Where are Multiple Concept Maps For Paragraph Writing?

Maybe I am forgetting my good web research skills but I cannot find a website that lists the various types of writing and the concept maps that support each type of writing. I can find general concept map sites and I can find a lesson plan for a particular concept map for a specific type of writing. I’m trying to give my students two different concept maps for each type of writing. For example, for narrative writing I have a time line concept map and a  downward sequencing concept map.   For compare and contrast  I have similarities/differences boxes and  a point by point /topic analysis chart. My hope is that one of these two will appeal to my students so that they will be better able to organize their ideas and, therefore, write better.

What sites do you know that offering various concept maps for each type of paragraph writing?

Twitter More Reaction

My reaction to my limited trial of twitter:

In education, Twitter communication would work great in a department or team situation where you have an established circle of people that want to be in touch but may not have time for face-to-face.  I can imagine a teacher writing “Science water lab from the kit  did not work. Who has had  success with it?” or “In writing, used a fishbone graphic organizer helped students to see cause and effect. Worked well” Short nuggets of success or concerns.

I see Twitter as disjointed as early email non-threaded conversations were. As times I feel like I standing in the middle of a busy intersection watching the cars go by. They are going in every direction (from serious to silly). So far, I have not find a car that is worth the time of following.

Final Exam – Supporting Curriculum or Waiting Until the Final?

Many years ago I went to Ecuador to travel for the summer. I dropped some things off at a friend’s daughter’s place in Quito and ended up teaching Social Studies for the summer in a mission school. There was no existing curriculum but there was a copy of the final. Since all I had was the final, I had to determine what the previous teacher had considered important. It became apparent that he had been concerned with comparing countries, geography, etc. One question was “How is Italy similar to and different from Japan?” So I decided to follow the previous teacher’s approach. Each student became an expert in a country from a certain area by reading the textbook and asking any missionary who had been to that country. As each student presented his/her country by displaying maps, artifacts, etc., the others chimed in with similarities and differences. Students made huge charts of the similarities and differences among the many countries. They looked for how each country was the same and different.

Upon returning to the USA, I talked with a Social Studies teacher friend. He quickly told me that in Social Studies teachers only cover one country at a time. He said that students would get confused if they thought about more than one country at a time. They do not compare and contrast until it is time to prepare for the final then they use concept mapping software to do many compares and contrasts.

What is your curriculum? One that constantly practices the essential skills throughout the year or one that waits until the end to do it? How do you use technology to prepare students throughout the year on the necessary end skills?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Students Learn More With Similarities/Differences PowerPoints

Robert Marzano in A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works had identified that, of all classroom activities, the students benefit most from finding similarities and differences. When the students find similarites and differences, they are using higher level thinking skills.

So how can we use this to make students’ learning more powerful?

In Social Studies, students can compare two countries in terms of their future potential as a world power in a PowerPoint. The students go beyond just copying facts to looking for the different components of a world power.

In English, students can show how the same theme is in two different works of literature through a PowerPoint. They begin to analyze how each theme is presented in the different works and see the variety of ways of expressing this theme.

In Science, students can compare the health of two streams through a PowerPoint. The ph of one stream is a static fact but when it is compared to the ph of another stream, students begin to generate many questions.

In Math, students can show the similarities and differences between various geometric shapes through PowerPoint. When students put a square next to a rectangle, the differences become apparent.
In languages such as Spanish, students can compare the uses of estar and ser through a PowerPoint. By having to contrast these two, they come to see when each should be used.

Students can use the many features of PowerPoint such as arrows, text blocks, colored fonts, and shapes to accentuate the similarties and differences between two concepts. As they dramatically illustrate the similarities and differences, they demonstrate their higher level thinking.

The students’ PowerPoints are robust learning experiences that maximize their learning since the students compare and contrast.

So what similiarities/differences types of PowerPoints have your students done?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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