Lesson ideas that encourage the task of drawing a visual representation of the main ideas are excellent for developing an understanding of important and necessary learning objectives.
I’m always amazed and excited to see the learning strategies for the brain demonstrated and practiced by real, day-to-day learners in middle schools.
These 6th grade student examples are creations of ‘non-linguistic representation’ as we worked through the objectives described in the social studies curriculum. These objectives connected to the history and current day democracy of Canada.
Geography of Canada
The students were asked to draw a visual representation of key vocabulary and concepts of the Canada unit of study.
The different expressions of the same idea would show up in their visual representations.
The way the students’ organized information was very different when using the strategy of non-linguistic representation.They had the same concepts, yet they expressed them differently.
Students’ images of the ideas presented in the text book became incredible examples of key vocabulary. Their ability to represent the ideas this clearly show expert learning skills.
Each student had their own SCRAPBOOK to complete with all non-linguistic representations of the key concepts and big ideas in the unit of study.
The rubric of the three Cs – Complete, Correct and Comprehensive was used to assess the correct information as it connects to the objectives in the curriculum.
A weekly schedule was followed:
- Monday and Tuesday: Reading for understanding .
- Wednesday: Graphic organizers and group discussions of key concepts and big ideas.
- Thursday and Friday: creating and designing the scrapbook page of big ideas using non-linguistic representation throughout the book.
The detail some students added was evidence of brain energy and thinking. They enjoyed this part of the project immensely.
Storyboard mapping was also introduce. Even here they created very different pathways to show what they know…
Example of a traditional storyboard format…It tell the story of the settlement of Canada.
…and here is another way to organize a story board…
Additionally, they continued to share their non-linguistic ideas of the unified Canada of today.
Lesson plans for how to lead students to these types of final products are coming soon!
Look for plans on ‘how to’ make scrapbooks and covers with very little cost or expertise. Coming soon from Teach to the Brain.
