Brainstorming to Improve Thinking

Toni Enloe
Nov 09, 2009

Name as many items as you can that are...How many things can you think of that ...List what you think you know about...

Brainstorming can have many uses in the instructional setting. Teachers have used brainstorming to generate ideas for writing, launch instructional units, and activate and summarize lessons.

How to Have an High Impact Brainstorm:

1. Be a Friend to Everyone's Ideas:  Don't make fun of anyone's ideas including your own. Welcome all ideas and put them on your list, even if they don't seem to be good at the moment.

2. Build a Large Collection of Ideas:  Initially go for a long list of ideas. The more ideas you can generate, the greater your selection.

3. Be Open to Unusual Ideas:  Sometimes the most far-out ideas can lead to a solution to a problem. Unusual ideas may be adapted into something that is doable.

4. Ping-Pong Ideas:  Take your ideas and the ideas of others, and bounce them back-and forth in your mind like a ping-pong ball. One idea might lead to another, then another and another. By ping-ponging, you might end up with even more ideas.
(Adapted from activities based on Marzano's "Tactics for Thinking")

Ideas for Effective Brainstorming:

Many times students will have a few minutes either before or after lunch where brainstorming can be practiced. Brainstorming can be used to help students extend their thinking.

1. Name as many items as you can that are:

  • as important as the written word
  • as impossible to open as a can without a can opener
  • as complex as the human brain
  • as intricate as a spider web
  • as happy as a winner at the end of a race

2. How many ways can you think of to:

  • protect yourself in the water, from a storm or from sunburn
  • show someone that you like them
  • keep from getting bored in the lunch line

3. How many ways can you think of to improve:

  • a bookmark
  • a desktop
  • an alarm clock
  • a pocket
  • a refrigerator
  • a school lunch

Ideas for Effective Brainstorming in Subject Areas:

Social Studies:
List as many as you can:  geographic terms, kinds of explorers, community helpers, ways that maps can be used, etc.
How many ways can you think of to improve:  neighborhoods, mealtime at your house, parks in your town, etc.
How many different:  kinds of hardship might the first colonists have faced, ways to use any natural resource, problems that might have occurred when ..., etc.

Science:
List:  things you can think of that are found in the ocean, different kinds off ____, many possibilities for a food web/chain, ways to use electricity, ways we could get along without ____, all the sounds you hear in a classroom for 2 minutes, etc.
Ways to:  measure something, determine the weight/height of something, raise of lower the temperature of something, display a collection, classify something, determine the age of something, change the density of something, etc.

Language Arts:
List as many as you can:  words that express a certain mood, words that can replace _____( tired words), ways to show feeling or mood, places to enjoy a book, etc.
Ways to improve:  a subject area, a particular book, your school library, a friendship, communication between _____ and _____, study habits in your classroom, your vocabulary, etc.

Math:
How many ways can you think of to:  express a numeral, fraction, teach addition or subtraction to a friend, measure something, use math at home, etc.
How many uses can you think of for:  a ruler, compass, etc., the symbol zero, a square, rectangle, cone, sphere, etc.

Technology:
List as many as you can: t ypes of technology, ways to use a computers, video cameras, etc.

Music:
List as many as you can:  things that can produce sound, musicians, types of music

Physical Education:
List as many as you can:  types of sports, professional athletes, Olympic sports, characteristics of a healthy lifestyle, etc.

Art:
How many uses can you think of for:  old newspapers, magazines
List as many as you can:  artists, types of art, materials that can be used to produce art, etc.

For more information about Activating Strategies check out LEARNING-FOCUSED What Moves You: How to Get the Most From Activating Strategies.