Best Practice 9: Brainstorming

Best Practice 9: Brainstorming

A good way to begin a new unit or vocabulary topic is to give students a few minutes to think of all the words they know connected with the topic. Depending upon their level, students can do this with pen and paper individually, with a partner or on the board as a class. This makes a great warm-up activity because it allows students to “activate” some vocabulary related to the topic before a discussion begins. As a result they will not be searching for words so much when they start the speaking activities. At the same time, it can also be used as a comprehension check activity to see what words and concepts students can recall from a given past lesson.