A friend asked, is doodling a form of literacy? Why not? My friend responded that he always got in trouble in school for doodling. Perhaps not for doodling, but for seemingly not listening when he claimed he was listening. All of us have found ourselves scribbling, sketching, and making random little designs with patterns, textures, lines, and geometric shapes. How about we delightfully doodle while having a restorative literacies circle on doodling?
When are the best moments for doodling? And why?
What is the purpose of doodling? To sort out thoughts? To symbolize? To enhance creativity? To daydream?
With what items do we doodle with? Pencils or pens we have on hand? Or do we carry markers, chalk, and colored pencils just in case the urge to doodle arises?
Where are doodles most found? Planners, journals, notebooks, margins, or pieces of notepaper? Why is this?
How are letters, words, and phrases are used in doodling?
How does doodling cooccur with note taking? List making? Annotating?
How is doodling different from coloring?
Is graffiti and tagging a form of doodling on a larger scale? Where is it inappropriate versus allowable? How can it lead to mural arts?
What about developmental benefits? Does it help to develop hand-eye coordination? Formation of letters, numbers, symbols, and other concepts of print? Receptive thinking? Expressive thinking?
Is doodling therapeutic? Recentering and calming? Restorative?
Deborah L. Wolter 
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