1.

Brainstorming strategy is one of the most important strategies in provoking

creativity and solving problems in the educational, commercial, industrial and political
fields.
Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem solving with lateral
thinking. It encourages people to come up with thoughts and ideas that can, at
first, seem a bit crazy. Some of these ideas can be crafted into original, creative
solutions to a problem, while others can spark even more ideas. This helps to get
people unstuck by "jolting" them out of their normal ways of thinking. Therefore,
during brainstorming sessions, people should avoid criticizing or rewarding ideas.
You're trying to open up possibilities and break down incorrect assumptions about
the problem's limits. Judgment and analysis at this stage stunts idea generation
and limit creativity. Evaluate ideas at the end of the session – this is the time to
explore solutions further, using conventional approaches.
Examples and Situations.
Brainstorming is a large or small group activity that encourages students to focus on a
topic and contribute to the free flow of ideas.
The teacher may begin a brainstorming session by posing a question or a problem, or by
introducing a topic.
Students then express possible answers, relevant words and ideas.
Here are effective ways to brainstorm for groups and individuals:

BRAINWRITING
Brainwriting is an upgraded technique to share ideas and come up with solutions. This is
an even more productive way to generate ideas where each person writes down what
they think before sharing it with the team. Brainwriting is an effective method because no
one gets interrupted. You don’t get cut off by someone else shouting their views at you.
You can take your time to jot down your ideas without the pressure to satisfy others.
Brainwriting is especially ideal for brainstorming sessions to encourage creativity in
groups.

MIND MAPPING
The children’s vocabulary game ‘pass the story’ starts with “Once upon a time…”. Then,
each child builds on this phrase by adding lines. Mind mapping is a similar strategy where
one member throws in a general idea, which leads to connecting sub-ideas. The first idea
may not be the perfect one but it still ignites a row of potential ideas. It’s effective because
it jolts your creativity by giving you a certain direction. Visual representations of a mind
map are often used when you are dealing with extensive research. It helps to filter
information and categorize it.
STEPLADDER TECHNIQUE
The stepladder technique is an effective decision-making strategy that was developed in
1992. It’s suited for smaller groups of five or six members. Here, two members are invited
to a room to brainstorm, with a facilitator present. Then, a third member enters and shares
his or her ideas before being introduced to the ideas shared by the other two members.
Brainstorming continues this way until everyone is in the room. This technique promotes
new and fresh ideas that aren’t influenced by others.

VISUALIZATION
Visualization is a strategy where each member is asked to picture their ideas. It gives
everyone a starting point to build upon. Visualization can be a stepping stone to
successful ideas, especially in product design. It’s also helpful when you are trying to
improve existing strategies. You can also turn it into an activity. For instance, the first
person can be asked to draw an outline. Each subsequent member then adds something
to it. By the time it reaches the last person, you will likely have a working model.

2. Conference. A student-teacher conference is a one-on-one meeting between a

student and a teacher. Both the student and the teacher identify strengths and areas of
growth during their discussion and then collaboratively select specific strategies that will
support the student's progress. Student-teacher conferences are a great way to connect
with and understand students better. These meetings provide a platform to work with
students and reflect on their interests, performances and progress. Student-teacher
conferences empower students to identify, plan and set their own learning goals.
Examples and Situations.
Student-teacher conferences are a great way to connect with and understand students
better. These meetings provide a platform to work with students and reflect on their
interests, performances and progress. Student-teacher conferences empower students
to identify, plan and set their own learning goals.
1. Declare a Purpose
A student conference should be used to discuss a student’s performance or behavior. It
can be used as a deterrent technique – when student performance has changed or there
seems to be something troubling a student. A conference can also be part of a
“consequence menu” - it can serve as a step in the discipline process. For example, if a
student is off task or exhibiting inappropriate classroom behavior, a verbal warning can
be given. If the behavior continues, the next step may be a student conference, then a
buddy classroom, parent contact, and so on.
2. Hold the Conference
The actual conference with the student should be private and between the teacher and
student only, without other classmates. The teacher should clearly explain the reason for
the conference, the issue that is concerning the teacher, and how the student and teacher
can work together. The conference should include a dialogue which allows the student to
explain his or her point of view, while at the same time answering the teacher’s questions.
3. Keep a Record
It is essential to keep track of student conferences. A simple form or log can be used to
acknowledge when the conference occurred, why it occurred, and what was
accomplished. See the Visuals section for an example. Many teachers have students fill
out a form acknowledging what happened during the conference and what both student
and teacher decided to do in response to the issues discussed.
4. Follow Up
It is important to check in with the student after the conference, even if it is just briefly. If
the student’s behavior or performance has improved since the conference, provide
feedback and praise. If inappropriate behavior is still occurring, it may be necessary to go
to the next step of the discipline plan or hold another conference involving a parent and/or
administrator.
Student conferences should be used when a private conversation with a student is
necessary. They can be used as a deterrent technique during or after class, after noticing
a decline in the student’s academic performance or behavioral choices over a grading
period, or anytime a teacher feels he or she needs to address a behavior.

3. Cooperative Learning. Cooperative learning is an educational approach which aims

to organize classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. There is
much more to cooperative learning than merely arranging students into groups, and it has
been described as "structuring positive interdependence." Students’ learning goals may
be structured to promote cooperative, competitive, or individualistic efforts. In every
classroom, instructional activities are aimed at accomplishing goals and are conducted
under a goal structure. A learning goal is a desired future state of demonstrating
competence or mastery in the subject area being studied. The goal structure specifies
the ways in which students will interact with each other and the teacher during the
instructional session. Each goal structure has its place. In the ideal classroom, all
students would learn how to work cooperatively with others, compete for fun and
enjoyment, and work autonomously on their own. The teacher decides which goal
structure to implement within each lesson. The most important goal structure, and the
one that should be used the majority of the time in learning situations, is cooperation.
Examples and Situations.
1. Making preinstructional decisions. Teachers (a) formulate both academic and social
skills objectives, (b) decide on the size of groups, (c) choose a method for assigning
students to groups, (d) decide which roles to assign group members, (e) arrange the
room, and (f) arrange the materials students need to complete the assignment. In these
preinstructional decisions, the social skills objectives specify the interpersonal and small
group skills students are to learn. By assigning students roles, role interdependence is
established. The way in which materials are distributed can create resource
interdependence. The arrangement of the room can create environmental
interdependence and provide the teacher with easy access to observe each group, which
increases individual accountability and provides data for group processing.
2. Explaining the instructional task and cooperative structure.Teachers (a) explain the
academic assignment to students, (b) explain the criteria for success, (c) structure
positive interdependence, (d) structure individual accountability, (e) explain the behaviors
(i.e., social skills) students are expected to use, and (f) emphasize intergroup cooperation
(this eliminates the possibility of competition among students and extends positive goal
interdependence to the class as a whole). Teachers may also teach the concepts and
strategies required to complete the assignment. By explaining the social skills
emphasized in the lesson, teachers operationalize (a) the social skill objectives of the
lesson and (b) the interaction patterns (such as oral rehearsal and jointly building
conceptual frameworks) teachers wish to create.
3. Monitoring students’ learning and intervening to provide assistance in (a) completing
the task successfully or (b) using the targeted interpersonal and group skills
effectively.While conducting the lesson, teachers monitor each learning group and
intervene when needed to improve taskwork and teamwork. Monitoring the learning
groups creates individual accountability; whenever a teacher observes a group, members
tend to feel accountable to be constructive members. In addition, teachers collect specific
data on promotive interaction, the use of targeted social skills, and the engagement in the
desired interaction patterns. This data is used to intervene in groups and to guide group
processing.
4. Assessing students’ learning and helping students process how well their groups
functioned. Teachers (a) bring closure to the lesson, (b) assess and evaluate the quality
and quantity of student achievement, (c) ensure students carefully discuss how effectively
they worked together (i.e., process the effectiveness of their learning groups), (d) have
students make a plan for improvement, and (e) have students celebrate the hard work of
group members. The assessment of student achievement highlights individual and group
accountability (i.e., how well each student performed) and indicates whether the group
achieved its goals (i.e., focusing on positive goal interdependence). The group
celebration is a form of reward interdependence. The feedback received during group
processing is aimed at improving the use of social skills and is a form of individual
accountability. Discussing the processes the group used to function, furthermore,
emphasizes the continuous improvement of promotive interaction and the patterns of
interaction need to maximize student learning and retention.

4. Discussion. A meaningful classroom art discussion helps students develop empathy,

flex thinking and observation skills, connect with history, and savor the human spirit. But
the idea of leading such a discussion fills many art teachers with dread. Discussion
methods are a variety of forums for open-ended, collaborative exchange of ideas
among a teacher and students or among students for the purpose of furthering students
thinking, learning, problem solving, understanding, or literary appreciation.
Discussions enable learners to consider various viewpoints on a topic. They bring a host
of different characteristics to the class that informs how they understand and make sense
of a topic. The use of discussions brings these experiences to the forefront more
effectively than nearly any other teaching method.
Starting a discussion
Refer to questions you distributed. Start the discussion by asking one of the study
questions you assigned or by asking group members which of the questions they found
most challenging.
Make a list of key points. Identify and list the important points from the reading and use
these as a starting point for discussion.
Use a partner activity. Ask students to come to the discussion with 3 or 4 questions
prepared. Start the discussion by having students pair off and alternate asking and
answering their questions.
Use a brainstorming activity. Ask students to contribute ideas related to the discussion
topic (no matter how bizarre or farfetched) and write all ideas on the board. After a set
period of time or when students have run out of ideas, critically evaluate all the ideas or
categorize themes.
Pose an opening question and give students a few minutes to record an answer.
The process of writing down their answers will enable students to generate new ideas as
well as questions. After they have finished writing, ask for volunteers or call on students
to share their ideas. This activity also gives quieter students the opportunity to prepare
answers they can share with the group.
Divide students into small groups to discuss a specific question or issue. Be sure
to assign explicit questions and guidelines and give the groups a time limit to complete
the exercise. Also ask them to select a recorder and/or a reporter who will report back to
the entire discussion group.
Pose a controversial issue and organize an informal debate. Group the students
according to the pro or con position they take and ask the groups to formulate 2-3
arguments or examples to support their position. Write each group's statements on the
board and use these as a starting point for discussion.
5. Experimenting. Experimentation in art class is an important part of learning to use
materials. When students make discoveries about the properties of a particular material
or tool, the experience becomes a meaningful part of their education. The outcome
of experimentation is knowledge, and failure is just as valuable as success, because one
has expanded one's awareness of one's own abilities, one's deeper ideas, the potential
of a media, a process, a genre, an art-form. Artists must experiment in order to find their
way around themselves. It allows people to develop practical skills in drawing. This is
especially important in young children, where art can be developed intensely as a useful
skill in conjunction with an expressive and imaginative outlet.
Examples and Situations.

Students will learn about a creative process through experimentation.

Students will address a single subject using a variety of artistic processes and will reflect
upon those processes.
Students will identify and appreciate stages of development in their works and in the
works of others.
The three “Realism” segments from Looking at Painting take us inside the painter’s
mind as we see how four artists develop their paintings. Explore this process yourself
through two experimental studies.
Directions:

1. Choose a simple subject for this experiment. You will do two studies of the
subject you have chosen.
2. Use dark paper and a dry medium such as crayon or pastel for the first study.
3. The second study of the same subject will be on a light, textured paper, and you
will use a wet medium such as tempera or watercolor.
4. Describe your style in writing and discuss it in class. Be sure to use appropriate
art terminology to describe your style.

6. Focused Exploration. Focused Exploration is the time in the inquiry learning process
when students are ready to investigate a challenge that will help them discover certain
concepts and encourage them to ask more questions. The teacher facilitates sharing of
successful strategies and provides resources to guide students. Focused Exploration is
the time in the inquiry learning process when students are ready to investigate a challenge
that will help them discover certain science concepts and encourage them to ask more
questions. The teacher facilitates sharing of successful strategies and provides resources
to guide students. During Focused Exploration, the teacher becomes more interactive,
but still supportive, rather than instructive.
Examples and Situations.
Begin the transition when you notice these deliberate changes in your students' play. Notice
what your students are interested in and let their interests guide your Focused Exploration.
For example:
If your students are becoming interested in building tall towers, begin Focused Exploration
with a Tall Tower Challenge. If your students are becoming interested in building houses for
their animals or people, begin Focused Exploration with an Enclosures Challenge.
Each class is different, each student is different.
Some or all of your students may be ready now, or in another week to transition to focused
exploration. Explored deeply and over time and inquiry is cyclical.

7. Free Exploration. Exploratory activities are independent, unstructured activities that

are open ended and provide opportunities to explore ways of interacting with the material
provided. Learning through exploration helps students to imbibe the relationship between
cause and effect. In such a scenario, students subconsciously delve into deeper learning.
Through this learning strategy, a student is bound to explore, experiment, investigate and
be creative in aspiring for answers to life situations and they develop the ability to emerge
as individuals who are fearless as they have conquered the ability to face anything.

This approach helps in forming the right attitude, skill as students imbibe the power to
thrive and succeed. Exploration-based learning develops hands-on and minds-on skills.
As an ongoing pedagogical approach, the natural, inherent drive to seek out challenges
and newer possibilities is nurtured and developed meaningfully.

Art is a natural activity to support this free play in children. The freedom to manipulate
different materials in an organic and unstructured way allows for exploration and
experimentation. These artistic endeavors and self-directed explorations are not only fun,
but educational as well. Art allows youth to practice a wide range of skills that are useful
not only for life, but also for learning.

Examples and Situations.

Skills youth practice when participating in art activities include:

• Fine motor skills. Grasping pencils, crayons, chalk and paintbrushes helps
children develop their fine motor muscles. This development will help your child
with writing, buttoning a coat and other tasks that require controlled movements.
• Cognitive development. Art can help children learn and practice skills like
patterning and cause and effect (i.e., “If I push very hard with a crayon the color is
darker.”). They can also practice critical thinking skills by making a mental plan or
picture of what they intend to create and following through on their plan.
• Math skills. Children can learn, create and begin to understand concepts like size,
shape, making comparisons, counting and spatial reasoning.
 • Language skills. As children describe and share their artwork, as well as their
process, they develop language skills. You can encourage this development by
actively listening and asking open-ended questions in return. It is also a great
opportunity to learn new vocabulary words regarding their project (i.e., texture).

8. Graphic or Visual. A graphic organizer is a teaching and learning tool that is used to
organize information and ideas in a way that is easy to comprehend and internalize. By
integrating text and visuals, graphic organizers show relationships and connections
between concepts, terms, and facts. Graphic organizers can help to visualize and
construct ideas, organize and/or sequence information, plan what to write, increase
reading comprehension, brainstorm, organize problems and solutions, compare and
contrast ideas, show cause and effect, and more. Graphic organizers have dual functions.
They are effective as both a teaching and learning tool. As an instructional strategy it
helps teachers: Introduce a topic.

Examples and Situations.

T-Chart
A T-Chart helps organize ideas into two columns and examine two components of an
object, concept, or event. For instance, T-charts can be used in any content area to
examine the pros and cons of something, advantages, and disadvantages, or facts and
opinions.
Students can select two things to compare (ideas, characters, events, etc.) and write them
as headings for the two columns. From there, comparisons or contrasts can be made in
both columns.

Concept Map
A concept map shows relationships between the main idea and other information.
Concepts or ideas are represented in circles or boxes and are linked to related ideas with
arrows.
Most concept maps represent a hierarchical structure with the most general concepts or
ideas presented at the top of the map and the more specific or sub-ideas presented below.

Another feature of a concept map is the inclusion of cross-links to demonstrate

relationships between sub-ideas in different segments of the concept map.

Main Idea Web

The main idea web starts with a central idea and branches out into related ideas and
details (or sub-ideas). Sometimes referred to as spider or semantic maps, this type of
graphic organizer is used primarily for brainstorming and generating ideas for planning or
writing purposes.

Venn Diagram
A Venn diagram is used to compare and contrast two or more groups of things by visually
displaying their similarities and differences in two or more circles that overlap. Similarities
between topics are presented where a circle from one category overlaps with a circle from
another category.
Features that do not fit in both categories are placed where the two circles do not overlap.
Venn diagrams can serve to increase understanding of a relationship between two or
more concepts.

Sequence Chart
A sequence chart (or flow diagram) presents a series of steps or events in order. Many
learners need a visual aid to help clarify a sequence of events in a story or to come to
conclusions about different cause and effect (or problem and solution) relationships
between multiple events in a text.
Students can use this type of organizer as a flowchart to organize thoughts as a prewriting
activity or as part of a classroom activity that makes students responsible for a portion of
a classroom assignment (e.g. jigsaw technique).
A cycle diagram is a type of sequential chart that is used to represent a sequence of
stages, tasks, or events in a circular flow. This kind of diagram accentuates the flow and
interconnection between things, rather than emphasizing the actual stages or steps.

9. Guided Activity. Guided practice often entails an assignment or activity to be

completed in class while the teacher assesses progress. Handouts, illustrations or
drawing projects, experiments, and writing assignments all lend themselves well to guided
practice. Guided Practice is interactive instruction between the teacher and students.
Students and the teacher collaboratively complete the task as a model. The teacher leads
the activity but solicits help from students at predetermined points along the way. Guided
learning is a term that refers to a process in which learners initiate and advance their
learning guided by more experienced partners and socially derived sources, such as
tools, text, and/or other artifacts. The exercise of learner agency is a defining quality of
guided learning.

Examples and Situations.

Teacher identifies students that experienced difficulty during the whole group lesson to
receive guided instruction in a small group.
Teacher groups students (about 5) that share similar reading and/or writing level.
Teacher has a plan for what the remainder of the class will be doing while he/she is
working with a small group.

Teacher articulates the learning goal and decides upon his/her teaching point for the
guided instruction for each group
Teacher guides the group (or individuals) with reminders, questions, cues, prompts,
explanations and modelling.
Teacher may decide to re-teach the initial lesson with modifications to match the group’s
needs.

10. Jigsaw. The Jigsaw Method contextualizes many different elements of the artist’s life,
the piece of artwork, and the historical period
the artwork was created in. As an extension to the Close Read, it provides students with
a much deeper understanding of the artwork and encourages greater content
connections. In this way, the piece of art becomes a primary source document to be used
in core curriculum instruction.

STEP 1
Identify a piece of artwork that supports your lesson.
STEP 2
Research and read articles, books, and publications connected to the artwork.
Summarize the most important information (in light of the subject you teach) about the
artist’s life, the work of art, and the historical context in which it was made. The collection
of these materials will be used to develop an art history presentation to be sequenced
into your lesson.
STEP 3
As you read, keep a list of key vocabulary you come across as well as any questions that
occur to you or that you anticipate
your students having. As you are organizing and analyzing background information, it is
important to consider how well the piece of art work connects to your lesson.
STEP 4
Look for answers to the guiding questions provided below. If appropriate for your grade
level, have your students engage in
this process as much as possible. From your research, provide students with the most
relevant articles and ask them to respond to the following questions. Students can be
grouped into research teams (artist, artwork, and historical context).
STEP 5
Integrate the information you have obtained from the Jigsaw Method to revisit the “Close
Read” strategy. Your students will now be prepared to dive further into observation,
inference and contextualization.
STEP 6
Make curricular connections. Now that you have this background information, how does
it help your students better understand historical events, science concepts, literary works,
the fine arts, etc.

Examples and Situations.

1. Biographical jigsaw activity:

One suitable topic for a jigsaw activity is to give information on different aspects of a
person’s life to the expert groups, which can then be pooled in the jigsaw group so that
the second task can be biographical in nature, e.g. producing a PowerPoint presentation
giving information about the person or a short TV style documentary. This could be a real
person or a fictional character. An example of this is given in The Life and Works of
Charles Dickens, where (after doing a Dictogloss about Dickens’ life) the different expert
groups find out about the names of Dickens’ novels, some of his most famous quotes and
important characters from the books. They can then be re-organised into jigsaw groups
to produce mini posters about Dickens’ life and work.
2.   Historical jigsaw activity: 

Another example of a jigsaw activity is in The Black Death in Europe where learners
working in pairs read a text together with information about the causes of the spread of
the Black Death. There are two versions of the text containing different information. The
pairs are then re-organised into ‘jigsaw’ groups to pool their information and complete a
task where they have to give four reasons for the spread of the disease.

How jigsaw activities work.

Divide the class into ‘expert’ groups of four to six learners (keeping the groups the
same size as far as possible). Give each group a letter, or a colour, or other name. Then
ask the learners within each group to number themselves one to four (or one to six).
Give each group a section of text or information (this can be in pictorial form). The
group should spend some time reading, discussing and helping each other to understand
the text or information. Word banks and dictionaries (bilingual or English) may be useful
at this stage. For a more in-depth activity, the group may use ICT and reference books to
further research a sub-topic.
Learners, who are now ‘experts’ on the own section of text or information, then
move into ‘jigsaw’ groups, with a shared number, i.e. all the number ones work in
a group, all the number twos work in another group, etc.
Each ‘expert’ learner in turn shares with their ‘jigsaw’ group the section of text or
information they were originally given. The others ask questions to ensure all have a
good understanding.
The ‘jigsaw’ group together complete a task which requires them to understand all
of the information shared by each ‘expert’. This could be anything that requires each
learner to contribute their piece of expert knowledge: filling in a grid or table, completing
a diagram, designing a poster, devising a role play.