Mind dump
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
Activity 1
Instructions
5 minutes
Explain to students that they will have three minutes to write down everything they know about a topic.
Encourage them to be visual – for example, to draw diagrams or pictures. (It doesn’t matter if they’re messy.)
At the end of three minutes, students share their visuals with each other.
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.
