Reflection on Prewriting Strategies

Reflection on Prewriting strategies, and Strategies for Effective Brainstorming

It is indeed true that we can sometimes experience mental blocks when we are required to generate ideas about a topic for any genre of writing. I remember a writing course which I participated in where we were supposed to choose a topic and begin generating ideas as part of the pre- writing phase. I chose the topic sex education, but had difficulty choosing which aspect of sex education I would discuss. I was then guided by the tutor to create a spider map. Through this map, I was able to outline all the different angles from which I could handle this topic, for example who should teach sex education in schools, to which type of sex education is best. From these main topics, I was able to generate several ideas for writing. I eventually chose to write a persuasive piece about which type of sex education is best , since I found I was more passionate about this topic than the others.

I also found the idea of blind writing to be interesting. I never thought of it before, but it seems to be an approach which can indeed help a writer to generate ideas. Students in today’s classrooms love using the computer as a writing tool, therefore I feel using the computer, even in the prewriting process is something they will find useful and even fun. It is something I have never done, but will definitely try in future in my writing classes.

Some useful tips were also provided in the second activity on how to help students brainstorm effectively. During previous activities when I led students to brainstorm, I did choose my topics carefully and tried to encourage unique and varied thinking on the topic. I was also enthusiastic about their ideas, since students never cease to amaze us with the ideas that they can think up. I did however find pointers such as counting ideas as a way of motivating students to produce even more ideas to be novel. It sounds like it can be really fun, and if I were in a classroom where the teacher kept throwing out the challenge to see if I could come up with more ideas, that will really motivate me to start thinking in new a creative ways. This is definitely something I can use in the classroom.

The pointer about displaying students’ ideas in an area where they can see them is also indeed important. I agree that students get excited when they are surrounded by their own ideas, but I also think that displaying students’ ideas can get them to start thinking even more about various other topics, because this gives them the sense that their ideas are indeed important.

One of the lines from the article sums in up very nicely in my opinion, “teachers need to structure children’s brainstorming experiences so that they receive enough direction to keep them on track, but not so much that we take over.”