Engaging Students with Concept Mapping

1. Some ideas for concept mapping:
· Plant life
· Animal Kingdoms
· Solar System
· Family Tree
· Reflection on assigned book
2. Concept mapping software will impact a class because it allows students to be active with their learning. It also allows students to be creative with new media tool. It is a way to organize and arrange their thoughts and ideas. You are able to take a large lesson unit and break it down into smaller pieces to help identify main parts. You could place students in groups and have each of them compare and contrast their maps that are on the same topic. You could also use concept mapping to do a jigsaw activity, and have students create one on their own on a reading and then have them create new groups to discuss what the their article was about.
3.I feel that concept mapping could be very useful in the classroom setting. It may take a little while for the students to understand all the components to the program, but once the students have it down the program could be used in various lessons and in many different ways. I totally feel that taking the time to learn the program would be worthwhile for the students. It may also take time for me to feel comfortable to integrate it into the classroom, so on my end I would want to take a few weeks to really get it down and understand so I am able to answer any kind of questions the students may have.