Using Mind Mapping to Prepare Lesson Plans for Students
One of the greatest challenges teachers face is preparing an enriching and engaging lesson plan for students. There are many tools teachers can use to make this process easier. However, few of these methods will contain the advantages found in Mind Mapping. Mind Maps are more intuitively laid out than most traditional lesson plans, because they are presented spatially, rather than linearly, and are “mapped” out across the page. Moreover, because Mind Maps are comprised of colors, visual images, and pictures, instead of just words, they allow the brain to process the information contained in them in a manner more consistent with natural brain functioning. Mind Maps are an effective and creative way to help teachers design lesson plans, and they can make the process of teaching students a lot simpler.
Using Mind Mapping to Construct a Lesson Plan
At minimum, a good lesson plan usually contains six key components. The first component is the key concept of the lesson, namely, what the teacher wants the students to learn about the topic. The key concept should be represented in the center of the Mind Map. The second component of a good lesson plan is the objective, or the skill the teacher intends to teach, and which he or she wants the students to learn as a result of the lesson. For instance, the teacher’s objective may be to teach students the letters of the alphabet, resulting in the students being able to recite the alphabet from memory. The objective should be connected to the key concept via a “branch”. If the teacher has more than one objective, he or she can list them on multiple “branches”. The third component of the lesson plan is the pre-planning materials. The pre-planning materials are any materials that must be prepared in preparation of teaching the lesson. The pre-planning materials component should be attached to the topic(s) via a “child branch”. The fourth component is the student materials, or the materials the children need to successfully complete the lesson. The student materials component should also be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. Though attached to the same topic(s), the pre-planning materials and student materials components should be shown in separate areas of the Mind Map, on either side of the topic(s), with the specific materials to be used flowing out of them via new “child branches” or “twigs”. Fifthly is the procedure component. The procedure component lists the steps the teacher intends to take when teaching the lesson, including sample questions. As with the previous two components, this component should also be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. The “child branch” should extend below the main topic, off to the side, and have the steps of the procedure attached to it via “child branches” or “twigs”. The last component of a successful lesson plan is the closure, or the summary of the lesson to the students.1 On the Mind Map, this component should be attached to the key concept via a “branch” located below the key concept. The attached Mind Map shows an example of a teacher lesson plan “mapped out” in the manner described.
Teaching the Lesson From the Mind Map
Once the Mind Map outlining the lesson plan is completed, the teacher can easily see all of the components for his or her lesson “mapped out”, with colors, visuals, and picture associations included. This mentally and visually stimulating representation of his or her lesson plan makes it simple for him or her to interpret, process and internalize the lesson. Thus, the teacher will have more thoroughly learned the lesson, and can more naturally impart the lesson to the students.
