Planning (1)
1. Relevant Courses
This lesson stresses the importance of planning and, as such, any course that explores the need for careful preparation would be appropriate. These include:
- Entrepreneurship
- Guidance and Career Studies
- Business Studies
- Health and Physical Education
2.Specific Learning Objectives
- recognize the importance of careful planning
- discuss strategies for planning
- participate in a discussion of mind mapping
- apply the mind map strategy to a specific task
- display organizational skill
- formulate plans to address an existing task
3.Skills Targeted for Development
- thinking skills
- organizational skills
- analytical skills
4.Estimated Time for Implementation
One class period
5.General Overview of the Lesson
The importance of careful and detailed planning is the focus of this lesson. Seldom does success simply fall into one’s lap. Detailed, careful, and thorough planning is normally required for successful completion of any major undertaking. Too often, our success is limited because of poor or inadequate planning. Effective planning is a skill that can be learned, and the focus of this lesson is for students to understand the need for good planning and to give them a tool to assist them as they plan.
Examples of how good planning contributes to success will sensitize students to this need. That peak performance requires careful preparation and planning is readily apparent in the world of sport where “the ecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat” is evident. By observing video clips of some of the honoured members of Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame, students can hear first-hand how important preparation and planning is to success.
Having developed this understanding, the students will be given an effective tool for planning (mind mapping) and an opportunity to employ it to address a major task.
6.Resources Required
Classroom Internet access to the Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame website to view the following video clips that will be found by clicking on "Students" in the
Lessons and Learning section of the website:
Bob Bedard (Planning 1)
Hans Fogh (Planning 1)
7.Suggested Implementation Strategy
Begin the lesson by asking students to take a moment and write down one major school assignment or task and one major event or task in their social/family life that is facing them in the near future. Once that is done, have the students put that information aside.
Tell them to put all materials off their desks as they are going to have a surprise major test. Allow the students to react to this announcement. There will usually be an outcry about unfairness from the students. Pursue this with them by asking why they consider it unfair. The response will normally be that they did not have time to prepare and so they will not perform as well.
This provides the opportunity to introduce the essence of the lesson. Announce that there will not be the surprise test (if you feel that this approach affects your relationship with the students, simply ask them how they would feel if they had a pop test and then proceed with the essence of the class) and that you just wanted them to appreciate how important planning and preparation are to success.
Hold a brief class discussion on some of the things that students have found will contribute to successful planning and preparation. Explain that effective planning is an important skill that can be learned and that the successes that result are indeed satisfying and justify the planning efforts.
As examples of how important planning is to success, play the video clips of Bob Bedard 1(Planning) and Hans Fogh 1(Planning).
Debrief these comments to reinforce how planning contributes to success, and then explain to the class that there are organizational tools that help ensure careful and detailed planning. It is at this point that the mind map tool will be presented (see materials below in Appendix).
Pick a task (perhaps planning a class outing) and work through a mind map on the task with the class. Once this is completed, ask the students to take out the tasks that they identified at the beginning of the class, choose one to work on, and have them begin the task. They are to complete the mind map for homework and hand it in at the next class.
8.Suggested Follow-up Activities
Other visual planners could be explored
9. Suggested Evaluation Activities
- Mind maps could be evaluated
10.Links to other Relevant Resources
Appendix:
Student Handouts
How to do a Mind Map
Mind mapping (or concept mapping) involves writing down a central idea and thinking up new and related ideas that radiate out from the centre. By focusing on key ideas written down in your own words, and then looking for branches out and connections between the ideas, you are mapping knowledge in a manner which will help you understand and remember new information.
Look for relationships
Use lines, colours, arrows, branches, or some other way of showing connections between the ideas generated on your mind map. These relationships may be important in helping you understanding new information or in constructing a structured essay plan. By personalizing the map with your own symbols and designs, you will be constructing visual and meaningful relationships between ideas that will assist in your recall and understanding.
Draw quickly on unlined paper without pausing, judging or editing
All of these things promote linear thinking, and the idea of mind mapping is to think creatively and in a non-linear manner. There will be plenty of time for modifying the information later on, but at this stage it is important to get every possibility into the mind map. Sometimes it is one of those obscure possibilities that may become the key to your knowledge of a topic.
Write down key ideas
Some students find that using capital letters encourages them to get down only the key points. Capitals are also easier to read in a diagram. You may, however, wish to write down some explanatory notes in lower case. Some students do this when they revisit the mind map at a later date, whereas others write in such things as assessment criteria in this way.
Put main idea in the centre
Most students find it useful to turn their page on the side and do a mind map in "landscape" style. With the main idea or topic in the middle of the page this gives the maximum space for other ideas to radiate out from the centre.
Leave lots of space
Some of the most useful mind maps are those that are added to over a period of time. After the initial drawing of the mind map, you may wish to highlight things, add information, or add questions for the duration of a subject right up until exam time. For this reason, it is a good idea to leave lots of space.
These hints on how to construct a mind map have been adapted from the work of Tony Buzan and others who have promoted mind mapping as a learning and thinking tool. For a full explanation of the mind mapping technique, see Buzan, T. (1991). The mind map book. New York: Penguin.
How to Mind Map
• Use just key words or, wherever possible, images.
• Start from the centre of the page and work out.
• Make the centre a clear and strong visual image that depicts the general theme of the map.
• Create sub-centres for sub-themes.
• Put key words on lines. This reinforces the structure of notes.
• Print rather than write in script. It makes words more readable and memorable. Lower case is more visually distinctive (and better remembered) than upper case.
• Use color to depict themes and associations and to make things stand out.
• Anything that stands out on the page will stand out in your mind.
• Think three-dimensionally.
• Use arrows, icons, or other visual aids to show links between different elements.
• Don't get stuck in one area. If you dry up in one area, go to another branch.
• Put ideas down as they occur, wherever they fit. Don't judge or hold back.
• Break boundaries. If you run out of space, don't start a new sheet; paste more paper onto the map. (Break the 8x11 mentality.)
• Be creative. Creativity aids memory.
• Get involved. Have fun.
An example of a mind map can be found at the following link:
http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk/make-mind-map.htm
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