I’m sure you all remember the class wide essay planning session
where you teacher stood at the front of the classroom, chalk (or SmartBoard
pen…we’ve a wide range of tutor ages!) in hand, drawing circles all across the
board to create a literal web of ideas. Teachers referred to these planning
sessions as webbing, mind mapping, or brainstorming. Though the origins of the
spiderous-looking graphic organizers remain disputed, the group planning
sessions found across the US from boardrooms to classrooms are generally
attributed to an advertising executive in the 1940s. This gentleman sought to
“storm” ideas with his group.
Boardrooms across the US wholeheartedly embraced the idea. Why
wouldn’t they? Think about your own group projects from school—one or two
people generally complete 80-percent of the assignment; the remaining members
aren’t necessarily just along for the ride, but they’re happy to contribute
according to the systems and processes that the more ambitious group members
create. In the boardroom situation, the one or two members who generally
contributed most of the ideas likely saw brainstorming as a means of motivating
the rest of the group to contribute. Those couple of members still produced
about 80-percent of the ideas.
Your student is a product of these boardroom experiments gone
awry.
When he asks you for help brainstorming an essay, it isn’t that
he hasn’t been exposed to a vast array of graphic organizers. He needs help
creating the system and process in which he can begin to storm those ideas for
himself. There is no magic app or graphic organizer that will do the thinking
for your student. He needs your help to learn a simple, easy-to-replicate
system that will allow him to generate ideas for when you’re not around to help
him.
If you can help your student implement this simple process, then
he can achieve the confidence he needs to have success in his writing
endeavors:
1)
Create a mindmap (web or whatever you’d like to call it) with
the topic circled big and bold in the center of the page. Draw spokes (or you
could call them sunrays, however you’re so inclined) radiating out from the
topic. Provide your student with a certain number of spokes. This part is
important. Research shows that students will achieve 75-percent more ideas when
given a number of ideas to aim for.
2)
Leave the student to brainstorm independently. As Picasso
famously explained, “Without great
solitude, no serious work is possible.” The student is then free to explore
his own thought association. That’s all a mindmap is anyway; it just helps
students sort through the filing cabinets of their brain for more ideas!
3)
Once the student has a map of ideas, then you can ask questions
about each of the spokes to help the student develop more ideas. If needed,
provide the student with more time to brainstorm. Don’t rush this process
(unless you’re practicing for a test essay, but that’s a completely different
process!).
4)
When you’re both happy with the number of ideas generated, then
help the student select a graphic organizer that best fits the planning model
for his particular essay. You can either draw one from your own repertoire, or
you can find a selection of graphic organizers on our Pinterest page, ranging from
planning a persuasive piece to a narrative piece of writing.
Implementing this practice will take time. The student needs how
to approach creating ideas for future essays by learning from your modeled
approach. With your guidance and
positive reinforcement, he will eventually initiate the steps himself.
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