The incestuous relationships of ancient Greek concepts and how they apply to grade 6 Social Studies

To show how a concept map may be used in a classroom, I looked at the grade 6 social studies program of studies. I dealt with the “Greece: an ancient civilization” topic. I thought that a concept map would be a great fit for this topic in 2 situations. The first would involve group brainstorming for paper topics. We could all work together (on a Smartboard?) to add all the information we have studied over the unit to get a clear picture of what we know (the Pre-writing stage of the Writing Process). Similarly, if a paper was not on the agenda, we could work together to create a study sheet for an upcoming test. I added a note to the “Olympics” arm of my map to show how more information can be added (and then collapsed as necessary) to the standard concept map design. The concept map loans itself to studying ancient Greece especially because many of the ideas represented are connected (Philosophers were scientists, writers wrote about the myths and legends of the time, etc.). An extension of the use of the inspiration program while studying this unit could be to use the tree function to do a family tree of the Greek Pantheon (very confusing).

The ICT outcomes that are touched upon on this exercise are to “record group brainstorming, planning and sharing of ideas by using technology” and to “use selected presentation tools to demonstrate connections among various pieces of information”.

Concept mapping could alternatively be used in classrooms for personal journal entries (using words and pictures), individual planning for writing, summaries of texts and important information, and relational diagrams wherever relationships appear across the curriculum (which is virtually everywhere).