AUSD Thinking Maps: February 2011

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

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Tree Map and Reading

The past two weeks, my Intensive ST group (5^th grade) has been working on identifying main idea and supporting details. Students were asked to read a summary of The Golden Lion Tamarin Comes Home and create a tree map demonstrating their understanding of the story’s main idea as well as three supporting details.

We had practiced completing a tree map at the beginning of the two week session as a means of familiarizing students with the concept of classifying.

The first group I worked with was given a tree map template. The second group was asked to draw the map based off the model on the board. I think having the second group draw their own map took away from the concept of main idea and supporting details, as I had to help students erase and redraw in order for the map to look like the original.

In the future, I will give my students the tree map template until they are familiar and comfortable with the structure and form.

Reading with Bubble Map

Today, my third graders made their first Bubble Map after we read a biography on "Sally Ride". Of my five students, Christian's map seemed to be the most visually correct again. Some students thought the evidence needed to be circled and some even drew lines under each adjective to help them write straight, so we'll need more practice on drawing it correctly. I am concerned about it having little rigor. How can I add rigor to this example or to an extension activity?

Flow Map and Frame of Reference

We used a flow map to identify important events in our fiction books. The frame was, "What is the theme?"

Success!!!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Flow Map -Reading

I work with the intensive ST group & wanted my students to stop & think about

A: the main idea of what they were reading, &
B: the sequence of the story. I had the students create a flow map of The Mysterious Giant of Barletta by Tomie de Paola.

As we read, we summarized each page, stopped & shared our responses. The kids enjoyed using illustrations to better explain the main idea. Everyone enjoyed making their map.

Doris' 3rd Graders' Thinking Maps

Below are three Thinking Maps that were created this week by my 3rd graders in the Tier II Making Connections reading group at Northrup Elementary School. They all turned out fantastic for first-attempts!

1) We read a biography on Jesse Owens with a focus on sequencing. After reading, we created a flow map that ordered his important life events.

2) We also made a tree map to help organize Jesse Owens' life events by classifying the events into these groups: before, during, and after his track career.

3) After reading biographies on Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Owens, we attempted to make our first Double Bubble comparing and contrasting both of their lives. They color coded the similarities in purple. The other colors showed point and counterpoint: the top side circles in red, the middle side circles in orange, and the bottom circles in blue. Unfortunately, the scanner made it black and white, but I can bring the originals with the different colors to show you all.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Black Swan Double Bubble

My recent viewing of Black Swan prompted further investigation into the actual story of Swan Lake. Right away, Double Bubble came to mind. I am being haunted by Thinking Maps. Let's see if I can make a flow map based on the plot of Inception. (That would probably require the invention of a new kind of Thinking Map.)

AUSD Thinking Maps