Information collection & exchange

W en the fire engine left the fire station on Hicks Street 
Roscoe did not know that he would return a hero. Flames were leapin
f the corner house on Livingston Street. Neighbors, police, and firemen stood outside on the 
o
sidewalk. Suddenly they all looked up and shouted as they heard a s

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years old, appeared at a third-floor window. It wouldn't open. He was very frightened. Bill Roscoe 
d the bottom rung of the metal fire 
escape ladder. Then he climbed up to the window, broke it, pulled the boy out of the window, and 
In 
qu
Wh
hat does a fireman do every day? How would the boy 
escribe the event in a letter to his grandmother? What letter would the owner of the house write 
 company? What precautions should everyone take to prevent fire at home? How 
ould the boy describe the incident? Would you like to be a fireman/woman? Why or why not? 
The m
those which can set off a discussion generating lots of ideas, which the 
studen
Still another variation of brainstorming is a technique called loop writing or looping, which is more 
appropriately done on an individual basis with students at an intermediate or advanced level of proficiency. 
Each 
n minutes, putting down anything that comes to mind on a 
given 
no editing. No worry about the aptness of the ideas, the 
brilliance of the prose, the accuracy of the grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The student then stops, 
reads what has just been written, reflects on it, and then sums it up in a single sentence. This sentence 
becomes the kernel idea for the next loop. After going through this procedure two more times, the student 
should have arrived at a summary sentence which he can use as the focus for an essay. The following 
example shows looping as used by Julio, a college ESL student in the United States, but the technique 
works well also for students in secondary school and for adult learners.