To help you
1. Reduce mountains of information to a few key concepts and
2. Understand the relationships among those concepts.
Some students make and memorize a list of "key terms." Although focusing on key terms helps students reduce mountains of information to a more manageable amount, students often fail to understand the connections between these concepts.
Other students take the list of key terms one step farther by grouping related key terms together. That is, their list of key terms is broken down into several sub-lists (if they write the terms on notebook paper) or into several piles (if they put each term on an index card). These students have made some progress in understanding the relationships among the concepts.
However, students who use concept mapping go several steps further. They actually see the links between terms. They don't study a ton of isolated terms. They don't study a few lists of related terms. Instead, they map the paths between connected, linked, grouped set of terms.
How:
1. Make a list of what you consider to be the key terms.
2. Find the broadest (most general) term and put it at the top of a new piece of paper. This is the topic of your concept map.
3. Organize the rest of your concepts into a smaller number of groups.
4. For each of these groups, choose the most general term --or create a general term/phrase that describes each group. Place these group headings in a row under your general heading.
5. Pencil in a linking line between the top concept and each of the group headings. Label each linking line with a linking (connecting) word, such as:
| Definition |
| Leads to, Influences, Results in, Causes, Controls |
| Develops into, Comes from |
| Is made up of, Is subdivided into, Includes, Contains |
| Named by |
| Helps/Hurts |
| Is a characteristic of |
| Predicts |
| Depends on |
| Is part of, is a type of |
| Is the opposite of |
| Measured |
| Evidence for |
| Example |
6. Under each group heading, you have one or more terms that go under that heading. Arrange each heading's terms from general to specific. First, place the most general term under the heading, then the next most general term. Keep going until the most specific term under that heading is on your map. Then, go on to the next heading.
7. Use a pencil to (1) draw a line between related concepts and (2) label the line with a word that describes the relationship between the concepts.
8. Look for cross links between concepts on different branches of your map. Indicate connections between concepts with a dotted line. Label the cross links.
9. Where appropriate, add specific examples at the end of a branch.