Sharing with Scratch: Episode 2 - Brainstorming
What does it mean to share with Scratch?
Sharing with Scratch is a video webseries designed for Scratch Educators to encourage thought and conversation around the ways in which Scratch can promote cooperation and collaboration in the classroom. Brought to you by ScratchEd interns, Aaron Morris and Vanessa Gennarelli, each video episode will introduce a new strategy for helping you facilitate sharing in your classroom, including: brainstorming, remixing, checking in with a neighbor, publishing online, giving and receiving feedback, and group work. Join our cast of characters (both live action and animated in Scratch) as we present the benefits and tackle the challenges of Sharing with Scratch
Each Sharing with Scratch episode is meant to serve as a conversation starter. We invite you to check out an episode and then share you experiences and thoughts in the comments below. We look forward to learning from you and your experiences. Thanks for sharing!
Benefits
- Helps to create a safe and open classroom environment
- Provides an easy entry point to participation
- Gets ideas flowing and inspires work
Obstacles
- Students, for whatever reason, won't contribute
- The brainstorm goes off topic and is unfocused
- Brainstorming sessions can consume a lot of time
Strategies
- Break students into small groups to get the conversation going and collect ideas from each group
- Encourage students to build on one another's ideas
- Have a clearly defined problem or question
- Make the problem/question and the ideas/solutions visible for everyone to see
- Have a time limit in mind, and be mindful of it
- Trust your instincts. If it's going well continue to allow students to generate ideas, and if it's not, move on!
Have you used brainstorms as a means of getting things going with your Scratch work?
Share your brainstorming experiences and insights below!
