Sydney Henderson

Professor Boyd
Early Childhood Education 3304
3 September 2016
Journal 1: Standards and Concept Mapping
Standards are the guideline of what materials a teacher should cover throughout
the course of a school year. These guidelines are set by the government. Some
standards are federal standards (common core) and some are statewide
(georgiastandards.org). These standards give a focus, a goal and an objective to a
teacher for what their students will need to have mastered by the end of each year.
Unpacking a standard is a task each educator must execute prior to creating a lesson.
This unpacking is when an educator determines what material must be taught, and how
each student is expected to use that information.
Concept mapping, also referred to as mind mapping mimics the way our minds
work and allow student to organize their thoughts or knowledge of a subject. Concept
maps begin with an essential question in the middle, and supporting details radiating
outward. Each supporting detail may contain more supporting facts. Concept maps
allow children to show their understanding of the interrelatedness of a topic and all of its
details. These maps may include words or pictures, or as Marzano called them,
nonlinguistic representations.
These maps can be used to assess students knowledge both prior to a lesson
and after the lesson has been taught, to help scaffold student learning, and in a manner
in which to differentiate instruction by asking students to give what is in their

developmentally appropriate range! These maps often assess students academic

language as well. For example, if a student is asked to create a concept map about
constellations, they must first know what a constellation is.