NPR
Teaching Podcasting: Choosing a Topic
Pick a topic, any topic! Working in small groups, scholars choose three topics they think would make interesting podcasts. Next, each group shares their ideas with the class to narrow down their choices.
Student Handouts
ABC Brainstorming Chart
Get your pupils' minds going with a brainstorm that goes from A to Z! Individuals fill out the chart with words, ideas, and concepts that start with each letter of the alphabet.
Curated OER
Tasty Topics
Students analyze a graphic from an article and predict what the article might be about. After reading an article, they discover a journalist's experience of traveling across the United States to compare fast food restaurants. They...
Curated OER
Developing a Topic for Writing Using an Idea Web
Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members...
University of North Carolina
Brainstorming
Did you just hear thunder? Nope, you heard the sound of another kind of storm—a brainstorm! A handout teaches writers about different kinds of brainstorming and provides options for them to try when beginning to write their own papers....
Teacher Created Resources
Terrific Topic Sentences
Strengthen writing skills with a introductory exercise to learn how to write topic sentences. Using an informational reading passage, pupils delineate the types of sentences they read and discern what the topic sentence should be.
Do2Learn
Brainstorming Map Array
Getting ideas down on paper is often the first step when starting a project or new unit of study. Try out this straightforward brainstorming map with your class. Learners write in a topic and use the six bubbles that branch out of the...
Tennessee Technical University
Carousel Brainstorm
A variation of the Walkabout Review process, carousel brainstorming directs groups to rotate through a series of stations posting ideas on the topic or question posted at each stop.Â
Curated OER
Directed and Undirected Free-writing: An Activity in Brainstorming
Start the flow of writing with music! Help learners free-write and brainstorm by playing various selections of music. After each selection, scholars talk about the theme and mood and then practice free-writing on their own. Lighten up on...
Curated OER
Terrific Topic Sentences
Capture the interest of your reader with terrific topic sentences. To practice hooking the reader, your class will be given writing prompts, and they must create topic sentences for each prompt provided. Encourage them to use different...
Curated OER
Peace Brainstorming Activity
Students study the topic of peace and use brainstorming techniques to create a clustering diagram. In this peace brainstorming activity, students organize brainstorming material to complete a writing assignment. Students create their own...
Student Handouts
Brainstorming!
A simple worksheet can offer loads of possibilities. This resource includes six blank thought clouds for pupils to brainstorm ideas for their next project or assignment.
Do2Learn
Brainstorming Map Clusters
Get your class thinking with a graphic organizer made for brainstorming. Pupils note down a topic in the middle and then branch out to write down more ideas in each of the three circles that form the cluster around the topic.
Curated OER
BrainStorming
Middle schoolers, through modeling and independent practice, are introduced to the different methods of brainstorming. They explore and engage in these different approaches individually, in pairs, and as a group.
Teach Engineering
Engineering Brainstorming
Here is a lesson that offers a great hybrid of forming new skills and using current knowledge to come up with a plan. The class brainstorms information they would need to know or already know about hybrid vehicles. They then group the...
Do2Learn
Staying on Topic
Get from the beginning of a conversation to a successful end with a communication activity. Learners practice staying on topic with a worksheet that prompts them to ask questions and make comments related to the subject of the conversation.
Curated OER
Worksheet for Choosing a Research Paper Topic & Developing a Thesis Statement
How do you choose a research topic? This helpful graphic organizer is provided to aid middle and high schoolers in organizing their initial thoughts and choosing a topic. They have to narrow their topic by culture, time frame, event,...
Curated OER
Directed and Undirected Free-writing: An Activity in Brainstorming
Eighth graders practice pre-writing skills using brainstorming methods. Using music and meditation, they examine the difference between directed and undirected free-writing, as well as how and when to apply them to the pre-writing process.
Curated OER
Directed and Undirected Free-writing: An Activity in Brainstorming
Analyze the free-writing method of brainstorming to explore how to write an essay. Middle schoolers plan their writing from the beginning after reading two samples of free-writing, then creating their own. The lesson includes extension...
ProCon
Is Homework Beneficial?
Does homework improve student achievement, or does it increase stress? Scholars use the included debate topics website to prepare for a class discussion or debate about whether homework is advantageous. After reading a brief background...
American Chemical Society
Hosting a Chemistry Debate
A debate is a forum for discussing controversial topics and environmental chemistry definitely fits that category. The activity provides everything necessary to run a mini debate tournament. Use the suggested topics or come up with some...
Curated OER
A Brainstorming Activity for ESL/EFL Students
Students connect with new creative ways to brainstorm ideas. Students encounter role playing with this lesson. Students predict future brainstorming topics. Students are encouraged to work with others in small group sessions.
Curated OER
Brainstorming Time
Learners brainstorm a list of possible topics for their essay. As a class, they review the characteristics of anecdotal writing and the form they take in newspapers or autobiographies. To end the instructional activity, they decide on...
Virginia Department of Education
Developing a Research Strategy - Define Your Topic
Your budding scholars spent the day in the library looking for a topic for their research essay, and now they are all in tears because there is too much information available on their topics. Wipe those tears away with the ideas and...