When we feel overwhelmed, it’s easy to dwell on what we don’t know, instead of celebrating what we do know. By writing out everything that they remember about a given topic in a visual way, students will be able to make connections and recognise that, in fact, they know many things.

Year level

7-12

Duration

5 minutes

Type

In class activity

Online learning

SEL Competencies

Self-awareness

Learning intention

Students use a visual mind map to recognise what they know.

Key outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

  • identify what they know about a given topic

  • recognise that it’s important to consider what they know, instead of what they don’t know.

Materials needed

  • Paper and pens, or whiteboard and markers

Mapped to

Australian Curriculum: General Capabilities

  • Personal and Social Capability:

    • Self-awareness

  • Critical and Creative Thinking:

  • Generating

  • Reflecting

Show details

Activity 1

Instructions

5 minutes

  1. Explain to students that they will have three minutes to write down everything they know about a topic.

  2. Encourage them to be visual – for example, to draw diagrams or pictures. (It doesn’t matter if they’re messy.)

  3. At the end of three minutes, students share their visuals with each other.

  4. Students can add to their maps once they have seen what others have written.

Debrief discussion:

Sometimes it’s important to stop and reflect on content that is known. This can change a feeling of hopelessness to one of hope.

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