Formative Task
ANNOTATED TEXT
Brainstorm
FORMATIVE TASK
BRAINSTORM
Time Frame: 1-3 Hours
Common Core Standards Assessed: Varies by performance task and content
Teacher Notes
Description
What ideas can we generate?
Students often struggle with
collaboration, as they may not
Work together to brainstorm, focusing on generating as many ideas
have the tools they need to
as possible while avoiding ruling any out at this stage.
communicate with one another
or resolve disagreements
productively.
I Can Statements

I can brainstorm ideas that:
Not every idea generated in a
and Quality

Address the task or are otherwise relevant
brainstorming session is going to
Criteria

Include sufficient detail
meet the quality criteria. It is

Are non-obvious, creative, or innovative
important that students
understand that they may have

I will know if my brainstorming is of high quality if it:
to generate lots of so-so ideas

Addresses the task or is otherwise relevant
before they find a few really

Includes sufficient detail
good ones. However, being

Includes non-obvious, creative, or innovative ideas
upfront with students about the
expectations for brainstorming
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Formative Task
ANNOTATED TEXT
Brainstorm
FORMATIVE TASK
Suggestions for Assessing Student Readiness to Move Forward:

can help groups stay on track
Confer with students, asking probing questions about their
and focused on uncovering and
brainstormed ideas to gauge how well they meet the quality
discovering their best ideas.
criteria.

Ask students to describe their brainstorming process and the
ideas they generated, and to explain (orally or in writing) how
the quality criteria for high quality brainstorming are met.

Ask students to self-evaluate their work after completing one
of the activities below.
Possible

Activities

Have students “draw-storm,” using large pieces of paper to
When brainstorming, students
brainstorm nonverbally.
don’t all have to do the same
Have students complete the ABC Brainstorming Activity:
http://www.redesignu.org/design-lab/learning-activities/abcbrainstorming


activity. They can choose, with
your help if necessary, the one or
two approaches that will unleash
their best ideas. Students can
Use de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats approach to help students
also be challenged to use a new,
explore ideas:
unfamiliar approach as a means
http://www.debonoforschools.com/asp/six_hats.asp
of seeing a topic, problem, or
Use the ideation process described in the d.school’s “Ideation
Mix Tape”: http://dschool.stanford.edu/wp-
situation differently.
One idea is to set up
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Formative Task
ANNOTATED TEXT
Brainstorm
FORMATIVE TASK
content/uploads/2012/02/ideate-mixtape-v8.pdf

Have students generate and respond to randomly generated
or “forced” questions:
http://jcflowers1.iweb.bsu.edu/rlo/brainstorming2.htm


brainstorming stations, asking
students to rotate through a
series of different brainstorming
activities. This would allow
students to try different activities
Allow students to use storyboarding to capture ideas:
and could be followed up with a
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672917/the-8-steps-to-creating-
reflective discussion about
a-great-storyboard
metacognition.
Engage the whole class in brainwriting, a technique for
generating ideas: http://bit.ly/1rw2YIH
Resources

Steve Jobs and his team brainstorm as they design the NeXT
computer: http://tnw.co/1Gl2tu5 (starts at the 6-minute mark)

Decision-Making Matrix Analysis:
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_03.htm
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