Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate: Concept Mapping IDEAS in a Work

This activity asks students to individually identify ideas and issues developed in a work and collaboratively connect and develop one another’s ideas.  This ultimately helps students open their minds to the many ways in which readers respond to a work.

Process

1. Give students 2 minutes to individually generate a list of ideas, issues, and initial thoughts that come to mind when they think about this work/body of work/text.  Each idea, etc. should be written on a separate sticky note.
2. Give students an additional 1 minute to “stretch their thinking” and add additional ideas to their sticky note pile.
3. Ask students to formulate groups of three.  Instruct group members put all their sticky notes on a desk or board.
4. Instruct students to silently sort their collective ideas according to how central or tangential they are to the work. 
   • Ideas central to the work should go in the middle; tangential ideas can be placed in the periphery. 
   • Similar ideas can be grouped together or placed next to one another.
   • Repeat ideas can be stacked on top of one another.
5. Ask students to discuss their placements and groupings.  Do all group members agree?  Should any be moved or connected?  [3 minutes]
6. Instruct students to connect their ideas by drawing arrows between ideas that have something in common.  (They can use cut out arrows or whiteboard markers to do this).  On an index card, ask students to explain how the ideas are connected in a short sentence (e.g., considering cause and effect, paralleled circumstances, paradoxical realities, etc.).  The index card should be placed between the two ideas/sticky notes.
7. Give groups 5-10 minutes to discuss and elaborate on any of the ideas/thoughts they have written so far by adding new ideas that expand, extend, or add to the group’s initial ideas.  New sticky notes, arrows, and explanatory index cards may be added during this process.
8. Ask students to change at least 3 of their one-word ideas (on the sticky notes) into statements based on the group’s discussion.  If groups are struggling, you can give them the following stem:  What is being communicated about _________ in [insert title of the work]? 
9. Ask students to clearly (and largely) record their 3 statements on a piece of paper or document.  Ask them to display this paper next to the concept map.
10. Ask students to take a picture of their concept map and place it in their portfolios.
11. Give groups time to take a gallery walk to read and discuss other groups’ concept maps and statements.
12. When students return to their seats, ask them to reflect in their portfolios:  What did you learn about the ways in which ideas and issues are raised and developed in works through this activity?  What new ideas or connections emerged that you hadn’t considered in your personal response to the work?

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Process steps addressed to students:

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References
Adapted from “Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate”, a “Making Thinking Visible” activity from Harvard’s Project Zero.

Image by Manfred Steger from Pixabay