Concept Maps

Earlier this year I decided that one of the new things I would be trying with my classes is mind maps or concept maps.  A friend of mine has a really great book and has attended a PD session on them and I will soon be seeing the author of the book at a PD session as well.  So today, I rolled one out.

Like many things, I am never really sold on them until I really see them work for students or they are something that has previously worked for me personally.  I've never been a big proponent of the "Word Wall" or either of the afore mentioned strategies since I've never personally used them and I couldn't really see how they helped anybody.

Lets be honest.  There are a lot of WAAAAY smarter and better educated people out there and they do a hell of a lot of research into things before they spout off these new ideas.  I guess perhaps part of my skepticism comes from the fact that I get a majority of my teaching advice from people that don't do it.  You can see that I don't hold those opinions in very high regard.  Anyway, I'm not a Luddite.  I try things out (obviously) or I wouldn't have decided to give mind maps a go.  And believe it or not, I'm a great actor.  The students have no idea if I really buy into what I'm saying or not.  For the most part I do, don't get me wrong, but even if I haven't seen personal evidence, I tend to think there might (sometimes) be something behind the idea, and honestly, even if I don't I might give it a go just so I can say I was right all along and the advice was garbage.  Yeah, I'm that guy.  But to my credit, while I'm writing this blog that only I read, I really do give the ideas a fair shake and I don't let the students know that I have some doubts about the effectiveness of the particular activity or strategy.

Anyway, I'm getting away from the point of the blog.  Something happened during my second period class today.  I wish I could transcribe it for all to read or better yet, I wish you were all in my head so you'd know what I felt, but as that can't happen I'll try to illustrate here.

The circumstances of how this came about aren't really important, so I'll skip to the details.  I showed the class some mind maps and concept maps made by others in the book I had and told them that it was my intent to have them create one for the topic we had been studying.  I said that every single thing we had been doing, in some way or another, related back to the central theme and that it was important for them to be able to see those connections.  To that end, each student was going to (for credit) create a concept map for the topic.  I then asked the class about the central theme to the unit we had been studying.  The first student to respond had the correct response; sustainable ecosystems.  I put that on the board, smack-dab in the centre.  I then told students to tell me every single thing we had either learned about or talked about and I would put that on the board also.  Students (most) were very eager to contribute.  I told them that they could consult their notes, the text book, whatever.  Just hit me with the ideas.  A few (even after about 5 minutes of others really getting into it) didn't volunteer any answers.  I asked them specifically, and when they didn't have anything to offer I told them to find something to contribute and I'd get back to them.  Some of them even raised their hands once they found something, while others had to be prompted again.  Everybody contributed at least one thing.

In the process, people repeated previous ideas.  I mentioned that we had already come up with that, and pointed to the specific location on the board where that particular item had been written.  Now, that might not sound like an accomplishment, but let me tell you, the board was FULL of writing, and it wasn't particularly linear.  In fact it kind of looked like a crossword puzzle, but less organized.  (Side note:  Students were instructed to contribute and not worry about copying the terms down at the current stage.  The creativity and pace were far more important.)  After the repeated terms thing had come up a few times, and I was able to quickly and exactly locate the term on the board, I had my moment.  I got it.  I finally understood and bought into the idea of the graphic organizer.

Let me explain.

I do not have a particularly good memory.  It isn't horrible, but my family and my friends will bring up stuff from our past and I don't even recall the era, let alone the instance.  In school, my courses dealt with comprehension and problem solving and I veered away from languages and history (or even biology) which I perceived to be more of a memory based group of disciplines.  Teachers college did not afford me the same shelter.  I was forced to take psychology and other courses of the kind.  Now, it might be then that I began to notice this, but I do recall instances earlier in my life where it had also occurred.  I have a weird way of remembering things I've read.  I visualize the location in the book that I read it and I think about what I was thinking or feeling at the time I read that section.  There is this little file (and believe me when I say file for that is how I picture it) with a tag on it in my memory banks.  The tag is the material I am supposed to remember.  By accessing the page location in my memory and the thoughts I had when reading it, I can remember the material on that page in that location.  It's a bit uncanny.  I can pick up a book I haven't read in a while and refer to specific parts of the book that I really liked and within moments find the exact page I was talking about.  No, I do not have a photographic (or eidetic as Dan Brown uses) memory.  It's just weird.  Or at least I think it's weird.  I've never heard anybody else describe it that way.  So, anyway, pointing out the locations on the board that I had written these things reminded me of my college days and I then realized that by organizing things in this manner, I was creating a mental link and memory aid to the material.  A very strong one.  Way better than just writing things out in list form.

I stopped the class and shared my epiphany with them.  I told them (wisely or not, who knows) that I now really understood the purpose behind the concept map.  I am completely sold.  I could see the look in their eyes too.  They have bought into it far more now then they had before (which might lead some of you to the conclusion that I am not quite as good of an actor as I believe myself to be), which can only improve their recall and hopefully their understanding of the connections between the various ideas.

When we were done with the 'list', students were copying down the words and ideas; a not too easy task considering the rapidity that I wrote them and the lack of structure that I assumed.  I had the idea to have them get out their phones and just snap a photo of the word wall to be sure they captured it.  About 10 students did and they agreed to put their photos online for the benefit of the rest of the class.

It's been one of those days that are, for me at least, too few and far between where you learn something valuable while also teaching something valuable.