Brain Trek? Take a Map

Just like Venn diagrams, semantic maps, etc., can help students organize and construct their understandings, so can mind mapping. The article provides instructions for introducing and teach... See More

Just like Venn diagrams, semantic maps, etc., can help students organize and construct their understandings, so can mind mapping. The article provides instructions for introducing and teaching the mind mapping process to a group of diverse sixth graders. There are a few rules to follow to make mind maps user friendly. For example, any text needs to be limited to one word per branch and text is to be supported with symbols. Just like road maps contain symbols to represent ideas, students create symbols to use in their mind maps. The article shows how to scaffold learning when teaching mind mapping skills by starting out with partially completed mind maps and having students finish them. Next students are asked to create mind maps from scratch. The authors discovered that using a large class-generated mind map was a focus for a unit of study and was a very successful application of mind mapping. Finally, the article explains how a mind map can be used both as a tool to assess a student’s homework assignment and as a final assessment. A final assessment rubric is included for evaluating a mind map. If one is looking for information on how to introduce and use mind maps in a classroom, this article will provide all the basics.