Mind maps - Years 4-6

Mind mapping is quite popular but as a tool of creative thinking doesn't exist in Polish primary schools . For my students it a novelty so I spent a lot of time explaining why it is in use. As I ran this lesson is several age groups I tried different scenarios - sometimes the topic changed, sometimes I omitted a few parts of the lesson plan.
I always started with asking my students how they prepare and plan their birthday parties. If they even make a list of tasks. Then I told them why a list is not a perfect tool - limited space, hierarchical order, linear way of expression, hard to remember, missing colours and other visuals.
Then, we analysed the picture shown below:

Now it was a time for variations. Depending on the students' language level and ability of self-studying I gave tasks:
1. Make a mind map titled "ME" - individual work
2. Make a mind map "Ideal day" - group/pair work with a lot of help of the teacher (tips on categories and vocabulary)
3. First, in groups, prepare a list of all the words and phrases that come to your minds while thinking about "Ideal Birthday". Then, try to group the phrases into categories, name them, transfer the data into the mind map. (The process illustrated below):

Students brainstorm and write down phrases connected with ideal birthday

After organising the data into the categories, they construct a mind map

Use of colours for groups helped them organise the data

Students transferred all the data into the mind map

The collection of mind maps is vast. Some groups were asked to present their works to others, some discussed the outcome in their own groups. All the products are hanging in the classroom so that the rest of students might admire what we did in our classes. The profits of the lesson? Some of the students use mind mapping technique as a method of brainstorming and organising data for different topics and ideas.

At the end of the presentation you can distribute a checklist to evaluate the project in a formative way. The homework - a list of vocabulary that is a result of the brainstorming. To be checked at the next lesson - a summative form ( a test).

My pocket money – about saving and spending - Maths in CLIL

Let me present the lesson that is my first using this approach. The guinea pigs in this research were the 5th grade students. The photos were taken during their work. All the groups managed to fullfill all the tasks although in different time - some finished much before the end of the lesson, the others left the classroom with some homework.

AIMS:

learning about various graphs and charts; filling in a questionnaire about ways of spending pocket money; drawing and labelling a bar graph and a pie chart;

Task 1:

Explain the aims of the lesson. Ask your students some LOTS and HOTS questions:

What is pocket money?  Do you get it from your parents? If yes – how often? Who gives you the money? What do you usually do with this money? Do you save it all? What are you planning to buy soon?

Explain that now you are going to practise some graphs and charts.

Task 2

Divide students into groups of 2-4 people. Each group gets a set of 4 pictures and 4 tiles with names of various graphs. their task is to match the picture and the name basing on their previous knowledge.

Task 3

Hand out a worksheet about the bar graphs. Thanks to this activity students will check if they understand how to read one.

Task 4

Using an interactive whiteboard do the task: http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/me3us/flash/lessonLauncher.html?lesson=lessons/15/m3_15_00_x.swf

This activity includes organizing data into the tally chart and trasferring it to the bar graph. The students really appreciated it. 

Task 5

Depending on the number of students either divide them into groups of 6-8 or do the task with the whole group. You can do it on the blackboard or hand out the ready-made questionnaire.

The task is to ask the students to give/choose three ways that they spend their pocket money. From my experience it is better to ask them to construct the questionnaire together on the blackboard and then fill it in making a tally chart.

Task 6

 You ask the students to make groups of 2-4 people and draw a bar graph based on the data you have collected about ways of spending their pocket money.

Task 7

To introduce group evaluation of the work, you hand out the checklist. It's written in L1 to make it understandable and clear. The students have to stay objective answering and assessing their input.

Task 8 - homework

I have also prepared an extra activity for fast learners. It's about a life cycle of a monarch butterfly. This worksheet asks them to transfer data into a pie chart.

WHAT I MISSED ON PURPOSE

Functional language - I decided to limit their first meeting with CLIL to the basics. I don't want to overwhelm them with amount of new vocabulary.

Discussions and presentations - the problem of Polish students in general is the reluctance towards speaking in English in public. I think I will overcome it gradually with time.