Crawford slip writing

With a large group such as a classroom, there are always going to be many ideas present. As a result, the Crawford slip writing strategy can come in handy. Any number of prompts can be acceptable for this type of strategy. Some might be: how to be a successful high school student, what to expect in college, or in what ways might we improve school allocated funding.

Below is an excerpt borrowed from this website:


Each person is given a stack or note-pad of at least 25 small slips of paper (e.g. A6 paper). The pads are often pre-prepared to consist of idea-jogging graphics, or in the case of larger groups, the time and activity of handling the pads in Step 5 becomes crucial, so the pad needs to be designed so that the ideas can be separated and sorted easily.
At appropriate points in the general proceedings, problem statements are read out to the group using any of the well established procedures such as: ‘How to…’ or ‘In what ways might we…’. The search is generally for ideas for solutions, however in some instances you may want to get ideas for alternative problem statements, or related issues, etc.
Participants are told to write ideas of the required kind one per sheet, in any order. Displayed images or words to the whole meeting to act as triggers, or organising participants to work in twos or threes (e.g. with others sitting near them), can help with stimulating ideas.
When writing has begun to slow down (usually 5 – 10 minutes) the note-pads are collected.
If rapid feedback is being attempted, the booklets are immediately divided up between the members of a team of helpers and sorted in agreed ways – e.g. by frequency of occurrence and/or feasibility. If a greater degree of sophisticated categorisation is required, then the categories will probably have to be pre-determined (e.g. from an earlier pilot), so that each team member can work to the same categories. In the case of a very large meeting, presenting early feedback as examples drawn from a limited random sample of booklets may be the best option. Feedback during the same meeting is difficult to achieve. However, for an event lasting several days (such as a conference) quite complex feedback throughout the duration of the conference is plausible if the logistics are well planned. Rapid feedback from a large exercise can be quite a coup de theatre if organised successfully.
After the early feedback, analysis and evaluation can continue at a steadier pace to identify the most useful ideas and develop them into practicable proposals.
Finally, a feedback report dispatched to participants is often valuable.