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.