I thought this would be of interest to some of my readers.

Brainwriting

This strategy has been around for some time now but it is still an effective strategy to utilize in any subject area. It is called “Brainwriting”. 

Brainwriting is an alternative to brainstorming that involves having group members interact through reading and writing rather than speaking and listening.

Brainwriting typically includes the following steps:

1.   Identify a topic that students will be studying.

2.   Assign students to groups of no more than four.

3.   Have students record what they know about the topic for a given period of time.

4.   When time is up have students pass their writing to another group member.

5.   Assign a period to time for students to review each other’s writing, adding more and/or asking questions in writing.

6.   Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all students in a group have reviewed each other’s writing. Each group should then review all the ideas generated through the process.