Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

Example

Above is an example of a concept map. The concept map above was created to explore the activities of a field trip to the zoo. This would be helpful in making the students reflect on the adventures of the day and discover all they learned.

Concept Mapping Ideas

There are many things that you could do in a classroom to incorporate the use of concept mapping. I think concept mapping would be useful in the classroom in a variety of subjects. My ideas span across a variety of subjects from writing, literature, and science.

Writing:

There are two ideas that I had for using concept mapping in the classroom with writing. One idea surrounds writing a research paper. After a topic is chosen for their paper, they will use the concept map to organize what they already know, what they need to find out, how they are researching, and what the focus of their paper will be. This will help them to focus their paper and research only what will be relevant for their subject. Another idea for using concept mapping for writing would be organizing how to write a research paper. The Concept map would simply show the organization and the things that need to be included in a good research paper.

Literature:

For literature and reading, a concept map can be very helpful. It can be used to organize the main ideas of a book or character. My idea was to concept map the main character of the book Esperanza Rising, Esperanza. This map would let the teacher know if the students understood the reading and help the students make connections about the book.

Science:

An idea that fit into the science area was concept mapping the effects of going green. Students could make connections to what it means to go green and how those things effect the environment. This assignment would be to help the students understand the importance of protecting the environment, showing them that every person's actions can make a difference.

Impact of Concept Mapping

Concept mapping would have a lot of effects on student learning. This tools allows students to illustrate what they know and organize it in a way that makes sense to them. This will help students to demonstrate that they understand the concepts displayed in the concept map, specifically and as a big picture. It is helpful for students to organize and plan before beginning a bog project or assignment and this allows them to do it is a fun and exciting way. It also allows visual students an opportunity to learn in a way that help them to understand. Concept mapping is a tool that furthers student understanding and learning.

Criteria for Concept Mapping

I would not use concept mapping for every lesson in the classroom because of the amount of time it takes. I would try to save it for the areas where it would be the most helpful. I would use it for situations where things need to be compared, where ideas need to be organized in order to begin a big project, and for ideas that the children are having a hard time understanding.

Blogs and Wikis in Education

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Teacher Web Project Critique

The incorporation of a class website in the classroom impacts many aspects of student learning, student engagement, and communication with students and parents.

Student Learning: Having a class website exposes students to using a computer and the internet. Through the class website, the teacher can assign homework that has to be completed and turned in, which enforces skills in content and computer skills. A website is also beneficial to the student’s learning because it can be a tool to test what they have learned in the classroom before completing a traditional assessment in the classroom setting. Through quizzes and reflections, students can take test and get their result immediately. Student learning is benefitted by incorporating a class website.

Student Engagement: A class website has the potential of increasing student engagement. The idea of having a place online that is specifically for your classroom will excite the students. This excitement will increase their visits to the website and their participation in activities on the website. As a teacher, you can take advantage of this and offer many activities that will help the students with particular skills and techniques. These skills will help students in the classroom and allow for class discussions.

Communication with Students and Parents: A class website will increase communication with both students and parents. The website will give everyone a place to look for information before contacting the teacher directly. Information such as homework assignments, announcements, contact information, and common questions can all be provided through the class website. This website will also provide a place for students to ask questions of their teacher and peers and of parents to ask questions of the teacher. A class website ensures constant communication for all parties involved.

A class website has many advantages and disadvantages when incorporating it into your teaching activities.

Advantages: One advantage of using a class website with teaching activities is students can share the activity and their part in it with their parents and family at home. Parents are always interested in how their children are doing in school and what they are working on and this is a way of sharing that with them. Another advantage of using a class website is students are gaining knowledge in technology and in content areas. It is important for children to be exposed to technology, computers, and the internet and this is a way to ensure they are familiar with these tools.

Disadvantages: One disadvantage to using a class website with teaching activities is that not all children have access to a computer at home. If you are requiring students to work on a computer or access the internet outside of school, it may not be possible for all students. Another disadvantage of a class website is that not all parents are computer literate. If a child is working on a project on the internet or on the class website and encounters a problem, the parent may not be able to help their child.