No time to prep? Use a brain dump (not a movie)

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By Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D.


Recently, I was talking with a first year teacher who was behind on lesson prep and burned out. This happens to the best of us. What do we do in this situation — myself included? We revisit a past lesson or play a movie (sad, but true).

In hopes of being helpful to the teacher, I blurted out, “Do you know what the best no-prep, time-filling activity is? A brain dump.”

Frankly, I surprised myself when I said this — it sounds like an easy way out. But the more I thought about it, the more it clicked:

  • A brain dump takes little to no prep

  • It can be stretched into a 30-minute activity

  • It’s class time well spent because students actually learn

If you need a lesson fast, or just something to keep in your back pocket, read below for my brain dump tips — no filler movie needed.

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Need a last minute lesson?

 
Person frustrated with their hands on their head
 

If you don’t have time to prep in advance, or you’re just not feeling up for teaching a full-scale lesson you’ve planned, try a brain dump. Seriously. It’s been a game changer for me and my students. Here’s how to do it:

Prep before class (1 to 5 minutes)

  • Bring blank paper and writing utensils to class (so students aren’t digging around in their backpacks)

  • Instead of paper, you could also create a simple Google Form with just one open form field (but beware of students using ChatGPT)

  • You could take a minute to embed a radial timer on YouTube into your slides (mute the audio)

  • Decide how long you’d like to give students for the brain dump. With my college students, I start with 3 minutes. If they’re still writing, I give them another 3 minutes. During professional development with teachers, I allot 6 to 10 minutes.

Explain the activity (2 minutes)

  • Start by saying you’re doing to do something called a brain dump (I have alternate phrases in my book Powerful Teaching).

  • Tell students why you’re doing this: because research shows that retrieval practice boosts long-term learning

  • Explain that they will be writing down everything they can remember. It can be at least one sentence per concept, but bullet points and concept maps are also okay. Spelling doesn’t matter.

  • Explain that a brain dump is not a test. It is anonymous and not graded.

  • Explain that this activity is silent for approximately 3 to 5 minutes. No talking.

  • Hand out the paper or give students access to the Google Form.

Brain dump (3 to 10 minutes)

  • Ask students to write down everything they can remember (about a lesson, a unit or reading, from the semester, etc.)

  • Play the radial timer on the projector (if using)

  • Give students a gentle heads up when they have 1 minute remaining (this is not a race and students should not feel pressured by the time limit)

  • If students seem stuck, encourage them to keep trying

  • Gently tell them when time has concluded

  • If students are still writing, give them another few minutes

Discussion options (5 to 20 minutes)

  • Whole class: How did it go? Did you remember more or less than you expected? (I recommend starting with this to get the conversation going)

  • Think-pair-share: Talk to a buddy about what you wrote down. With the whole class, share what someone else put on their paper that you thought was cool.

  • Second round: Challenge students to continue. Give them retrieval cues with the name of a concept, textbook chapter, or unit.

  • Third round: Turn the brain dump into Leave One Add One. Collect papers (they “leave” it), hand them out to different students, and have students write down something not already on the paper (they “add” to it).

Try this out a few times throughout the school year and students will actually enjoy it. Keep in mind that the silence during a brain dump will feel awkward. Even though students aren’t engaging socially, they are engaging their learning — and that’s a good thing.