Brainstorming Techniques For History Teachers And Students
Written By: Claudia Jeffrey
In today’s world, which is full of distractions, the most prominent challenge teachers’ face is capturing student’s attention and keeping them engaged throughout the lecture. They have to convey the ideas effectively enough to make a long-lasting impression in student’s minds.
When we specifically talk about history, teachers have to tackle this challenge of transforming a boring subject into an interesting one. Below are some useful brainstorming techniques that can be implemented by history tutors to make the classroom experience fun-filled, knowledgeable and informative for students. The techniques will make them retain information for long and help them to recall it easily.
Let’s start with the most effective 15 innovative brainstorming techniques to reinvent your history teaching methods.
1. Creative Teaching
Description: Creative-Teaching
Use useful tools to stimulate creativity in your teaching. Include games, maps or antique hunts along with visual exercises to excite young brains and capture their attention and interest. Playful activities are time tested ways to encourage creative contributions and identifying student’s abilities to make them creative thinkers. Despite if its history, math or even science, bringing a creative aspect can develop an emerging mind. Hence, think of the interactive and relevant ways to explore and encourage different ideas and give students the freedom to get their own set of thoughts as well.
2. Audio & Video Tools
Description: Audio-Video-Tools classroom strategies
Incorporating audio and visuals is an ideal way to supplement a textbook during a history session. There is a variety of options including movies, documentaries, filmstrips, models, infographics and mind mapping tools. These tools support thrive and grow student’s imaginations. This method not only helps to develop their ability to visualize and listen with concentration but also makes them understand the concept better. For elaborating historical topics, you can get some oral materials, playback recordings, conduct live sessions or even get them with public records. There are several smart apps, presentations, and documentaries available online that you can utilize to excellent lectures to enhance engagement.
3. “Real-World” Learning
Description: Real World Learning- Classroom Strategies
Diffusing a real-world experience into your session will make a lecture more refreshing. Also, it enriches the classroom ecosystem with learning breeze. Demonstrating and elaborating topics by relating to real-life situations will make the material easy to understand and learn. Connecting with the subject will enhance the student’s interest and spark their excitement and involvement.
4. Brainstorm Timeout Rewards
Description: Brainstorming in Classroom – teaching strategies
Make timeout sessions for brainstorming in your classroom. The activity can be done individually or in teams. The timeout rewards are a great way to get the juice of healthy discussion flowing. When multiple minds are focusing on a single idea, there is a higher possibility of numerous brilliant views and will involve everyone in the discussion.
Timeouts encourage quick thinking skills and offer an ideal platform to students for motivating their expression of thoughts without worrying about being right or wrong. Set some ground rules to follow and go for it.
5. Classes Outside the Classroom
Description: Classes Outside the Classroom
Some ideas come with the best outcomes when thought outside the classroom. Plan field trips and assign tasks to solve in groups. Search for the relevant lessons to be learnt outside the school and be a part of it. Take a walk sometimes with a healthy discussion to avoid sessions being boring. With this, students feel fresh, and teachers can let them retain and solve issues without making much effort.
6. Role Plays
Description: Role Play – Classroom Teaching Strategy
Role-plays are an ideal way to encourage thinking and make students out of their comfort zones. Dialogue and debate develop their interpersonal skills. This technique comes in handy with historical events. Brainstorming with role-play approach enables students to understand how the historic happenings held. It is the most efficient way of involving students of every age group with customization. You can keep it simple or enhance complexity to improve attention span.
7. Storyboard Teaching
Description: Storyboard-Best-Teaching Strategies in classroom
“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Rightly said by Rudyard Kipling. Storyboard technique is suitable for history sessions as it requires stepwise visualization and memorization, and that is why it is a great way to brainstorm for highly conceptualized ideas. Use a storyboard to recreate famous historical events. These visually stimulating activities make sure that complicated concepts can be put across to students easily. Moreover, tutors can encourage storyboard usage as a communicating medium to let students tell a story using their imagination.
8. Stimulating Classroom Environment
Description: using Classroom environment for better teaching
Make your classroom interiors fun-filled, well decorated and engaging. This will help to stimulate student’s minds and enables them to think and learn better. Creatively stimulating environments supports exploration and encourage students to brainstorm more smartly on the subject. Children are not likely to sit and learn all day in a dull environment. A positively beneficial environment impacts their interest as a prime role in development and learning.
9. Welcome New Ideas
Description: Welcome-New-innovative-ideas-of teaching
Brainstorming is all about welcoming new ideas. An open and broad-minded attitude innovates new ways to brainstorm as it is human nature to resist change. This method helps to evaluate one’s inner self and motivates both teacher and students to try out new ideas.
10. Think About A New Hobby
Description: Think-About-A-New-Hobby-innovative-ideas
The following technique is more applicable for teachers as hectic workload affects their engagement with students, and it is natural to happen to anyone. Take a break for a couple of minutes or hours and engage yourself in an interesting hobby to help you charge your batteries and enhance your brainstorming strength. This can rejuvenate yourself, and you can get back with more interest, excitement and passion.
11. Work Together As Team
Description: Teamwork in Classroom
Teamwork is the best way to brainstorm as the more, the merrier. Everyone knows that the outcomes of collaborative efforts are immense; hence, make teams and let your students spend quality time in discussions, thought sharing, planning and ask them to share their views with each other. You will be amazed to see how many new strategies you will end up with.
12. Puzzles and Games
Description: Puzzles-and-Games-innovative-ideas
Brainstorming is best stimulated when fun games and puzzles are a part of education. Children don’t have to put much effort when history is taught through games and puzzles. It helps children to face challenges and train them to tackle situations and improve their decision making.
13. Start School Clubs or Groups
Description: Start School Clubs or Groups – innovative ideas
Being a busy tutor may not get you enough time to work on creating engaging activities or academics. Make a club or a group to assign these fun tasks that they are passionate about.
14. Refer to Books On Creativity
Description: Refer-Books-On-Creativity-innovative-ideas
As a teacher, there are lots of materials available to enhance your creativity in brainstorming. Refer to them without hesitation. Start learning and implementing as it will be helpful to develop your professional skills as well.
15. Love What You Do
Description: Love-What-You-Do-innovative-ideas
Last but not least, a teacher can only give its best when he/she truly loves what he/she does. Hence, you have to be passionate about your subject and your ideas to spark creativity and brainstorming in students. History is dull and interesting subject at the same time. A good teacher helps students to memorize every event, but a great teacher diffuses it in the blood of students. So, don’t get stressed and be relaxed to inspire and get inspired. Give your students and yourself a room to experiment and see the tremendous results. All the best!