Today, I want to talk about some interesting activity like Brainstorm.
Vocabulary Brainstorm works well as a Warm Up, serving as a means to get students
thinking about the topic. It's a pre-step which activates pre-existing knowledge on
the topic. Students work in pairs or groups and brainstorm words together.
Step One: The teacher places students in pairs or small groups of three. If the groups are
too large, then one or two students may only passively listen rather than actively volunteer
words. This most often happens with weaker students placed in groups with stronger
students.
Step Two: The teacher writes the topic or theme on the board. The topic or theme can
focus the attention of the students. For example, if the students were to study the
environment, then they could brainstorm vocabulary around global warming, pollution manmade
threats to the planet, etc. to talk about the environment later.
For lessons with an accompanying target grammar structure, the words may then be used
when introducing the grammar, when practicing the target structure, and of course in the
conversations later in the lesson.
Step Three: Students work together and brainstorm vocabulary words. One student should
write the words as everyone volunteers vocabulary for the list. Dictionaries should not be
used, as you want students to brainstorm and share pre-existing knowledge. The teacher
should allot three to five minutes for this step.
Step Four: The teacher may ask for students to say the words aloud as he writes them on
the board. Alternatively, students can come to the board and write the words themselves.
The teacher may also merge pairs/groups, with each pair/group presenting the information
to one another. The vocabulary will be used and reused for subsequent steps in the lesson,
so pairs/groups can even merge more than once to ensure everyone has an identical list of
words.