Essay Poster Project 4

 

Brainstorm for Writing

From here we move to Day 2. The students and I meet in the afternoon and their performance and behavior could become discipline problems if we stick solely to the textbook.

I ask a student to write the seven steps of the writing process on the board. As they write, I walk around and collect the bookmarks commenting on them and giving encouragement. Students of course are missing them; I give them one more day. Several students are missing photos of themselves; I give them one more day. (Grading is based on meeting the requirements I set, not the creativity of the bookmark.) We review the 7 steps. I then ask the students to clear their desks and erase the board.

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I give the students a sheet that asks for their name, their topic, and the seven steps, and has a spider/cluster diagram on it. I explained it was now quiz time and to begin filling in the information.

As the students complete the form, because I assist them by providing the seven steps again orally several times, I then write my own essay topic on the board and circle it. I ask the students to give me words and ideas that they associate with my topic. I write everything that they say, no matter how off-topic my topic is. Then I start making storm and thunder sounds, and the students are shocked and attentive. I hold my head and continue to make sounds asking occasionally: “What time is it?” I hope to elicit brainstorming, and fortunately, I did after a few “teacher crazy time” answers.

Mindmap
 

As we start talking about brainstorming, I walk around slowly asking for erasers from everyone. I emphasize that nothing is crazy. I ask them to write their topic in the middle of the diagram and ask them to write words or ideas that are associated with the topic that they want to write about. I turn on some pop music and let them write.

Initial attempts are only a word or a phrase. I am walking around looking at their productions and asking questions. This is an activity no one can finish. Every time a student thinks they have completed the next step, I ask them more questions. I tell them that for homework they need to write a sentence for each circle that links to the topic in the middle. For questions, I refer them to the textbook and show how diagrams or words are reworked into sentence formation.

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Find other Project-based learning ideas at: Project Palooza Monday

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