Mind Maps

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This activity helps students visually see and appreciate the ways in which parts make up a whole.  One of the challenges many students have is appreciating the detailed intricacies of an idea or concept.  There are two reasons for this:  Firstly, holistic analysis requires students to hold a lot of information in their working memory at one time.  If students do not have solid knowledge of a work, concept, or topic, they will struggle to do this.  Secondly, it can be a developmental stretch for students to complete this task in the abstract.  Therefore, in both cases, visual activities that ask students to bring their thinking into the concrete realm provide them an opportunity to physically document thoughts, observations, and their relationships to one another without losing sight of the “whole” that is firmly placed at the center of the activity.  This activity also helps students see the many directions and possibilities with which they may explore and develop a concept.  Seeing various avenues of development helps build students’ critical thinking skills and appreciate the importance of making choices and formulating arguments (rather than searching for a “right” answer).

Process

  1. Individually or in small groups, ask students to choose a topic/issue/idea/concept developed in the work or body of work, or assign one.   
  2. Have students place the topic in the center of a (physical or digital) page and put a circle around it.
  3. Ask students to consider “big” aspects and choices in the work that contribute to developing that topic.  These should be large and/or significant moments within a work (e.g., characters, a pervading conflict, a motif or other repeated choice, choices that work to represent that topic, etc.).
  4. Once the student has short listed their “big” aspects, they can create one spoke for each of the identified aspects, identify the aspects at the end of the spoke, and draw a circle around it.
  5. From there, students can go about identifying smaller choices that contribute to the development of the “big” aspect.
  6. Once smaller aspects are identified, students can find relevant quotes, page numbers, passages, text references, etc. that could later serve as evidence.
  7. Ask students to step back from their mind map or web to evaluate their observations, ideas, and evidence.  Which spokes leading from the central concept are the strongest ideas?  Which are the most developed?  If you were to conduct further research on this topic, which “big” aspects or choices might you choose to explore further in developing a line of inquiry on this topic?
  8. Optional:  Ask students to share their mind maps in small groups to receive additional feedback or ideas.
  9. Ask students to keep a copy of their mind map in their portfolio for future reference.

Variations

During the mind mapping process, students may choose to use language or graphics to represent their thinking.