Sematic Mapping-

Our textbook states that “semantic mapping is a whole-class, small group, or individual activity that develops associations and encourages personal response to targeted vocabulary words. Sematic mapping is particularly useful for pre-reading instruction because it assists in activating students’ prior knowledge of key concepts to be encouraged in text."

This seems like a very effective strategy because it can be used with any group size or even with an individual. I like the idea of free associating words, phrases or terms that they connect with the word because it seems like it could bring out a lot of great ideas.

 I very much liked the idea of sorting the terms into categories to organize them better so the students make connections with their prior knowledge. Our textbook also suggests that there be discussion in semantic mapping to provide much opportunity for students to connect prior knowledge with content concepts and terminology, thus increasing students’ comprehension of text.