I am a big fan of thinking maps. I think that any time you can create a visual representation of your content material, you can reach more students. Thinking maps serve many purposes far beyond the visual representation though. It's a way tool to use for your struggling learners as well because thinking maps carefully walk you through understanding the material. They are great resources to come back should your student need a guide or a reminder throughout the units as well.
My favorite thinking map is the Bubble Map.
As an future English teacher, I can see many benefits to using this thinking map in my classroom. It can be used to describe the characteristics of a character from a novel that we are reading. It can also expand to include higher thinking questioning like identifying the perspectives of different characters in the book and how their perceptions affect the main character.
Another way you could use the Bubble Map is by assigning grammar usages to each bubble. I could ask students to place a vocabulary word in the center of the map. From there, they must use adjectives to describe that vocab word.
There are so many other wonderful thinking maps that can enhance the learning process for your students. To check out more ideas, please visit thinkingmaps.com
The nice thing about thinking maps it is provides the information in a different light then just normal note taking. In language arts, it would be great as you can easily draw connections between plot and charactors and a whole lot of other language arts terminology that I don't even know.
ReplyDeleteI would also say that the bubble map is my favorite. I think that was my first thinking map I learned way back when! I like your idea of assigning grammar usages to each bubble. That would definitely help the students learn.
ReplyDeleteI think these thinking maps are really beneficial as well. I like the bubble maps, double-bubble maps, and quick writing as well. I like giving students visuals and opportunities to be in control of their learning to some extent. I think if you give them options, it allows them to feel like they are in more control of their learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree thinking maps seem like a good way to help learners be able to write better; using the thinking map as a helper tool. I also like your idea of using the thinking maps for character identification in stories. This could definitely be used for character mapping. Thank you for posting some unique ideas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and what you said in your opening paragraph, I know that when I’m having a hard time grasping a concept thinking maps have been a better way for me to organize the information and to better understand what it is that I’m trying to learn. I think that thinking maps are especially helpful when teaching English but love that they can be used in any content area!
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