Is Brainstorming Still a Vital Part of the Writing Process?

I love to teach young writers how to brainstorm; however, over the years, I have discovered that students entering high school and even upper-level high school students are less prepared and unmotivated to perform this part of the writing process.

I used to preface my first ninth-grade essay lesson of the year with, “Let’s begin with the easiest part of writing an essay: brainstorming!” I would first read the prompt aloud while my students read it silently. However, as I conducted monitoring laps around the classroom, I would see far too many blank pages, and other students would disregard instructions to brainstorm and proceed to begin writing their version of an essay. So, I would immediately call a time-out and ask “Can someone tell me what brainstorming is?” I received a sprinkle of almost-right-answer responses. Even though most knew it came before writing the essay, others did not know how to get started or wanted to complete the assignment quickly.

Having taught at the junior high school level, I knew that brainstorming was something my seventh and eighth-grade English colleagues taught ad nauseam. My next step was to put some drawings on the whiteboard, I drew a t-chart, a cluster (bubble) map, and a Venn diagram. Students recognized these graphic organizers and remembered how to use these drawings to classify or organize information, but most did not associate them with brainstorming in their English class.

My next step was to dissect the prompt. As a class, we answered and discussed the following questions:

·         What does this topic remind you of?

·         What do you know about this topic?

·         How does the topic make you feel?

Moving forward, I asked them to create a list, explaining that this was my favorite way to brainstorm. More importantly, I believe listing is the least intimidating way to brainstorm for struggling students and most appealing for those who do not like to brainstorm. I said, “List everything this topic makes you think about.” I challenged them to think of at least ten ideas. Some students could only get 3, some 5 and a few were able to list 10 or more.  The next step was to cross off all the ideas that had nothing to do with the prompt. I explained that what remained was a sort of cheat sheet to revisit anytime they got stuck or needed more ideas while writing the essay. 

The impromptu mini-lesson was particularly impactful for my less-confident and struggling students. I began to use this method for all types of essays. Depending on the difficulty of a prompt, I might have students brainstorm for one or two class periods as a warm-up.  Although I have tried other methods where students return to the brainstorming process and think of more ideas when they encounter a mental block, many students lack the patience to keep repeating this process, and others find it frustrating. In my experience, the more ideas they can brainstorm from the onset the better.

--Ms. WITT