 brainstorming is given because of the opportunity to put all their ideas down and put it out there for better communication so they can actually see what they have going on up in their minds. I think it's an excellent opportunity for them to share their ideas with myself and their partners and then we can kind of get a sense of exactly how much they actually do understand and what might need a little bit more clarification. So the way I implemented it was with their source analysis. So before I get them to actually start writing a source analysis, I provide them the sources in advance with a set of questions that they would need to answer in order to make a thorough source analysis paragraph and they use the brainstorming techniques through either a t-chart, the ABC chart, the mind map and the think-pair share to put those ideas down prior to answering those questions prior to writing the actual source analysis. They actually kind of get like two opportunities of brainstorming and preparation before actually writing. I think it approaches it in a way that helps us to understand it a bit better to help us like take more time with it than we may have otherwise and it helps us because this is such a general because globalization is such a general thing it helps us break down the smaller intricacies of it later on. By providing them the opportunity to brainstorm to get their knowledge out on paper before sending them I guess to the wolves it gives them that opportunity to focus in what they actually know and then it also will help them decide okay I don't really understand what this source is and what this theme is I think I should probably go and talk to my teacher about it or I should probably ask a friend or ask somebody who might be able to help me so I think it really zones in on those areas of strength and those areas of weakness that need to be developed a little bit more. It works because you can see like the different perspectives of everyone and it feels like a better understanding and it helps you see things you didn't necessarily see before. I think it works fairly well it just helps us give a good idea of what we're going to do to write an essay or whatever we're going to have to do with it just gives us a good idea of what we're going to do. They'll ask me do we get time to brainstorm they'll actually ask those questions so for me that tells me that they they they value that opportunity to do so prior to writing and we've kind of gotten to a point to where I don't need to direct them so much anymore like the first time it was a lot of hand-holding explaining exactly how to do it but now that we're at this point and we've practiced it enough that I can say hear the sources hear your options brainstorm I'll give you 20 minutes to do so and then 20 minutes to actually do your planning and fill it out the questions there's a difference between just giving them a mind map and saying go or just giving them a t-chart and saying go the you'd you have to demonstrate your expectation of what it would look like so that's why I've given them so many different options because everybody's going to be different and gonna feel more comfortable doing one way compared to another. I think just like having to write stuff on paper and having new research about to formulate our own opinions it really helps you think like an economist would because an economist has to take every little detail into account to make a formulated opinion on what course of action we need to take in the future so we're kind of doing like the same thing just on a much smaller scale just in the classroom. You can see the improvement when they don't do that brainstorming and planning compared to when they actually do or when you give them like a suitable amount of time to actually do those things. I think it comes down to assessment where once they actually have that source analysis written and I go in based off the rubric and finding those areas of weakness then trying to match a technique that would pull that area of weakness out that a lot of them are lacking so right now it's what is the dimension right is it economic is it social or is it political they still kind of struggle finding that and you can you can see that evidence when they actually write out the full one so again with their brainstorming I have to say to them find that dimension okay yes I know what the main idea is but what is that specific idea that links all three together