Writing: Brainstorming with Distance Learning
Brainstorming is an important part of the writing process. How can we brainstorm with distance learning?
Brainstorming allows students to process their ideas, sort through them, and decide the best action for their papers.
All the steps in the writing process are important. As we move to distance learning, I need to reframe how my students and I brainstorm. I’m quite used to sorting students around the room, providing different tools, and pulling ideas together. Now, I’m rethinking the process for digital life. Today, I’m reflecting and thinking how to get students brainstorming online with me.
Here are my thoughts for brainstorming digitally.
Getting started: anonymous submissions.
Goal: Collaborate, while staying compassionate toward learners.
Collaboration in class, in-person is one situation. We teachers can see interactions and help students if they stumble.
Distance-learning doesn’t present those same opportunities. Unless you are meeting with students at a certain time (which I have not found successful), students will probably share their brainstorming ideas at random times throughout the day. I want to provide multiple ways for students to share their ideas.
Options for brainstorming:
Google question.
Google Quiz—not a quiz, but a response of ideas.
Poling. I use Poll Everywhere.
Then after students share information, I can assemble it for everyone to access.
Narrowing to individuals: Choice of formats.
Goal: Help students discover a format that works for them.
After we conduct a large brainstorming session, students need to narrow their topics. Again, everyone does this differently. I’m a list girl. (When I brainstormed my ideas for this blog post, I made a bulleted list.) Part of my job as a teacher is to help students learn what work for them.
Immediately, I’m considering a choice of webs, graphic organizers, lists, or Coggle. Students should find a tool and narrow down their topics.
Hopefully, they can start to see their paper come together at this point. I plan to use the collaborative brainstorming material and model several ways to organize the information.
Get writing: positivity.
Goal: Bring positivity to the process.
If I meet with students through a Meet or record myself on Screencastify, I need extra positivity. As I reflect on the move to distance learning, I’ve realized that coaching and encouraging is a large portion of starting the writing process.
Unfortunately, students own this idea that writers sit and write and, TADA! A paper! A large portion of writing with students is explaining and modeling that writers spend plenty of time thinking and rewriting. Writers can’t neglect the brainstorming process.
As I work with students, I might model my writing with students during a time-lapse video. No one would watch me writing for an hour, but a fun video might work. Students should feel the encouragement that I try to convey when we are physically together.
In my classroom, we often spread out and share our ideas on the board, with webs, with lists, everything at our disposal. We grab markers, posters, and sticky notes. That process won’t work now.
At this point, I am missing this brainstorming process we have cultivated. I’m encouraged though that I can create the same spirit of brainstorming with distance learning.
I’ve found that when I let students control their brainstorming processes, they are more likely to produce strong ideas. I need to move that collaborative spirit to an online realm. These are my initial thoughts on how to keep the brainstorming process meaningful. I would love to read your ideas about how you have made brainstorming meaningful with distance learning. Please let me know your secrets in the comments.
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About the Author
Lauralee Moss is creator Language Arts Classroom and author of The English Grammar Workbook.
When she is not teaching or writing, she is probably reading, drinking coffee, chasing her three kids and two dogs, or binge-watching documentaries with her husband.
She teaches high school English full-time in Central Illinois. She has worked in a variety of schools for the previous decade. Visit her on Instagram or Facebook.