R/W post #5

    When I typically brainstorm I think of the project at hand and think of one maybe two ways to approach it. I rarely talk with peers about my brainstorming process, and I typically pick one of the two ideas and then just start drafting. This typically leaves me at a loss when it comes to revising and editing because I did not have a clear goal from the start. This is why I was very open to trying the Card Strategy introduced to us by Kucer and Rhodes. In this strategy I was forced to broaden my thinking about my topic, and think in different ways other subtopics of the subject might intertwine together. During this activity I was first overwhelmed about writing 16-20 different things about my topic, which was social emotional learning. As I finished writing these one to two word phrases on my cards I saw that within this broad topic I had made three smaller topics. One was focused  on mental health, another on COVID, and the final on implementing social emotional learning in schools. This was helpful for me to see because before this activity I was very focused on just social emotional learning and COVIDs impacts, this showed me that I can go many ways with my project. I also really enjoyed that this strategy had me switch cards with a peer. Having an unbiased opinion go through and re-order my cards gave me a new way to look at the subtopic at hand. The subcategory I decided to use in our activity was mental health, when my partner rearranged the cards I began to see where some parts can be moved around and introduced in new ways. 

    During this activity I found myself using two main cognitive strategies, organizing and narrowing. As we were asked to pick 7-11 cards to review with a peer I had to organize the cards into their subtopics and then pick 7 for the topic I truly wanted to focus on. These strategies allowed me to find specific details that I want to be a part of my subtopic and also allowed me to see how my cards fit into three different subcategories. I am always looking for new writing strategies both for myself and to use in the classroom. I think this is an amazing way to assist myself and my students' in the writing process as brainstorming can be a really hard thing to do. This activity is especially helpful for when students topics are a bit too broad but are having a hard time focusing in on one specific aspect. I also found it helpful for me as SEL is a very broad topic that I needed guidance on slimming down. 

Comments

  1. Organizing and Narrowing are both excellent strategies to be utilizing --even during the prewriting stage. Keep these in mind when you are working on your other pieces as well.

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