Heart Mapping Resources for November Chat
Today our chat was an interactive session, where we created heart maps and then added our heartbreaks. We considered what we could do about the heartbreaks. Then we discussed how we could use heart maps and other tools to help students develop their Genius Hour ideas.
We had a small and busy group–Faige Meller, Jill Canilla Daley, Karen Young, Renee White, Cathy Robey, Jimena Licitra and hosts, Gallit Zvi and me, Denise Krebs.
We have included some educational resources to help with heart mapping, and the archive follows at the end.
Heart Mapping
- A simple heart map can be made with words and pictures of one’s passions. Ask questions such as:
- What matters to you? What are you passionate about?
- What makes you happy?
- What do you love?
- What is the most fun you have ever had?
- What memory is your favorite?
- What things or objects are important to you?
- What things in your heart are sad? Make you cry?
- What secrets are in your heart?
- What are your favorite things, toys?
- What activities do you love?
- What matters to you? What are you passionate about?
- Next you ask questions to illicit what are heartbreaks about those passions and what one can do about it. Ask questions like:
- What breaks your heart about those things?
- What can you do about it?
Sample of this kind of simple heart map is below.
- The heart map below is based on Georgia Heard’s work. She uses a heart map as a tool for helping students keep lots of writing topics at hand. Georgia Heard resource from Awakening the Heart
Heartbreak Mapping
- Heartbreak mapping, like the image below, can be as simple as adding around the edges what breaks your heart about those things in your heart.
- Joy Kirr blog post about heartbreak mapping last spring
- Grab and Grow free mini course on Heartbreak Mapping from Teachers Connect with Joy Kirr
- There is more about how to use heart mapping in Genius Hour in Chapter 7 of The Genius Hour Guidebook by Routledge Eye on Education and MiddleWeb. (Notice the discount code at the bottom of the article on MiddleWeb.)
- It’s good to help students go through the process of identifying which heartbreaks they can actually do something about, and which ones are too much out of their control at this time. Ask them to put stars by several heartbreaks that they want to try to explore doing something about or they can join a group already doing something.
