Concept Map - Lesson Plan

Use in the Classroom
Third graders in our district spend more than half the year studying pop art. They learn about the history of pop art and study several artists including Keith Haring and Wayne Thiebaud. In fifth grade, they study Andy Warhol. This concept map helps students make the connections between the stylistic elements of pop art with the history and with the related artists. It makes connections between third and fifth grade by showing that Keith Haring, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol, and others were all part of the pop art movement.

This concept map would be best used in fifth grade to refresh prior knowledge from their third grade studies. While studying Andy Warhol, they can refresh themselves with the details of pop art and then add to the concept map. I would have them focus on adding to the Andy Warhol portion because he is their main artist for the year. Having each student find a link, photo of his work, and/or video to add would be great for deeper understanding, however this could be used for an assignment as simple as identifying the stylistic characteristics of his work, listing the various subject matter that he used, or even connecting his work to current ideas like advertising, web design, and video game design (especially minecraft).

Students will be able to:

• Read the concept map and make connections between third grade and fifth grade artists and the pop art movement
• Add one idea to the concept map (characteristic of his work, connection to current cultural icons, and/or add a picture of one of his artworks. 
• Analyze the connections between pop art and popular culture/mass media
• Create their own piece of art based on the pop art ideas of connecting art to popular culture and making art accessible to everyone 

Since students are working on the same concept map, they will be building off of each others ideas. Our school uses Visible Thinking Routines and the concept map is very similar to a routine called a "chalk talk." Since students are already familiar with the format, they understand how to add on to each other's ideas -- agreeing, disagreeing, adding new ideas, and making connections. The fact that students are so familiar with the Visible Thinking Routines from art and their regular classrooms is building a culture of collaboration throughout the school, not just in my classroom. The idea of putting the concept map online would be new to them since we typically just use the giant rolls of paper and post it in the hallway. Having it online would be a great way to share their learning with parents and might encourage students to collaborate even further when they know they have to be accountable to their parents as well as the teacher. 

Application

I used Coggle to create my concept map. I felt like the controls were limited even though usability was pretty easy. I think next time I would use Google Draw. We use Google Classroom throughout the school so my guess is that the user interface and design would be more familiar to students and require less of a learning curve. Coggle is limited in its controls. I did think about spacing and tried to align relevant text so that it looked neat, had consistent spacing, and was in close proximity to the connected ideas. It's difficult to know where the two links are ("Andy Warhol" and "Pop Art" in the center) because they aren't easily recognizable. "Pop Art" doesn't pop at all so I doubt anyone would intentionally click there. They might click on "Andy Warhol" only because it's a slightly lighter shade of blue than the others listed in the same section. 

Reflection

The idea of collaboration is a good one. I don't think Coggle is the right tool for what I need. Like I said above, I would try Google Draw next time instead to see if the usability and design controls are any easier for the students. The fact that this concept map is so similar to the "Chalk Talk" Visible Thinking Routine is great for consistency between the classrooms. I see a big advantage in doing it electronically both in the classroom and as a means to share student thinking at home. My main disadvantage again is time and lack of technology. I typically have six groups of four students based on their classroom tables, however I only have 3 iPads and one desktop computer, which leaves two tables without the means to participate. I also only see most students 45 minutes per week, once a week.