACEBOOK CONTACTS

Clusters

For yourself, map out an upcoming speech, presentation, or training in a cluster format. Get comfortable with the
freedom of working on a big paper and mapping information spatially rather than in lists. At first put information
that seems related in the same area of the page. As you see sub-points, place them around the main point radially,
like numbers on a clock. Then begin to look for patterns and connections. When you find links, draw large arrows
encapsulating or showing the relationship of information.
[exercise from: Sonneman, Milly R. Beyond Words: A Guide to Drawing Out Ideas. New York: Crown Publishing. 1997. Print.]

Symbols 1.0
What could each of these symbols
represent? Think of as many ideas as
you can for each symbol.

[exercise from: Marguilies, Nancy, and Valenza, ChrisUne. Visual Thinking: Tools for Mapping Your Ideas. Bethel, CT: Crown
House Publishign Co. LLC, 2005. Print.]

Match Symbols
Match the Following terms to the appropriate symbols from the images show below.
Bell Telephone logo ________
Poison ________
United States of America ________
Stop your car ________
Slow ________
Fast ________
Look to the right ________
Remove ________
Half full ________
So not feed the bears ________
Locked/unlocked ________
Dollars ________
Make ________
Female ________
North ________
Ancient Indian Symbol ________
Clockwise ________
Sign Language ________
A hobos symbol meaning kind lady lives here ________
Fire Prevention ________
Sixteenth note ________
Ranger station ________
Resistor ________
[exercise from: Hanks, Kurt, and Belliiston, Larry. Rapid Viz: A New Method for the Rapid VisualizaUon of Ideas. 3rd Ed. Boston,
MA: Course Technology. 2008. Print.]

FINAL PROJECT
Option 1:
Developed the poster over the course of the lessons
1.

Brainstorm poster ideas

2.

Develop Lettering

3.

Adding Figures, faces, and emotion

4.

Adding Colors; using mapping techniques

5.

After the four lessons are complete, the student then submits the poster

Option 2:
Have the student create a single poster using the topic learned (combining with what's been learned) for each of
the four sections with different goals/subjects for each poster (ending up with 4 posters to submit)

Poster
Make a poster for an upcoming class or
presentation. Make one for your desk, home,
or refrigerator. Use the examples below for
you welcome poster or theme reinforcer, topic
heading, or process reminder. Work quickly
and with large graphics so that you can get
comfortable with creating posters live.
Include in your poster: a focal point; an arrow
or eyes, hands, or other object that points to
the focal point; something that goes outside
the frame; a frame; minimal words with some
highlighting of the words through outlining or
interesting calligraphy or color. Draw whatever is most in front first, so that you can draw the border around the
object. Success in a poster is ONE undeniable and memorable message that comes across for the viewer.
Play with borders for posters and then use these for any other charts, Draw twelve to twenty boxes and create
borders with lines, squiggles, or shapes so that you have several borders you can repeat quickly. Also consider
framing with objects to look like a window, picture frame, theatre, stage or wooden border. Depict oversize thumb
tracks, nails, taped paper, paper clips and old-fashioned photograph borders to add variety for poster design.
[exercise from: Sonneman, Milly R. Beyond Words: A Guide to Drawing Out Ideas. New York: Crown Publishing. 1997. Print.]

Handouts

Print out the following pages for the students' visual toolbox

[with permission from: Marguilies, Nancy, and Valenza, ChrisUne. Visual Thinking: Tools for Mapping Your Ideas. Bethel, CT:
Crown House Publishign Co. LLC, 2005. Print.]

[with permission from: Marguilies, Nancy, and Valenza, ChrisUne. Visual Thinking: Tools for Mapping Your Ideas. Bethel, CT:
Crown House Publishign Co. LLC, 2005. Print.]