Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a technique to help students develop content ideas before they have to do a more complex task, such as writing an essay or giving a presentation. Brainstorming can also be used as a pre-reading activity for a longer text. The key guideline for brainstorming is to avoid judging the ideas as they come up. All ideas, no matter how silly or simple, should be noted. The purpose of brainstorming is to help students develop a better “answer.” Students usually speak or write with better, richer, and more sophisticated content if they have been able to find a topic they are interested in and if they consider the topic from a variety of angles. Brainstorming should be used in the planning stages of a larger project.

Preparation

• The teacher should have ideas about the topic to be able to prompt the students if necessary. • Have paper or a blackboard to write ideas on.

When to Use It

• To introduce a new topic or reading • To activate background knowledge • To come up with ideas to write or talk about • To develop a topic

Level

Skills

Content and organization

Practice

Materials

Writing materials or blackboard

Procedure Preparation Time

1. Brainstorming can be oral or written. 2. Brainstorming can be done as a whole class, in groups, in pairs, or individually. a. Whole-class brainstorming works best when the teacher is demonstrating the technique for the first time or when time is short. The teacher or a student should write on the blackboard as the class calls out ideas. If students hesitate to call out, then the teacher can prompt them by asking leading questions or giving an example or two. b. Pairs and groups can work cooperatively or in a sort of round robin. Each student can have a topic on a particular piece of paper; the student can then write down a contributory idea and then pass the paper to the next student. Once the ideas are generated, students can be asked to choose one as the topic for further development, or students can look for relationships between the ideas and then organize them. 5 minutes

Activity Time

10–20 minutes

Text

Any

Variations

There are several brainstorming techniques. 1. Mapping — Have students note down ideas in single words or short phrases and ask them to draw the connections between the ideas with arrows, circles, and bubbles. This is a great technique for visual learners. Below is an example of this kind of map. Of course, more ideas related to the holiday could be included.

FOOD FOOD * turkey * turkey * mashed potatoes * mashed potatoes * cranberries * cranberries

HISTORY HISTORY * pilgrims * pilgrims * Native Americans * Native Americans * Mayflower * Mayflower OTHER OTHER * football * football * family * family * gratitude * gratitude

THANKSGIVING THANKSGIVING DAY DAY

2. Listing — Note down the ideas in single words or phrases in a simple list in the order in which they are brought up. This may be less intimidating than mapping, since the map suggests that the ideas need to be connected. Afterwards, students can group concepts by marking related terms with the same symbol, as in the list below:

THANKSGIVING Turkey* Football Pilgrims + Mashed potatoes* Family Gratitude Native Americans + Cranberries* The Mayflower +

3. Free writing — Note down ideas in sentences. The instructions are to write as much as possible in a five- or ten-minute time period without once letting the pen or pencil stop. Students should write “mmmmm” or “I can’t think of anything to write” until they get a new idea to write about. Afterwards, they can share their main ideas with a partner and then with the whole class.