Engaging Students With Concept Mapping

Here is an example of a concept map!

1. Concept mapping is an important strategy for children to learn, because it allows them to organize their thoughts clearly. Concept maps can also help teachers assess how much their students understand about different subjects, so that they can then tailor their lessons to the level of the class.

In my class, I could use concept maps as a whole class activity or as an individual activity. For example, if my class was about to start a unit on Conservation, we could work together as a class to create a concept map (similar to the one above) on the white board or overhead. This would help the class collaborate to come up with a lot of information, and help students that do not know as much about the topic learn a few new things. As an individual activity, concept mapping can be very helpful as a brainstorm or organization activity. For example, when students are writing a story, they could make a concept map that would help them organize the characters, settings, and plot within the story, so that they know what they want to write before they actually begin writing it.

Concept mapping allows students to see, in a very visual and organized manner, what they and their classmates know and understand about different topics. In my practicum, when the students were starting a new unit on insects, the teacher had them brainstorm things that they "knew" about insects and things that they wanted to know about insects. Although the teacher did not use a concept map, as such, she graphically organized them on the white board in front of the class, and that really helped a lot of the students see just how much they already knew about insects, and how much they wanted to know. A concept map would be another way of accomplishing this.

2. Concept maps could have a very large impact on student learning and student abilities within the classroom. Concept maps (along with other organizers) can really help students organize thoughts, see how much they know about subjects, and understand what they still need to learn or work on. Concept maps have the additional benefit of combining text, pictures and shapes, and arrows, a style that has elements that could appeal to many different learning styles.

One area in which I think that concept maps could really benefit student learning is within the children's abilities to answer prompts. Students, especially younger students, tend to have difficulty answering prompts without wandering from the topic or writing about other subjects entirely. Concept mapping can help these students figure out exactly what they want to write about, before they actually write it, which would allow them to stay on topic throughout their writing. Concept maps that are done as part of a prewriting process can also help teachers determine the student's thought process, and what direction they were thinking in when they started the project.

3. If I was trying to decide whether or not concept mapping would be used within the scope of a specific lesson, I would think about several factors. First, is it something my students know anything about? If the students do not know very much at all about a subject, a concept map done as a whole class or individual activity may not be very successful. Second, does the subject allow for clearly related topics to be combined in a hierarchy? If the subject matter does not have many associated facts or connotations, then it could be difficult to graphically organize them in a way that would make any sense to the students. Third, would a concept map be done more successfully as a whole group activity or an individual activity? If the entire class is beginning a unit, it might be very helpful to do a whole class concept map, but if the students are working on writing individual stories, where each one will be different, it would probably be more beneficial for students to work on concept maps on their own.

I think that, really, the most important part of the concept map idea is that students know it is an option they can use whenever they need to. A concept map does not have to be an assigned part of a project, as concept maps are just one tool, and will work better for some students than others. Teaching students how to create and incorporate that tool, however, is extremely important, as is giving them the information and freedom to decide which tools work best for them as individual learners.

Blogs and Wikis in Education

1. While looking at different classroom blogs for K-12 classrooms, I discovered several different ways that teachers are using blogs and wikis in interesting and innovative ways. In one blog, which was entirely dedicated to the book Sarah, Plain and Tall, the teacher posted questions that required the students to critically read and analyze the book. The students then commented on the blog with their replies to the questions. Another blog that I looked at provided students with summer reading lists and the chance to talk about and discuss their reading with the teacher and the other students in the class during the summer months. I thought it was neat that the students were able to participate in a low-key sort of way during the summer, while the teacher was able to make sure that learning was still happening. I also found a wiki where students who were working on a group science project together each had a page, where they could post information and "meet" on-line. I thought that this was really neat because it makes it easier for students to get together and brainstorm without actually having to meet outside of class.

2. RSS Readers or Aggregators are programs that allow you to select different news or blog-type sites, and have their updated information sent directly to you. In a classroom, this could be really helpful, because the class could select different topics that they were interested in, and the teacher could, maybe at the beginning of the day, read over the news on those topics, so that students would get updated information without a lot of extra work for the teacher. Also, if students are required to do any sort of current events project, having them set up their own aggregator could help them find new, relevant information easily, without exposing them, necessarily, to some of the dangers of searching the internet.

3. There are a lot of potential benefits to using blogs and wikis in education. The most exciting pro would be that it gives students a way to communicate while they are at home. They can interact with other students and participate in web-based projects. Another pro is that students are given the chance to work with technology and experience creating and contributing to the Internet. This is incredibly important, as it will help students develop a level of comfort with using and creating technology. One drawback to using wikis or blogs, as with using any sort of sharing technology on the internet, is that it may compromise student safety, especially if any personal information or pictures are posted. The other major drawback, that I can foresee, is that students who do not have the same level of access to computers and technology, whether for economic or other reasons, may feel isolated or may have difficulty completing assignments.

Teacher Web Project Critiques

1. Describe and discuss the impacts your use of a class web site like the one we created on TeacherWeb might have on student learning, on student engagement, and communications with students and parents.

A class website, like my TeacherWeb, could really help the students in my future classes learn to take charge of their own learning, be actively engaged learners, and could also foster a more readily accessible means of communicating, both with parents and students and between students and parents. Allowing students to access a site that allows them to choose their own learning journey can help them feel independent and in control of their own education, which could lead to a higher self efficacy. Some students, for various reasons, may have a more difficult time engaging with the class on a one-on-one basis, and web-based communication may help them feel more involved within the classroom. Also, the TeacherWeb can function as a communication tool in many ways. It provides a teacher with the means to contact students and their parents, it provides parents and students access to the teacher and a way to contact the teacher. It also provides a nice way for students to communicate with their parents. A class website that provides a clear picture of the daily activity of a classroom could be a wonderful tool for children to share with their parents, and could help those parents that don't have the time or ability to visit the classroom feel more connected with their student and their student's learning.


2. Identify and discuss what you see as the two biggest advantages of designing and using a classroom web site whithin your teaching activities. Also, identify what you see as the biggest disadvantages of using a class website for instructional activities and why.

A classroom website has a lot of potential advantages. The potential for communication and knowledge-sharing on the internet is amazing, and could allow students to collaborate and become engaged in the classroom in ways they never had before. The largest advantage I can think of is that potential: Students have the ability to access their own classroom and select their own way to learn. If students are involved in their own learners, they will be learning not just content material, but the joy of knowledge, and the importance of lifelong learning. The second most important advantage would be that students who are absent, parents who don't live with their students, parents who don't have time to visit the student's classroom, and even extended family and friends could have an inroad to their student's education. Parents who do not live with or see their students on a daily basis can still be an active part of their student's learning.

With these wonderful advantages come some serious drawbacks. The most severe disadvantage is, as with anything posted on the Internet, the idea that a classroom website could in some way compromise student's safety and wellbeing. A classroom website brings up many questions of ethics: Should pictures be on the website? Should students and parents be able to post? All of these questions do not have clear answers, and depending on the lines that teachers draw, students could be put in danger. The second, and somewhat less dramatic, disadvantage is that students may become reliant on computers for accessing knowledge. While the Internet is an amazing tool that can be used in amazing ways, understanding how to use reference tools like encyclopedias and dictionaries is important for students.