The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

404: The Missing Piece in Most ELA Projects

Dec 3, 2025

Explore the art of brainstorming in education, inspired by the research revealing the need for thousands of ideas to spark true innovation. Discover how students are guided to generate ten project concepts and refine them through peer feedback. Hear about interactive classroom strategies like analyzing podcast trailers and pitching ideas for improvement. Learn how applying extended ideation techniques enhances learning outcomes and leads to more meaningful projects. This episode emphasizes the importance of validating ideas with target audiences.

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INSIGHT

Quantity Breeds Quality In Brainstorming

Generating many ideas increases the chance of strong innovations, per Bob Sutton's research.
Students habitually pick early ideas, so deliberate ideation matters for better outcomes.

ANECDOTE

Podcast Unit Classroom Example

Betsy guest-taught a podcasting class and used show trailers to spark thinking like a podcaster.
She then challenged students to produce 10 show ideas to push past first impressions.

ADVICE

Force Quantity Then Peer Filter

Require students to list many options (Betsy used 10) before choosing to prevent premature closure.
Then have them get partner feedback and narrow to three, repeat with a new partner to refine choice.

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According to research by Stanford Professor Bob Sutton, innovative businesses need to generate about 4,000 ideas to come up with two or three really good ones.

Think about that.

4,000 ideas.

What does that mean for our students? In their busy whirlwind days, they're likely to opt for their first or second idea on any given assignment. A thesis pops into their head? They'll probably hit the ground running with it so they can get their paper done. They think of a project concept for genius hour? Boom. They jump on board.

In an era of busy busy and test prep, brainstorming often gets shortchanged. But what if that means students are spending hours, days, even weeks on ideas that don't deserve their time? Ideas they would have quickly surpassed with a few more minutes of thinking, and a quick feedback session with a partner?

Today on the pod, let's talk about how can we build a better brainstorming engine into our projects, paper processes, and units. We're going to take a peek at two quick case studies today - one in a classroom full of students just getting started on a podcast project, and another from my experience working on a concept for PD.

Want to go Deeper?

Check out this guide to Brainstorming from the Stanford d.School: https://hci.stanford.edu/courses/cs247/2011/readings/dschool-brainstorming.pdf

Watch the Masters of Creativity Series from Stanford: https://www.youtube.com/@stanfordsmastersofcreativi9905/playlists

Sources:

Potash, Betsy. "Research-Based Practices to Ignite Creativity, with Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle." The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, Episode 393.

Pringle, Zorana Ivcevic. The Creativity Choice. Public Affairs, 2025.

Utley, Jeremy and Kathryn Segovia. "Masters of Creativity: Updating the Creative Operating System (Design Thinking)." Stanford d.School Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggza7df7N7Y&t=2233s. Accessed October 17, 2025.

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