Now you can go one step further, and break down each idea into its component parts (Subtopics). If you’re using a computer, just drag and drop the Main Topics to where you want them.Ĥ. If you’re using pen and paper, it’s probably easier to create a new map, organizing the ideas you came up with. Once you have a lot of ideas written down, then you can start start grouping them into a logical structure. You can just enter them or jot them down in the order they come to you.ģ. Then you can just start entering ideas (Main Topics) that come to you when you think of the Main Idea. All the information you add from this point on should relate to this Main Idea, so it helps you stay focused.Ģ. You start a mind map at the center, with a Main Idea. Again, this can be done on paper or by computer.ġ. But first, let’s look at how you make a mind map. I’ll get back to the other two uses of mind maps. And the combination of words, colors, images or drawings, and spatial orientation really gets young brains humming. Since the entire subject can be captured in one map, they learn to think holistically. The structure of the maps helps them think in terms of concepts and associations, to build hierarchies of information. They can make the maps colorful and bright-almost like works of art. Whether they draw them by hand, or create them on a computer, kids generally grasp the concept of mapping very quickly. My daughter just happens to like the way she can surf around for cool pictures, use goofy fonts (I restrained her on this project), and even embed Web links into the map. In fact, some mind mapping proponents insist that it is the kinesthetic experience of drawing that makes mind mapping so powerful. But she could have done it with paper and pens too.
#Mind maps esl software#
My daughter made this map with a software program. She didn’t just blindly read what she’d written. As part of her project, she had to give an oral presentation.It communicated a great deal of information very quickly and very visually (useful when the audience may not have all the patience in the world).It helped her to organize her thinking into clear categories.But consider the benefits of the mind map:
#Mind maps esl professional#
And as a professional writer, I have nothing against a well-written report. She could have communicated this information by writing a report. Here’s the map she created on America Samoa National Park. Last year, my 9-year-old daughter’s class was assigned to choose an American national park, research the park, and then present information about it to their classmates. By combining elements that appeal to each side of the brain, Buzan reasoned, mind maps would optimize the brain’s ability to create, to learn, to remember. The right side was home to holistic, associative, artistic thinking-of pictures and music and color. That research found that one side of the brain, the left side, was the home of rational and linear thinking, of language and numbers. Buzan traces the development of mind mapping to research performed in the 1950s. One of the modern proponents (some say the originator) of modern mind mapping is Sir Tony Buzan, knighted for his contributions to our understanding of how the brain functions.