Pedagogical Flow Map

With the start of the second semester, I added a pedagogical flow map across the top of my white board so that students could track their progression through a unit and know where they were on the map each day. I made magnets that say "today" so that I can move those to the appropriate box of the pedagogical flow map each day. I can also write specifics on the white board about the area with the "today" arrow, basically making a flee map for the day's activities.

Some days involve more than one area. For example, the day displayed in the photo above has arrows pointing to both "concept development" and "skill development." Students were exploring the concepts that will develop into themes in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and students new to my classes this semester were developing their skills with Thinking Maps as they explored those concepts.

I reduced the pedagogical flow map to eight boxes by combining some areas so that it didn't appear too overwhelming for students. And practically, it now fits well across my white board. The eight boxes are concept development, vocab development, skill development, guided lesson, mediation & reflection, independent practice, review, and assessment. Since the unit will be working on vocab and concepts and reflecting throughout, I told students that the "Today" arrows would not be progressing exactly from one box to the next.

The pedagogical flow map is new this semester, but for the past two years I have kept a flow map for the daily agenda on the right side of my white board (see photo above). With the start of the semester I added just two simple magnets--a stop sign that says reflect and an arrow that says "We are here." Simply adding the arrow and moving it throughout the day allowed students to see that they were progressing through the day and allows them to know where they are at all times, even if they happen to daydream for a few minutes. My seniors were so impressed that I made magnets to keep them on track.

I hope that both flow maps will be a classroom management aid by helping students stay focused because they know what they are supposed to be doing at any given time. The pedagogical flow map also lets students know that I have a plan for each unit and that everything we do is connected and has a purpose.

Finally, the "reflect" stop sign reminds me and my students that their brains need a break throughout the daily agenda flow map. Yesterday, during 6th hour with my second semester seniors, I noticed that the noise level was picking up, so I moved the "reflect" stop sign to the middle of the white board and put the "We are here" arrow by it. Two minutes later, I simply moved the "We are here" arrow back to the appropriate place on the daily flow map. The students calmed down and got back to work. I couldn't believe how smoothly that worked.

Writing and Thinking

Jane Buckner in David Hyerle's Student Successes with Thinking Maps states that "writing is actually thinking written down." Buckner makes this claim because she believes that many educators feel "writing is just talk written down" (page 78).


That statement equating thinking and writing started me on my quest to explore writing connections in the books that I had received from NUA. Although I had used or seen many of the strategies modeled, I had not scanned the books with a "writing and thinking" lens. I got some great ideas that I could pass on to teachers who had specific questions about teaching writing. Below is a summary of my findings:


Student Successes in Thinking Maps


Buckner's chapter in Student Successes in Thinking Maps called “Empowering Students from Thinking to Writing” specifically addresses how to help students write a non-plagiarized, authentic research paper. Buckner advocates the use of the tree map or flee map for note taking. English 10 teachers had great luck with the flee map last year during the research paper unit to help students organize their research findings before writing their paper.

In addition to tree or flee maps for note taking, Buckner states that teachers can help students with disorganized papers through a process of “reverse mapping.” Basically, students cut apart their paper and try to fit their sentences into a flee map. Reverse mapping also allows students to see any holes that they have in their paper.



Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement


Denise Nessel’s book, Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement, has a wealth of writing strategies. Here is the briefest of summaries of writing-relevant chapters:


Cubing (p. 39): Chapter 5 describes this strategy which allows students to think about a topic from multiple perspectives (describe, compare/contrast, associate, analyze, apply, and argue for/against). This strategy increases students' fluency on a topic and helps them learn the cognitive clues that are often used in essay questions.

Freewriting (p. 67): Chapter 9 discusses a long-time favorite strategy for English teachers that involves students writing for a sustained period of time without stopping. This technique is a great tool for generating ideas and overcoming writer's block.

I-Search Reporting (p. 81): Chapter 12 includes a number of follow-up questions that teachers can ask students to make research paper topics relevant to their lives by having students formulate questions that are related to their concerns and pursuits.

Imitation Writing (p. 87): Chapter 13 outlines this strategy which involves taking a known work or famous quotation and substituting words while maintaining the text's structure.

Journal and Learning Logs (p. 101): Chapter 15 includes a number of journal writing prompts not only for English teachers but also for math, social studies, and science logs.

Key Word Notes (p. 109): Chapter 16 details this strategy that many Edina teachers use for lectures, readings, films and classroom discussions. Key Word Notes is a quick and efficient information gathering strategy if students need to write an essay after a reading selection as part of an exam. To learn about more applications of this strategy, click on "Key Word Notes" under "NUA Topics Discussed on This Blog."

Paraphrasing (p. 141): Chapter 21 discusses how teachers should start students with paraphrasing of texts that students can’t copy—e.g. videos, the teacher reading aloud. Then students can progress to reading, putting down the text, and taking notes.

Saturation Reporting (p. 171): Chapter 27 discusses this eye witness written report based on intense observations of a certain location and/or event. These reports become detailed, sensory descriptions.

Writing Frames (p. 187): Chapter 30 of Nessel's book summarizes the strategy of using frames (text structures with blanks to be filled in) that is detailed in Writing as Learning by Andrew and Evelyn Rothstein.

Sample Descriptive Writing Lesson: On p. 171, Nessel outlines a writing lesson that incorporates a number of strategies previously mentioned in her book.

Thinking Maps: Tools for Learning


David Hyerle's Thinking Maps binder has many ideas for prewriting and essay organization. The "Teaching" section of the binder shows how each map can be used for prewriting an essay, and an essay prompt is included. Also, pages 3-17 and 3-24 have writing starter patterns.

If students learn cognitive clues in essay questions, they will be able to select the appropriate Thinking Map for organizing their ideas. For example, Thinking Maps are associated with the following expository text structures:


1) sequence is flow map

2) double bubble is compare and contrast

3) multi-flow is cause and effect

4) circle map or bubble map for describing

5) problem/solution involves multiple maps (circle map to define, double bubble to compare to possible solutions)


Writing as Learning

Andrew Rothstein, Evelyn Rothstein and Gerald Lauber's book Writing as Learning includes a number of strategies to assist with writing across the curriculum. The book discusses how the A to Z Taxonomy can be used both to engage students and to help them organize their ideas for writing. Chapter 7 "Profiles and Frames: Organize Your Writing" and Chapter 9 "Reasons, Causes, Results--The Basis of the Essay" appear to be the most relevant chapters to assist teachers with high school essay writing.