Very clever adaptation of the Graphic Organizer concept!

To help his secondary English students brainstorm ideas for an article on islands in the Maldives, Mr. Raibin made the graphic organizer look like islands!

Using their island Graphic Oranganizer,  Mr. Raibin's students then wrote their articles.

Writing demonstration lesson and follow-up teaching

First I demonstrated the entire lesson for the expat English teachers to observe.

Here, after explaining the writing brainstorming process, I had pairs of students come to the board to work togther to brainstorm ideas on a topic.

Here was one group's brainstorming on three types of animals.

Another group's brainstorming on rivers.

Having students work in pairs at the board, has proven a successful strategy for teaching this part of the writing process. 

The next class, Anil took over and taught the lesson, based on the demonstration lesson he'd just observed me present.

The third class of the day, Rabin taught the lesson, based on my demonstration, with Anil co-teaching with him.

Creative thinking exercise!



I shared with teachers a fun activity they can use with their students to activate the creative part of their brain.

Write a series of words on the board.  Ask the students individually to look at the words and think about what they have in common.  What possibly links all those words together?

After giving the students individual thinking time, have them share their thoughts with a partner.  Once this has been done, the teacher can ask students to share their ideas with the whole class.

An extension could be for the students to write a 3 to 5 sentence summary using all of the words.

No right or wrong answers with this activity.  Just brain stimulation!