Brainstorming 101

Ajay: My English teacher has set us a writing task. The problem is I don’t know much about the topic.

Vinay: Same here, bro. I am also worried that such topics may land in the examination. What then? No Google baba will help us in the examination hall.

Sounds familiar? Students are the same everywhere. It cannot be expected that they know something about everything that can be built into a good 3-4 paragraph article to get decent marks.

Brainstorming is one good pre-writing activity. Brainstorming is a technique often used in ELT classrooms to generate points/ vocabulary. It is a technique for random generation of ideas.

Brainstorming is

·        Fun as there is no right or wrong answer
·        Informal as there is no format to follow
·        inclusive as every student is expected to contribute
·        interesting as many new ideas, thoughts and vocabulary pop up
 

Brainstorming is a group activity but can be a pair as well as individual one.

      ® The topic is introduced
       ® Students are grouped / paired
       ® Everyone speaks words related to the topic (word storming)
       ® Any word is accepted
       ® Nothing is criticized
       ® Quantity is aimed for – more vocabulary to use

This technique brings out passive vocabulary or hidden words. Brainstorming helps students learn new vocabulary.

During remote learning, students could be guided to use the many online brainstorming tools available. These are collaborative and a few are real time as well.

Remember that everything is accepted without criticism. The words are grouped later on.

After a robust session of brainstorming Ajay and Vinay had a bunch of words that they can use while writing the given task. As the words were random words, they met and set about organizing them into lists under different headings. They saw that they had enough words and also many words which may come handy in other writing tasks. They made a note of everything for future use.

Students may be guided to proceed like Ajay and Vinay to begin their writing process. Once students get a hang of it, they may be encouraged to do brainstorming on their own and then proceed to the next step in making their writing relevant to the topic.

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