Week of May 4

Topic for week of April 30, 2012:

Use of Bridge Maps – Bridge maps assist students with understanding relationships and analogies.  How have you used a bridge map to show relationships or analogies in your teaching this week?  What was the first pair and the second pair?  What was the relating factor?  Did the relating factor assist students with the understanding of the pairs?  Did the student's Frame of Reference help guide the map?

Going a bit further – Give analogies to students in a variety of ways: give them a pair of words and ask for the relating factor; give a relating factor and ask for a pair of words that fits the relationship; give students the top of one relationship and the bottom of the other pair and ask them to try to complete the bridge map.

Please post your blog response to this topic by Friday, May 4, 2012.

Week of April 23, 2012

Topic for week of April 23, 2012:

Use of Multi Flow Maps – Flow maps assist students with understanding cause and effect.  How have you used a multi flow map to show cause and effect in your teaching this week?  What was the main topic/event  How did the causes effect the event and what were the effects?  Did the student's Frame of Reference help guide the map?

Going a bit further – Divide the class in half and have one half give causes and have the other half give effects to an event.

Please post your blog response to this topic by Friday, April 27, 2012.

Week of April 16

Topic for week of April 16, 2012:

Going a bit further – Teach using a flow map backwards to see if students can figure out the main event/topic.

Please post your blog response to this topic by Friday, April 20, 2012.

Use of Flow Maps – Flow maps assist students with understanding sequencing.  How have you used a flow map to show sequencing in your teaching this week?  What was the main topic/event  Did you use a vertical or a horizontal flow map?  Did you use sub–stages under or next to your major stages?  Did the student's Frame of Reference help guide the map?

Week of April 9

Use of Brace Maps – Brace maps help to show the part of a whole.  How have you utilized a brace map in your classroom this week?  What was your Whole Object?  How many "subparts" were your students able to describe?  How many breakdowns were your students able to break down the Whole Object – more than 2?  Remember to utilize The Frame of Reference to help understand how your students are coming to their conclusions.

Going a bit further – Give your students the subparts to see if they can figure out the Whole or Main Object.  Also, you can take a Tree Map to give specific information about each subpart of the Main Object.

Please post your blog response to this topic by Friday, April 13, 2012.