A study by researchers Myra Fernandes, Jeffrey Wammes and Melissa Meade at the University of Waterloo proposes that drawing “improves memory by promoting the integration of elaborative, pictorial and motor codes, facilitating creation of a context-rich representation” of ideas learned. Put simply, drawing an idea helps someone remember it.
Drawing can be better than activities such as reading or writing in this regard because it forces a person to process information in multiple ways: visually, kinaesthetically and semantically. Across a series of experiments, the researchers found drawing information was a powerful way to boost memory, and that it ultimately increased recall by nearly double.
Drawing is active, instead of passive. Students drawing an idea are engaging with it more directly than if they were simply writing down what someone else had told them about it. To draw something, they must elaborate on its meaning to them – engaging rather than just repeating.
CARS & STARS Online is a digital reading program designed to turn every student into a proficient and capable reader, with advanced levels of reading comprehension. The core reading strategies that underpin the entirety of the CARS & STARS Online digital reading comprehension program form an underlying instructional framework that recurs throughout every level and provides consistency of understanding and instruction for students and teachers alike.
CARS & STARS Online includes a feature called Drawing Canvas that is available as standard with every Student and Child account.
Here, students can begin to interact with the strategy and explore the text through drawing. Students learn to use their imagination to engage with the passage and the strategy, and to think visually.
The ability to start to engage with text and ideas like this forms an important milestone on the way to developing higher-order thinking skills and being able to engage with text and ideas in a more complex, abstract way.
If you are interested in learning more about the CARS & STARS Online subscriptions and how they can help children to achieve better results, then sign up for a free trial to be an integral part of your child’s reading success.
