Power Mapping 
Owen J. Roberts School District
Purpose: Power Mapping allows students to organize the big ideas
when reading, or brainstorm major points for writing. It is
similar to outlines, but is more appealing to students.
Strategy Overview:
Power 1: The Main Idea (represented by a circle)
Power 2: Subtopics (represented by triangles)
Power 3: Supporting Details (represented by lines with boxes
on the end)
Power 4: More Specific Details (represented by lines with
circles on the end)
Teaching Tips: For writing, let kids “brain dump,” or list all their ideas first,
and then organize their ideas into a power map. For reading,
students can predict what Power 2’s, and sometimes what