He used ‘quick write’ which involves asking a question and then giving the students a set amount of time for responding (usually 1 to 5 minutes). If you’re not familiar with this method here’s what it involves:

“In this instance the topic was “what does the web mean to me.” They need to write. It doesn’t have to be organized, it does not necessarily even need to make sense. If they get stuck, they need to write a single word or idea out over and over again until they break out from it. The idea is to develop fluency.

After writing for a full 5 minutes, I had the kids take a highlighter and choose up to 5 ideas they thought were valuable or significant and we did some sharing about that. Finally, I asked them for up to 5 words that were going to be there keywords. What does the web mean to me? Many kids wrote things like “connections” and “global.” Others had a few more specific things like “games” and “music.” Others looked at ideas of “knowledge” and “learning.” It was quite a collection at the end. ”

I like quick write and have used it several times, (’What does Blended Learning mean to you? etc). It’s great for brainstorming at the start of a session where students work through a concept – it gets them focused on the concept before being covered in greater detail during the rest of the session. Another example is where students use quickwrite to recall what was covered in the previous session. Its also great for closing a session for which the students provide a summary of the concepts. In all a very good method for encouraging the students to focus and collect their thoughts. The latter in particular if they are going to be involved in discussing the subject.