Student Successes With Thinking Maps®
Corwin Press, Second Edition, January 2011
David Hyerle and Larry Alper co-editors


The Chapters, Extensions, and More

Chapter 1: Thinking Maps® as a Transformational Language for Learning
David Hyerle, Ed.D.
Much like a momentary respite before jumping back into an exciting journey, this book represents a resting place for present research, results, and models of practice from over 15 years of bringing thinking maps into schools...
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Section 1: Linking Thinking, Language, and Learning
Chapter 2: Why and How Thinking Maps Work: A Language for the Brain and Mind
Kimberley M. Williams, Ph.D.
Thinking Maps are grounded in eight cognitive universals—thinking processes that our brains use every day: sequencing, hierarchical classification, part-to-whole, causation, comparing and contrasting, describing, analogies, and defining in context. While these processes work in unison, so too does our brain work in interrelated ways by patterning information.

Chapter 3: Leveling The Playing Field for All Students
Bonnie Singer, Ph.D.
“Those of us who are fortunate enough to work with children often find ourselves forever changed by relationships with one or two of them...”
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Chapter 4: Tools for Integrating Theories and Differentiating Practice
Alan Cooper, B.Ed.
Given the short description above of the intersection of emotional and interpersonal intelligences, global and analytic learning styles, and habits of mind, we may begin to see how thinking maps provide a unique, unifying language across these four approaches, each of which is theoretically rich.
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Chapter 5: Closing the Gap By Connecting Culture, Language, and Cognition
Yvette Jackson, Ed.D.
We believe that literacy for urban learners is best developed when the teacher mediates the learning process by providing lessons that foster social interaction for language development and guide the application of cognitive skills that assist students in constructing and communicating meaning. The Thinking Maps are a core component...
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Section 2: Integrating Content and Process
Chapter 6: Maps for the Road to Reading Comprehension: Bridging Reading Text Structures to Writing Prompts
Thomasina DePinto Piercy, Ph.D. and David Hyerle, Ed.D.
‘While I am reading, my mind adds to my Thinking Maps all by itself, and suddenly I know more than I knew’
First Grade Student
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Chapter 7: Empowering Students: From Thinking to Writing
Jane Buckner, Ed.S.
It is time for a writing revolution in America.
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Chapter 8: The Challenge of High Stakes Testing in Middle School Mathematics
Janie B. MacIntyre, M.Ed.
‘Thinking Maps allow you to see where you have made your mistake, and how to show your math in words that make sense’
Student
The statistics indicate considerable growth in mathematical achievement, so how and why does applying thinking maps in math instruction improve math ability as measured on these tests?
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Chapter 9: Thinking Like a Scientist
Lou-Anne Conroy, M.A., and David Hyerle, Ed.D.
Have you noticed over the past 10 years how often scientists in fields such as biology and the neurosciences—as well as the social sciences—use the term mapping for describing how they understand and solve problems within complex areas such as weather systems, ecosystems, the human genome system, and, of course, the human brain? Mapping has become the overarching metaphor for research, discovery, invention, creative and analytical thinking, and, in practical terms, a new way to visually represent knowledge in teh 21st century.

Chapter 10: Thinking Technology
Daniel Cherry, M.Ed.
Thinking maps and Thinking Maps Software comprise a set of tools to integrate technology with pedagogy focused on higher order thinking with the potential to create positive, systemic change in education.
read more excerpts from chapter 9 and view the corresponding video clip courtesy of Video Journal

Section 3: Uniting Whole Learning Communities
Chapter 11: A First Language for Thinking in a Multilingual School
Stefanie R. Holzman, Ed.D.
“The Thinking Maps took the English language learner to the highest level of thinking . . . in a very simple way.”
Teacher
Many of the teachers in this urban, inner city, K–5 school of 1200 minority students (85% of those entering with Spanish as their primary language) thought they were already getting the best out their students.
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Chapter 12: Feeder Patterns and Feeding the Flame at Blalack Middle School
Edward V. Chevalleir, Ed.D.
Thinking maps help students actively process information. The use of the maps creates immediate and specific questions. In a middle school classroom, the constant challenge is maximum engagement. Used in even their most limited form, thinking maps ensure eight “ready” questions—questions associated with each of the eight thinking skills.
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Chapter 13: Becoming a Thinking School
Gill Hubble, M.A.
Through research, practice, personal discoveries, and many rich conversations, we made a multiyear commitment to integrating the thinking maps language into our community.
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Chapter 14: Stories From Mississippi: Results From College to Kindergarten
Marjann Kalehoff Ball, Ed.D.
After I used the maps for several years in my college classes, it was deemed feasible to determine whether or not the maps, interwoven with an existing college reading course, would have a significant effect on reading scores or be affected by the status (traditional/nontraditional) of the student...It may be concluded that mapping made a significant difference on reading test scores...The ripple effect from the utilization of thinking maps is amazing.
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Chapter 15: The Singapore Experience: Student Centered Fluency
Ho Po Chun, M.Ed.
“In Composition, using the Multi-Flow Map helps me look at the bigger picture.”

“Thinking Maps help me expand my vocabulary.”

“Thinking Maps help me keep to the point—no ‘straying.’”

“The use of Thinking Maps help me save time.”
Various Students
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Section 4: Transforming Professional Development
Chapter 16: Inviting Explicit Thinking
Sarah Curtis, M.Ed.
“I was teaching a lesson in social studies and I must have asked a question every conceivable way I could think of. Nobody participated. So I drew a Multi-flow Map on the board and got where I wanted to go! Thinking Maps not only seized the teachable moment, they created the teachable moment.”
Teacher
Ultimately, I came to see that these deeper levels of reflection and performance changes developed because the thinking maps invite explicit thinking and thus reflection, bringing a clarity that inspires confidence and competence.
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Chapter 17: Coaching and Supervising Reflective Practice
Kathy Ernst, M.S.
“So many people have come into my classroom with vague advice and comments that have just made things worse. This is the first time anyone’s given me concrete suggestions about what I can do. This has been really helpful—thank you.”
Teacher (after Kathy and colleague used the Flow and Multi-Flow Maps in post-conference supervision conversation)

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Chapter 18: Thinking Maps: A Language for Leading and Learning
Larry Alper, M.S.
The ability of people to make meaning together, visualize the unknown, and formulate effective action is vital to the success of any organization. In today’s school environment, where change is not an event but an ever present reality, it is imperative that people develop the individual and collective capacity to process information, transform it into new understandings, and shape their futures.
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Chapter 20: Bifocal Assessment in the Cognitive Age: Thinking Maps for Assessing Content Learning and Cognitive Processes
David Hyerle, Ed.D., and Kimberley M. Williams, Ph.D.
In this chapter the authors first surface the need for reframing formative and summative assessment in this, the cognitive age of the 21st century. The Thinking Maps model is introduced as a theoretical and practical common visual language for teaching, learning and assessment that reflects what we know about how the brain works, learning, and cognition. Thinking Maps--as a language--allows teachers to see student content learning and thinking processes through the same bifocal lens—viewing the content at the surface and cognitive processing more in depth. After this overview and then a discussion of the validity of the model, the investigation turns to look at student work with Thinking Maps as they develop fluency with the tools and the capacity to transfer the tools within and across disciplines. Formative assessment of fluency and transfer are described and then the authors discuss how the maps may also be used within the area of summative assessments, using the MAPPER holistic scale. The authors investigate how our assessment tools need to keep pace with our new understanding about how the brain learns and processes information, offering tools for educators and learners to determine not only "what" is learned but also "how" it is learned.

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Student Successes With Thinking Maps