Thinking Maps

The following resources and materials were provided and created by several educators for use at a Thinking Maps professional development for the Antelope Valley Union High School District (AVUHSD). Neither Thinking Maps nor the AVUHSD endorse RivasEdu. These materials are provided here as a resource for educators to use for educational purposes.

Visit www.thinkingmaps.com for official Thinking Maps inquiries.

Introducing Thinking Maps: "A Language for Learning"

1. Watch introductory videos.

  • On the top left, you'll find a playlist of 2-minute videos by YouTuber and TEDx speaker Jaime McGrath to help you create your own set of Thinking Maps. To the right, you'll find a 3-minute introduction video I put together for a recent online workshop.

2. Take this multiple choice quiz to check your own understanding (also linked in below, bottom left).

3. Create a set of Thinking Maps on a topic or topics of your choice. You can choose to make them all on a single topic (like this Star Wars example) or vary them (like in the videos below).

The samples may be academic or goofy. Here's a cheat sheet to help you out.

4. If you'd like to share your samples, you can upload your original examples to this Padlet and find other's examples too..

TM 1 Deck 1

Using Signal Words: "I feel a Map coming on..."

1. Look at the Signal Words handout to see how to identify Thinking Maps when students read a text.

2. Take the “Name That Map” Quiz to check your understanding

TM 1 Deck 2

Developing an Implementation Plan: "Talk through the Maps."

1. Look at the Implementation Samples below to create a plan for implementation for your instructional context.

2. Create a plan for implementation for your instructional context. This folder contains implementation plans for each Map.

TM 1 Deck 3.1 Implementation Plan

Teaching Writing with Thinking Maps: "Taking it off the map."

After watching the video below, take this quiz to check your own understanding.

TM 1 Deck 4 Writing with TMaps