Better Lesson
Better Lesson: A Storm of Ideas
The first step in writing an informational text on the topic of students' choice is helping the student choose a topic of interest. Students will brainstorm ideas that will be possible final topics.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Generate Ideas and Questions
This lesson focuses on the writing in high school. Whether you write expository and persuasive essays or short stories, your first steps are to determine and define your audience. After that, you will begin to generate ideas and...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: The Writing Process: Generate Ideas and Questions
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] A learning module that teaches students how to generate ideas and questions as a part of the writing process in five mini-lessons: Introduction, Writing the Persuasive Essay:...
SUNY Empire State College
Empire State College: Developing Ideas for Writing
Explains nine methods for developing ideas for writing, including freewriting, brainstorming, clustering/mapping, maintaining a personal journal, responding to a text, maintaining a response journal, responding to a specific assignment,...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: The Writing Process: Generate Ideas and Questions
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn strategies to help you generate questions and ideas about a topic.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Generate Ideas and Questions
This lesson will focus on the writing you do in high school. Whether you write expository and persuasive essays or short stories, your first steps are to determine and define your audience. After that, you will begin to generate ideas...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Paper Writing (I Just Got Assigned a Paper. Now What?)
Work through the writing process by following these ten easy steps. The site also provides tips on brainstorming to generate ideas and using Venn diagrams to organize thoughts.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: A Small Moment With an Important Person
A writer's workshop idea where students brainstorm a list of people who are important to them as well as one or two times they remember being with each person. Students then use these ideas to write about a small moment with someone who...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: An I Pod Inspired Writing Lesson: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
In this lesson, students will use the song "The 3 R's" by Jack Johnson to develop ideas about how to "green" up their own classrooms; they will learn two songs (written to the tune of old classics) that will inspire them to brainstorm...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: The Ab Cs of Poetry
Contains plans for a poetry lesson that asks learners to write poems after brainstorming metaphors and other ideas as a group. Ideas are groups by different themes, like letters of the alphabet. In addition to objectives and standards,...
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Story Writing With Arthur
This series of 12 downloadable activities teach students some basics of story writing, using books or videos from the PBS "Arthur" series as a springboard. Activities include creating story maps, asking questions about characters and...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Teaching: Prewriting and Planning Personal Narratives
This activity focuses on prewriting and planning a personal narrative. The information can be used in all types of writing. It discusses brainstorming ideas, narrowing the focus, and developing the central idea. W.9-10.5 Writing Process,...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: And the Author Is...using Digital Tools for Writing
Empower learners to recognize that they are thinkers and writers! They will collaborate on a writing piece to brainstorm, organize and publish ideas with a digital tool. This lesson highlights different website creations as examples of...
SUNY Empire State College
Empire State College: Developing Ideas for Writing: Brainstorming
This resource explains brainstorming and gives a sample idea list generated from brainstorming.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Prewriting: Dialogue
A six-slide presentation introducing how to have a dialogue in order to brainstorm ideas during the prewriting stage of the writing process.
University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina Writing Center Handouts: Brainstorming
This handout describes brainstorming as " taking advantage of your natural thinking processes by gathering your brain's energies into a 'storm.'" Learn how to use brainstorming techniques to gather ideas before you begin a project or to...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Haiku Starter
A printable, two-page graphic organizer to help students brainstorm ideas and write a rough draft of a haiku. Directions on how to use this type of graphic organize as well as lists of teaching ideas and related resources are also provided.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Personification [Pdf]
A graphhic organizer to help students brainstorm ideas for personification. A blank copy as well as a completed example are provided.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Myth Writing Workshop With Jane Yolen
Well-known author Jane Yolen takes you step by step through the process of writing a myth. The site includes a Myth Brainstorming Machine to help get ideas flowing.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Great Lists Inspire Great Writing
A writer's workshop idea where students work together to brainstorm a list a possible writing topics to use throughout the year. Idea lists for primary and intermediate students are provided.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Story Starters: Powerful Sentences
In this lesson, students will click a button that will help them generate ideas for story development. Students can click several times, if needed, until one of the ideas is interesting to them. [Requires Adobe Reader.]
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Showing Plots & Conflicts
In this lesson plan, recommendations from Ralph Fletcher's book called Live Writing will be used as a teacher reference. Students will write introductions to three different stories in their writer's notebooks, but each type of conflict...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Poetry Writing With Karla Kuskin
With the aid of Karla Kuskin, this site from Scholastic explores the world of poetry. Here you can find tips for poetry writing, ideas for revising, and even a place to post your completed poem online! A fully developed teacher's guide...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Serendipitous Superheroes
In this instructional activity, SuperHero ABC, a book written by Bob McLeod, and Meanwhile, a book by Jules Feiffer, are used as mentor texts. Students will work in groups and create lists of unique superhero powers that start with...