The Idea Sprint is a fantastic way to either review topics you've already covered or brainstorm what learners know about a new topic, while offering some energizing fun.
What you need…
You need something learners can write on. A white board is fine, but flip charts where each team can’t see the others’ work are better. Each team needs a marker to write with.
How to…- Divide the class into teams.
- Give them a topic.
- They will have 30 seconds (or more) to brainstorm and list as many ideas as they can.
- Remind them they cannot speak.
- Every learner writes ideas on the board.
- The team with the most ideas after the given time wins.
- Get the winning team to present their ideas.
- Ask remaining teams to add extra ideas and/or correct any mistakes the winning team made.
Tips…
Write an example on the board to show what you’re looking for.
Try to plan the activity so the ideas they came up with lead in to the main part of the lesson.
Energize…
Learners are up and moving around, so this is a natural energizer.
Possible follow ups…
Ask if the learners liked working in groups. This will help you understand the dynamics of the class and enable you to plan group work in the future.
Your part…
- How would you adapt this?
- Are there any age groups you’d use this with specifically?
- How would you set up the activity differently?
- Yearinthelifeof's blog
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Comments
Hi Adam,
I liked this activity. I use something similar but this sounds more energizing. Thanks for sharing.
Eva
I like the activity and I will use it in my writing class. That will be a fun warm-up activity. I can make up agree and disagree teams for the opinion tasks.
Thank you:)
Adam,
I liked Idea Sprint, I think, it can be used with all levels with some changes.
The idea first came to my mind for the adaptation of this activity was using it as a warm-up at the beginning of the lesson.
For instance; for reading classes, as we have some target vocabulary in the text, we can just give them either the title itself or showing them pictures related to the text to make them try to find the words in groups. Instead of giving the topic we can also show them pictures,
Thanks for sharing this activity, it is really natural energizer :)
Thanks, evab2001. I love this because you can fit it in during any part of the lesson, especially when they are starting to look tired or lethargic.
Good idea, merveoflaz. This works really well as a tool for generating ideas for a writing topic.
Imagine: 'things that make subject 'X' good/bad'. You're finding a fast-paced way of brainstorming for the topic.
Definitely, oztrkozge. This works really well if you set it up as 'all the words you know related to topic 'X'.' This way, you can see what they know and this gives you a basis for teaching what they don't come up with.
Hi thanks for sharing, I am doing nearly the same activity with my Ss. It is nice and we're having fun while doing it :)
Glad to hear it's working well, lemanulas.
I like this activity very much. The board has to be large doesn't it? So that every one can access their little corner. Maybe they could do it on paper, if the board is too small. And then present it to the class. :)
Good suggestions, dxplorer. There are many variations, I guess. You could put bits of paper on different walls so each team is separated.