Home | Information | Multicultural | Media | Visual

Concept Mapping

Step 1: Students generate list of key information words related to the topic

Step 2: Students categorize words

acrobatic		migration		female nurses
balance		land mammals		feeds calves
pods/schools/herds		seasonally		courtship
upwelling		feeding grounds		breeding grounds
swims		location		live birth
echolocation
carnivores		helping behaviors		baleen
consumers		injured		blubber
bateen		stranded		ear
nutrients				dorsal fin
food web				flipper
phyloplankton				flukes
				mammary glands

Step 3: Students generate key concepts ("big ideas") for each category

acrobatic		migration		female nurses
balance		land mammals		feeds calves
pods/schools/herds		seasonally		courtship
upwelling		feeding grounds		breeding grounds
swims		location		live birth
echolocation
carnivores		helping behaviors		baleen
consumers		injured		blubber
bateen		stranded		ear
nutrients				dorsal fin
food web				flipper
phyloplankton				flukes
				mammary glands

Step 4: Begin to generate a concept map showing relationship between key concepts ("big ideas") and supporting ideas

Note: This page was last updated July 22, 2002. This resource was created orginally for the publication "Managing Information in a Digital Age" by teachers at Seeds University Elementary School, UCLA. For more information, contact Sharon Sutton

This content was orignially created and posted March 5, 2002 These resources were created to support the AT&T/UCLA Initiative for the 21st Century Literacies.