8 Thinking Maps to Use in Your Tutoring Sessions

For any tutoring sessions, you may need your students to come up with a brilliant topic for a story or perhaps analyze a certain event based on different factors. The right course of action to do this smoothly is through thinking maps, visual aids that are structured to aid in the idea generation and analysis. Check out these 8 thinking maps to stimulate your student’s brain into developing that brilliant idea of his or hers that he or she is itching to share to the world.

Circle Map

A circle map is constructed by two circles, a small one at the center. A word is placed at the center for the student to define in terms of context. Different words or phrases are then placed around that explain what the word at the center means. This approach is useful for explaining events or words depending on contextual factors. As a descriptive tool, the circle map is suitable for essay development.

Bubble Map

This map is constructed by many bubbles connected to a central one to be described. The purpose of this map is to describe the word at the center using adjectives. This is very useful for giving flavor or character to a certain idea in that the student may associate with. This enhances creativity and allows the student to expand his or her imagination.

Double Bubble Map

This is an expanded version of the bubble map, but it contains two central ideas. Other descriptions are placed which may be connected to one another to illustrate the comparison or contrast of these two central ideas. The goal of this thinking map is for the students to develop connections that may indicate similarity or difference among two given ideas.

Flow Map

This diagram involves different geometric shapes to indicate a process. This kind of thinking map is very useful for illustrating historical events or scientific processes. This is also a very good tool in designing narrative essays. The intensity of the flow map will enhance the procedural thinking of the student in the process.

Multi-Flow Map

An expanded version of the flow map, the multi-flow map illustrates a connected pattern of causes and effects, which may stem due to the processes and their given results. Through this map, a student is able to identify the many possibilities, especially in the venue of cause-and-effect relationships.

Brace Map

Constituted by enlarged braces, this thinking map specializes on the relationships between a part to that of a whole. This allows students to utilize associative thinking in grouping elements to a given category, enhancing their skills in connecting different objects by a common factor.

Tree Map

This kind of thinking map is derived from one common idea that is branched into smaller ideas. The goal of this map is to relay different classification and grouping possibilities. This is very useful in outlining different disciplines of a certain science or perhaps illustrating the different parts of a computer. This helps students realize the categorical aspect of things.

Bridge Map

A bridge map is constructed in the manner that of a bridge to illustrate the analogy. This is helpful in relating to different ideas by a factor that is relevant to both. This enhances critical thinking because it lets student decide the governing connection among ideas.

These eight thinking maps show you the different ways to encourage idea generation. Make sure to use the right one for the specified purpose so you can get optimal results. Students need to think outside the box a little bit and with these thinking maps, that journey is surely made smoother and more pronounced.