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Washington Rose Elementary

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The Story

These maps were created as part of a school wide project on building character. The new principal found that there was no existing character development program in the school. She had a brainstorm one day about the name of the school, Washington Rose. As she was reflecting on the beauty of roses, she decided to create the acronym ROSE – R = Responsible, O = Organized, S = Self-respect,  E =Empathy.

 

Map Makers

Every month the school focuses on a new character trait, and teachers create a variety of Maps to define that month’s trait. At the end of the month, each class votes on their student of the month using the traits for that month as the criteria for selection. Then, every student in the the class creates a map about that student. Together, the class uses input from all the student maps and writes an essay using the map as a template. Every month there is a school assembly where the student of the month from each class is announced. As the students are announced, there is a power point slide show that shows the class map about that student with evidence in the frame dictating why that student is the one selected. The class essay is read and shared with the school. At the end of the assembly the student of the month gets a class set of maps that his/her classmates created.

 

Expert Opinion

These precious Circle Maps are model maps because they have many of the critical elements needed for defining. Each map has a guiding question that not only keeps students focused on the topic, but also uses the academic vocabulary students are learning. The information inside the circle answers the question and proves that students know the concept of Responsible and Organized. Finally, each map has a Frame of Reference that shows how the students thought about the information inside the Circle Maps. I can almost hear the teacher asking the students “How do you know these things about Rondell and Mia?” I can look at their maps and see their very impressive thinking and understanding of these important character traits.

The post Washington Rose Elementary appeared first on The Official Thinking Maps ® Blog.


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