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EQUIPMENT

 

Chalkboard or OHP or flipchart or IWB

 

DESCRIPTION

 

This activity is intended to familiarise students with the process of “Brainstorming” - also referred to more recently as "Thought-showering". 

 

Brainstorming is used to generate lots of ideas in a short space of time without attempting to evaluate those ideas.  It is intended to encourage participation.  Brainstorming has been used productively by businesses of all sizes to encourage innovation.

 

The teacher should remind the class that there are no “right answers”.  All contributions are greeted positively.  The teacher may write down the ideas - but as quickly as possible (no time to be neat and tidy!)  It may be possible to reward every idea - no matter how crazy it is. 

 

Brainstorming is more challenging if you set a time limit (say, 1 or 2 minutes) - and if you set a target (15 - 20 items is usually reasonable - though it depends on the topic)

 

Brainstorming can be used in a variety of classroom settings.  We have suggested a number of topics and approaches to get you started.

 

  • TWENTY WAYS TO USE A *** (house-brick / handkerchief / paper-clip / etc.)

  •  THIRTY WORDS BEGINNING WITH *** (You could use a single letter - or 2 or 3 letters.)

  •  FIFTEEN DIFFERENT ***  (fruits / birds / TV programmes / makes of car / etc.)

  •  SIXTEEN WORDS THAT RHYME WITH ***

  •  TWELVE SONGS CONTAINING THE WORD ***  (say / boy / girl / every / etc.)

  •  TEN GOOD THINGS ABOUT ***  (music lessons / dogs / old people / etc.)

This activity can be used to develop nearly ALL the intelligences, depending on the topic chosen.

 

BEFORE

 

None

 

AFTER

 

The next stage (which is sometimes appropriate) is to evaluate the ideas generated by a brainstorming.  This is done without identifying who suggested the ideas being rejected.  One possible method of evaluation is to use "traffic lights" (RED for "no", ORANGE for "maybe", GREEN for "yes").  Another method is to pick a "top three" from the suggestions stormed, then to consider "reasons why", "reasons why not", "who", "when", "what will it cost" .... or whatever.

 

Brainstorming can be used to generate ideas for stories, displays, artwork and other projects.

 

 

LOGICAL

 

MUSICAL

 

INTRA-PERS.

 

 

PHYSICAL

 

LINGUISTIC

 

INTER-PERS.

 

NATURALIST

 

VISUAL