Teaching Strategies
50+ Ways to Use Concept Mapping in the Classroom
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When students are constantly absorbing new information, it can feel like their brain is being tied into all kinds of knots. Concept mapping serves as a tool to neatly unravel these knots, offering a clear, visual organization of information and fostering a deeper understanding of complex topics.
With BrainPOP’s Make-a-Map, concept mapping is already built into many of our lessons, making it easier for your students to show what they know about a BrainPOP topic they love. The learning activity also promotes higher-order thinking, builds problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and encourages project-based learning.
Concept mapping can be used in the classroom in many unique ways. We’ve listed some ideas you can start today!
But first… see what Tim and Moby have to say about Concept Mapping!
In the Classroom
- Assess student comprehension
- Present difficult material in a step-by-step manner
- Introduce a new concept
- Identify similarities and differences between ideas and concepts
- Help students make meaningful connections between the main idea and details
- Assist cooperative groups in defining projects and dividing job responsibilities
- Create flow charts for behavior plans for either the classroom or a specific student
- Identify similarities between different units
- Create a vocabulary organizer to record the new words they’ve learned
- Identify when students don’t understand information and where the breakdown is in their comprehension
- Add more depth in a compare/contrast lesson, for example, identifying the important variables by color-coding or other visual element, and then deciding if the variable is the same or different in the two objects of study
- Show relationships between ideas or concepts
- Assist students in organizing information
- Provide a framework for note-taking
- Create instructions for games
- Create picture charts that students can follow if they are communication impaired
- Help students study for a test
- Create a classroom organization chart with associated responsibilities
- Design a how-to or step-by-step guide for learning new software and web tools
- Develop a course or workshop
- Document job responsibilities
- Plan a website, blog post, or presentation
- Create cause/effect/solution diagrams to resolve social issues within the classroom
- Provide a skeleton map and have students fill in the information
In Lessons
- Plot summaries
- Book design elements
- Illustration of the digestive system
- Procedures to follow during an emergency drill such as a fire or storm drill
- Lab procedure explanation
- Presentation of lab conclusions and highlighting important concepts (especially prior to completing a written explanation)
- Local government diagram
- Detailed processes map (how to add polynomials etc.)
- Storyboards for presentations
- Historical cause and effect
- Organizer that shows the English word on one side and the foreign language word equivalent on the other side with pictures as hints
- When studying a poem: in the center concept, list the name of the poem and the connecting lines contain phrases from the poem: the subconcept explains the words in the phrase and the literary technique used such as personification
- Cycles (recycle, weather, etc.)
- Food chain construction
- Map of where items are stored in desk, trapper, or locker
- Library orientation
- Character descriptions
- Plot movement and how action leads to the climax
- To teach Math algorithms (especially division)
- Math-problem solving (great because it is non-linear)
With Faculty and Staff
- Illustrate school’s goals
- Plan for Parent-Teacher Organization
- Explain staff responsibilities on committees
- Illustrate instructional goals with links to testing expectations
- Show what each grade will be teaching and how units fit into the larger picture of curriculum for the whole school
- Show integration of different topics across the curriculum for a unit, lesson, or long-range plan
- Personal and/or professional goals
With Students’ Families and the Community
- Concept maps to send home to parents to help explain a unit so they can help their children study/review
- Open House/Back to School night presentations
- Explanations of the year’s curriculum goals
Concept mapping is an incredible tool for both teachers and students to use in the classroom. And with BrianPOP’s Make-A-Map, you’ll have Moby by your side.
Jordan Bremus-Wyles is the social media lead at BrainPOP, with a Bachelor’s in English and Journalism. She is a youth advocate and mom of two.