Encyclopaedia of Torah and Middot Brainstorms

You have arrived at one of our most ambitious and exciting projects!

Whether you want to introduce a new topic or review one already studied, these ready-to-use brainstorms should be just what you need. They’re also useful for those times when you have to teach a class without notice or to give to someone who will be covering your class!

They are all in pdf format for easy printing. However, once your pupils have, for example, completed “Minhagim” in pairs, you can then complete “Minhagim” collaboratively with the class, pooling all of their ideas, by writing around the image of that brainstorm on an interactive whiteboard.

Another idea you might try is to have a number of groups completing different but related brainstorms and then come together to see how the different topics interrelate.
Also, instead of pupils simply writing text around the page they can draw pictures, diagrams or symbols, write references to pesukim, or write short extracts eg from Pirkei Avot, etc., etc.

Ten lines are provided on each blank brainstorm, but additional branches and layers can, of course, be added once the adrenalin of inspiration begins to flow!

Using brainstorms (otherwise known as mind maps, idea showers, etc.) stimulates pupils’ thinking and provides them with a facility not only for recording but also for organising and interrelating different aspects of knowledge they already possess. It is a way to literally ‘get the best out of our pupils’. Moreover, once pupils have engaged in an exercise of this kind,
a) they are ready and keen to build on what they know, and
b) the teacher is well equipped to take the learning on from an appropriate point…
– constructivism at its best!

Finally, you may well wonder why I have gone to the trouble of making this rather large collection of, frankly, empty documents. The idea occurred to me after a colleague asked me for help in producing something similar using a drawing application. I realised that many people may be pleased to have access to a comprehensive bank of pages such as these, either because they do not have the I.T. skills to make their own or simply because of the time it will save them.
Even ten minutes saved in a busy teaching day is a priceless gift. Even if each of these is used only once or twice many hours of teacher time will have been saved, making the ‘trouble’ of making this resource very worthwhile indeed!