What instructional approach helps students organize their thoughts and ideas before writing?

Brainstorming is an instructional approach that encourages students to freely generate and organize their thoughts and ideas before they begin the writing process. This technique allows learners to explore various perspectives and concepts without the constraints of grammar or structure, promoting creativity and critical thinking. During brainstorming sessions, students can jot down their ideas, make connections, and highlight the main themes they wish to express in their writing. This preparatory step is essential, as it helps students clarify their thoughts, ensuring they have a solid foundation to build their writing upon.

While word work focuses on vocabulary and spelling, interactive writing emphasizes collaborative writing experiences, and guided writing provides structured support during the composing process, these methods do not explicitly prioritize the pre-writing organization of thoughts in the same way that brainstorming does.