Engaging students with concept mapping

1. Concept mapping is a great way for teachers and students to organize information. Concept mapping can give a teacher background information on student knowledge, and quickly and efficiently organize student thoughts. A concept map could also work as a way to summarize students thoughts or summarize ideas in general. Concept mapping works as a first step in writing, solving problems, and many other school subjects.

An example of a way a concept map could be used in a classroom is as a summary for a field trip to the zoo. The concept map above is a summary of a classrooms trip to the zoo. It would be a great activity after a class returns from a field trip for a teacher to work on a concept map with them. The teacher could understand what the class learned, and the class could review the information so it would be fresh in their minds. This review would be great if there was going to be some activity that expanded on the information learned on the field trip.

Another example of a concept map could be constructing a map based on a writing topic. Students could individually create concept maps and write down all of their ideas on a certain topic. For example, if the paper was to be written on favorite vacations, then the students could map thier ideas about vacations. The center idea would be "favorite vacations" and the map would consist of whatever came to the students mind. This would be a great pre-writing exercise because it would help students brainstorm ideas on the main topic.

If a teacher wanted to gain backround information about what students knew about the water cycle, then the teacher could have a class discussion creating a concept map on the water cycle. This would be a great chance for the teacher to understand what students already knew and how much more they needed to know. It is an oppurtunity for students to throw out any information they know and have to be connected to the main idea. The teacher can connect ideas and this can help student understanding grow. If students see how ideas are connected it can help them understand a subject better.

2. As I have said in the above paragraphs, concept mapping as many benefits in a classroom. Concept maps can aide teachers and students in orgainzing information, can give teachers backround information on students knowledge, can summarize teacher and student thoughts, and can work as a first step in many school subjects. All of the examples I listed above support these ideas in different ways. Using concept maps for different subjects will be beneficial for different reasons. Using a concept map for a pre-write will organize student thought, while using a concept as a whole class will gain understanding in student backround.

3. A teacher must decide what type of learning they want accomplished before they decide to have students create concept maps. If organizing information, summarizing information, or gaining understanding in student backround is important then a concept map would be a good choice. A teacher must also decide if they want students to complete a concept map alone or together as a class.