Story and Concept Maps
Overview
Providing a story or concept map prior to lessons or having students create their own maps during or after reading helps learners identify and organize key elements of a text. These maps visually highlight and organize important concepts to support reading comprehension and Disciplinary Literacy. Visually organizing text can help students retain information and meaning in their Short- and Long-term Memories.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
At 3:40, watch how these sixth grade teachers introduce a story map and how it can support comprehending and remembering the story. Through questioning, the teachers orient the students to the important details of the story like characters, setting, problem, and solution.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
See how digital products, like Popplet, can allow learners to create complex story and concept maps to visualize and enhance their learning. Through the creation process, learners create, write, draw, and organize information from a text into meaning with a dynamic graphic organizer.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More External Memory Aids Strategies
A mnemonic device is a creative way to support memory for new information using connections to current knowledge, for example by creating visuals, acronyms, or rhymes.
Displaying academic Vocabulary on a word wall can reinforce key terms and concepts that students are learning.
