Using Adhesive Labels to Organize Information

Tags or labels come in a variety of shapes and sizes, which make them suitable for a variety of classroom activities. One way to use labels to promote critical thinking in the classroom is to have students use labels printed with ideas or topics from the teaching unit to create mind maps or diagrams that visually compose information about the topic.

Mind mapping is an interdisciplinary strategy in which a student or group of students construct a single concept or idea: drama, chemical elements, biographies, vocabulary words, historical events, and commercial products.

The concept or idea is placed in the center of the blank paper and other representative ideas are linked with that central concept plus, branching out in all directions on the page.

Teachers may use mind maps as a check-in exercise, formative assessment, or interim assessment tool, by providing students individually or in groups with printed labels and asking students to suggest information in a way that demonstrates connection. Together with the topics or ideas provided on the labels, teachers may provide some blank space and ask students to create their own labels related to the main idea to add to the mind map.

Teachers may change the exercise to a paper size that allows a few students (poster size) or large groups of students (wall size) to work collaboratively on the mind map. In providing labels, the teacher selects words, phrases, or symbols from the learning unit that is important to develop student understanding.

Some interdisciplinary examples:

• Concepts or ideas for labels for Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet (English Art):

Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Paris, Nurse, Friar Lawrence, letters, rings, Apothecary, Rosaline, "my only love springs from my hatred" , " Two households, both equally dignified."

• Concept or idea about labels for Robert E. Lee biography (Social Studies):

Washington College, West Point Military Academy, Mary Custis, Mexican War, Confederacy, President Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Traveler, Harper's Ferry, Appomattox, Army of Northern Virginia, Battle of Gettysburg.

• Concepts or ideas about labels for iron (Chemistry):

Metals, atomic number, interior and exterior of the earth, oxidizing states, transition metals, boiling point, melting point, isotopes, chemical compounds, industry.

Labels may be created in word-processing software such as Word, Pages, and Google Docs and printed on products from manufacturers or official grocery stores. There are hundreds of templates for labels of different sizes from full sheet 8.5" X 11", large labels 4.25" x 2.75", simple size labels 2.83" x 2.2", and small labels 1.5" x 1".

For teachers who can't afford labels, there are templates that allow them to make their own without adhesive using label templates provided by World Label, Co. Another alternative is to use the schedule feature in a word processing program.

Why use labels? Why not have students copy an idea or concept from the list onto a blank page?

In this strategy providing pre-printed labels ensures that all learners will have labels as regular elements on each mind map. There is value in getting students to compare and contrast a complete mind map. Launching a gallery that allows students to share the final product clearly illustrates the choices each student or group of students made in suggesting their identical label.

For teachers and students, this labeling strategy in creating mind maps visually shows different views and different learning styles in every classroom.

References

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