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Carousel Brainstorming: F2F and Virtual

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Writing to Learn into the Content

Using writing to learn activities to think through content is useful for beginning units, accessing prior knowledge, and making predictions.  Consider the carousel brainstorming method for engaging students in particular questions about the topic.  See how you can adapt this activity for both face-to-face and virtual settings.

Carousel Brainstorming: Face-to-Face

  1. Write five or six statements or questions about the topic being studied – each one at the top of a separate piece of chart paper.  
  2. Post charts with statements or questions around the room.
  3. Option 1: Students in small groups rotate among the posted sheets, and each group spends several minutes at a sheet to discuss the topic and then write a group brainstorm or response on the chart paper (and sign it). 
  4. Option 2: Students individually write comments on chart paper as written conversations.  If approaching the task as an individual activity, chart paper should be placed on tables to be more easily accessible by multiple students at once.
  5. At your signal, the groups rotate to the next chart.
  6. Repeat until all have visited all the charts.
  7. Allow a few minutes for a gallery walk for people to see all the ideas that have been shared.  

As with other brainstorming, use the lists as you are working through the unit, to highlight big ideas and themes, answer questions, or clarify misconceptions.

Carousel brainstorming in face-to-face classroom or conference environment invites both written and verbal conversation. 

Carousel Brainstorming: Virtual 

A platform such as Padlet.com provides a collaborative virtual bulletin board.  On Padlet, the “shelf” template allows you to title columns with statements or questions.

  1. Make a Padlet board* with a template such as “shelf.”
  2. Write 5-6 statements or questions, each on a different column in the Padlet board.
  3. Students read and respond to all of the statements and questions in a set amount of time.
  4. During the next time frame, students may select one statement or question for their focus.
  5. Student read all the posts made in this focus column.
  6. Invite students to comment on a few posts that particularly connected to them.
  7. Extend this activity by asking students to summarize thoughts in a journal entry.
  8. When using the carousel writing to learn activity for moving into the content, be sure to return to the activity at the end of the unit or topic.  Using new chart paper or Padlet allows for comparisons to students’ original thinking.  You can also clear the original Padlet, but be sure to save the original as a PDF!

Happy thinking and writing!

*Note: Carefully consider the settings for the age/grade level.  Padlet allows for anonymous posts, but the settings can be changed to require authors’ names and allow comments from other participants.  Settings also provide the option to moderate posts and filter for profanity.  Virtual participation often results in more boldness than face-to-face classroom interactions, which are both advantages and disadvantages to the digital platform.

Resources provided by the Illinois Writing Project Basic 30 Team.  Become part of our community – see our upcoming events here.  Check out IWP on Twitter!

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Online Summer Workshop Schedule

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The covid-19 pandemic may have upended traditional teaching, but we remain committed to pushing forward as writers and educators. No matter where you are, you are welcome to join us in one or more of our online summer workshops.

summer conference flyer

Click on the flyer for more information on sessions and how to register.

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Writing to Learn: Two Times Two

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Writing to learn removes barriers that formal assessment might place in the way of creative thought and exploration.  Writing to learn activities are spontaneous, short, exploratory, expressive, informal, personal, unedited, and ungraded. This is much like what we expect brainstorming or pre-writing to be.  We can use writing to explore and muddle through complicated new ideas at both pre-writing and writing beyond the content.

Two tools discussed here are clustering and concept mapping.

Clustering

Clustering is a form of writing-to-learn using a kind of right-brained outlining first described by Gabrielle Rico in her book Writing The Natural Way (Tarcher, 1985).

  • Start with a key concept, term, or name in a circle at the center of a page.
  • Draw spokes radiating out from the center circle.
  • Through free-association, jot down all the ideas in circles arrayed at the end of the spokes, in whatever pattern “seems right.”
  • Add more spokes as ideas lead to further thoughts and connections.

For Pre-Writing.  For creative writing, this topic might be a self-selected, perhaps one from a previous writing.  As an entry point into a lesson, it might be a concept suggested by the instructor.  Writers can then use this diagram as an outline or list of subtopics they wish to cover. Then, they can use scaffolding that leads to the issue that they really want to focus on. It can be a guide to a group of issues related to one another in one region of the diagram.

For Writing Beyond the Content.  Clustering helps writers see how all the main ideas and details in a unit of study are connected together. In addition, clustering often reveals unrecognized connections and relationships. group writing

Concept Mapping  

Concept mapping, originating with Joseph Novak and Alberto J. Cañas, depends on relevant relationships among the ideas on the page.  This method is especially helpful for writers who are trying to learn and write about larger subject areas.

  • Begin with a list of subtopics, cause-effect relationships, or whatever aspects of their topics are relevant.
  • Add words and phrases to the list, drawing connections to other items.
  • Label lines (connections) to explain how the two items are related.

For Pre-Writing.  The relationships identified among the topics generated in a concept mapping session can springboard a writer into inquiry (What other connections might there be? Why are these two items connected?) or creative writing (What do I have to say about these connections?)

For Writing Beyond the Content.  Identifying relationships among concepts moves writers beyond the day’s lesson or week’s mini-unit.  Encouraging writers to think about the crossovers in their lives (other content areas, extra-curricular, family, community, and world) enhances understanding of the concept.  Fire up those synapses!

Going Digital A Google search for digital brainstorming or mind mapping tools will populate your screen with countless options.  I have had success with digital tools Padlet or Popplet  because they are so easy to use.

Resources provided by the Illinois Writing Project Basic 30 Team. Don’t forget to check out the IWP on Twitter!

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Writing to Learn

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Writing is more than just a language art.  It is a means of engaging and exploring subject matter more effectively.  Over the next weeks, we will share writing-to-learn activities that reach across many subject fields and teaching styles. As a result, we are helping students move into, through, and beyond the content of the curriculum.  However, we must first lay some groundwork.

writing

Writing to learn activities differ from formal expository or creative writing assignments in important ways.  They are…

  • SPONTANEOUS vs.  planned
  • SHORT vs. lengthy
  • EXPLORATORY vs. authoritative
  • EXPRESSIVE vs. transactional
  • INFORMAL vs. formal
  • PERSONAL vs. audience-centered
  • UNEDITED vs. polished
  • UNGRADED vs. graded

Writing as a tool for learning gives extra leverage to thinking.  Consequently, it works best when we personalize the language.  We invite writers to be informal, colloquial, and personal — as close as possible to everyday speech.  We should invite experimentation and risk-taking. Never mind proofreading and grading.  These results are used in class for ongoing exploration of content.

This week, here is a nugget for writing through the content to try in either face-to-face or online virtual class meetings.

Take a writing break.  Too often in presentations, teachers feel a need to plunge on and “cover the material.” (My online video lectures – guilty!)  In fact, students would benefit greatly from an occasional pause for them to write and reflect on what is being taught.  Some possible focusing questions might be these:

  • What are you thinking right now?
  • Where have you gone so far?
  • What questions are bugging you?

This break provides students a chance to consolidate what has been learned and prepare to go on.  

Resources provided by the Illinois Writing Project Basic 30 Team. Don’t forget to check out the IWP on Twitter!

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Visualizing Your Writing

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Using visualizing as a brainstorming tool can generate amazing ideas for writing.  With four steps, participants can spring into writing, hurdling over those stubborn blocks that can sometimes halt us in our writing tracks.  The basic structure of classroom visualization or guided imagery has four steps: choice, relaxation, visualization, and return.  Consider the following guide through this brainstorming process.
  1. Choice:  Guide the writers in selecting a particular remembered or imaginary scene.  Ask questions such as, “What is a memory that makes you smile?” or “Where is a place you treasured growing up?”  You can take this in directions of the imagination, as well, with questions about favorite settings in books (Hogwarts, anyone?).
  2. Relaxation:  Help writers relax by establishing a mood for the exercise.  Eyes may close.  Writers should breathe calmly.  Lower your own voice to a clear, gentle tone.
  3. Visualization:  Provide a series of “contentless” prompts based on the guidance during the choice step.  Ask questions such as, “Look to your left — what do you see there?” “What is the sun doing?” “What does the air feel like?” “Who else is with you?” and others.
  4. Return:  Ask writers to gather their details from the visualized scene.  Bring them back to the present time.
imagination Consider using this technique to search memories for details about past experiences, reconstruct scenes from stories (or combinations of stories), or create new, imaginative experiences. You may be surprised what you can come up with! Because guided imagery works so well, evoking vivid details which people have often forgotten, and because it requires some rather carefully worked out methods, Zemelman and Daniels wrote a whole chapter about this procedure in A Community of Writers (Zemelman and Daniels, Heineman, 1988.) Credit goes to Steve Zemelman, Smokey Daniels, and the Illinois Writing Project Basic 30 team for this content. Check us out on Twitter!
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Modifying the Writing Marathon

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The writing marathon has become a mainstay in many Writing Project summer institutes, workshops, and conferences.  The goal of a writing marathon is to weave together movement and writing.  A writing marathon might have a theme or purpose for visiting particular sites.  For example, in 2011 during my Louisville Writing Project summer institute experience, we drove to Civil Rights landmarks. Our writers learned about the events and people they represented, and then reflected and wrote.  Similarly, at several conferences and workshops, I have seen hosts conduct walking and writing tours of their home cities. running So how might the writing marathon be modified for the classroom or home when mobility is limited?  When conducting a writing marathon in a limited space such as around the classroom or home, consider guiding participants to find inspiring spaces or objects.  Lately, scavenger hunts have become popular activities.  Similarly, writing can be inspired by reflections about the simplest objects in our local spaces – birds in flight, spring awakening, cracks in sidewalks (where did old wives’ tales come from, anyway?).

Writing Guidelines

Modifying the recommendations of “A Guide for Writing Marathon Leaders” posted by the National Writing Project can help.
  1. Treat the participants as writers.  Be a writer.
  2. Keep the marathon focused on the writing.  Sightseeing, tour guide speaking, and socializing take backseat.
  3. Conduct as many rounds of writing as possible.  The walking, talking, reading, or interacting should spur writing, not detract from it.
  4. Write, read your writing to others, and say only “thank you” after each reading (Natalie Goldberg, whose book Writing Down the Bones).
  5. Say, “I am a writer.”  Really.  Do it.
  6. Keep groups small.  In the case of a classroom, 3-4 students writing together is appropriate.  At home, write alongside your child or children.  Be partners in writing.
  7. Remember that writing happens even when we’re not writing.  The moment the writing marathon has begun with introductions of participants as writers, the mindset has shifted to positive productivity.
  8. Select an appropriate closure.  It might be a select reading of the marathon’s writings.  Stay flexible.  Participants might not be ready to stop writing at the same time.
  9. Remember: choice, community, diversity, spontaneity, serendipity, discovery.
  10. Write for the experience, not the product.
As stated in the Guide, “A writing marathon is all about the writing and writer. Say it again. It is all about the writing and writer. And writing is enjoyable, especially when you do not have to do it for anyone else but yourself, when no one will criticize it, when you give it plenty of time, and when you allow yourself to write about things you did not expect.”  Also see this handout for more tips. Finally, share your writing marathon experiences as participants and leaders as comments to this post.  We look forward to hearing from you!
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Writing an Apology Poem: What Else Can We Do with a Direct Address?

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Increasing the focus on clear communication moves writing,

speaking, and listening to the center of our teaching. What are ways other than speech and argument essay writing can we teach students to address an audience? How do we foreground students’ creativity? Furthermore, what are ways other than speech and argument essay writing can we teach students to address an audience? Also, how do we foreground students’ creativity?

sorry Some poems take the form of “direct address”—that is, the speaker in the poem talks directly to a specific person. Poems can be used to develop initial reactions to situations or current events or as extensions of other types of writing.

An apology poem uses direct address to apologize for something the speaker has done or said. One of the most famous examples is William Carlos Williams’ “This Is Just to Say.” The following activity description can guide students through close reading, analyzing, creative brainstorming, purposeful drafting, language revising, and peer collaborating.

Possible script for writing an apology poem:

  • Read Williams’ poem.
I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
  • Decide for yourself whether the speaker is actually sorry for what he has done.
  • Think of a situation like this from your own life.  Have you ever been forced to apologize when you didn’t really mean it? Try to recall two or three examples of times like this from your own experience.
  • For each example, write a very short description of what you have done (the action).
  • Think about details of sense: taste, touch, sound, sight, or smell. Give your readers a clear idea of what the action felt like for you.
  • Choose one of your examples to mine very short lines for your apology poem in a similar format to the one by Williams. Probably no punctuation is necessary.
  • Finally, use “This is just to say” as your first line if you wish. If you want, you can also include the words “Forgive me” in the last stanza of your poem.

Experiment with different ways to make line breaks or stanza breaks in order to get the effect that you want. Remember, there is no wrong way to write an apology poem. When William Carlos Williams wrote “This Is Just to Say,” no one had ever created a poem quite like this before. You can borrow his format if you want, or you can create something totally new.

Give the activity a try and post a comment or tweet a link to your draft! Better yet, come show it to us in person at our mini-conference on March 14th! You are welcome to share this post. Consider including hashtags such as #ilwrites, #teachwriting, #writing, as well as your own chat groups.