Thinking Maps: Flow Maps and Multi-Flow Maps

On to the Flow Map! Flow Maps are used to sequence events. Mostly everybody has seen them and maybe even used them in their classrooms. They can be vertical, read Left to Right, or even in a shape, like a circle. The only thing you need to keep in mind is to draw your arrows to connect boxes, even if the box is on the next line! Here is a flow map! (As a side note, under event boxes you may do a mini tree map to provide details about the event!)

A Multi-Flow Map explains the causes and effects of a certain event. The causes will have arrows pointing in towards the box with the event and the effect will have arrows pointing out. Remember, just like a Double-Bubble, the amount of causes may vary compared to the amount of effects. Sometimes, several causes may result in one effect, or vice versa. When teaching Cause and Effect to my students, they REALLY embraced this map because they could easily visualize and organize their thoughts with this map. Here is a student example, and a poster I made.

(From a Tacky Book)