Overview

A comprehensive mind map that pulls together all ideas from across a course of study — characterisation, narrative structure, language, imagery, symbolism, themes/issues/ideas, author's values, context and key quotes. Students review all prior work (text walks, annotations, visualising activities) and create connections between different "bubbles," explaining the links between them. This is more than revision; students develop new, deeper awareness of how the parts of a text contribute to the whole.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Students gather all their prior work: annotations, text walks, visualising activities, QPCI sheets, summaries, etc.
2. In the centre of the A3 page, write the text title.
3. Create main branches for: Characterisation, Narrative Structure, Language & Imagery, Symbolism, Themes/Issues/Ideas, Author's Values, Context, Key Quotes.
4. Working through each branch, students transfer the most important ideas and observations from their prior work.
5. The crucial step: students draw links between branches, annotating each link with an explanation. For example, a character trait might link to a theme, which links to the author's values.
6. Students identify which links represent the text's most significant ideas — these are the foundation for essay writing.

Tips

• This is a unit-end activity — students need a full body of prior work to draw from.
• The linking step is where synthesis happens. Without links, this is just revision.
• Mega Maps can become assessment pieces or the basis for essay planning.

More Synthesising Activities