ABC+Graffiti

Your Name: Sarah Daniels # 5

Strategy name: ABC Graffiti

Student appropriate grade levels:5,6,7,8

Tags:ABC graffiti, post-reading strategy, summary, writing, brainstorming, comprehension, reading, organize, individual writing

Content areas: Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Reading

Type of Strategy: After reading, writing, vocabulary

Types of Students: general, high achievers

Strategy Description:This strategy is used for student comprehension after reading from multiple texts. Once a student has read from different sources, he/she is to brainstorm about key points from the texts using every letter of the alphabet. The ideas can be either a single word or a phrase. Students complete this first task individually. Next the class is divided into four groups that are arranged in a circle or diamond shape. Now the groups with do collaborative brainstorming on the key concepts using the ABC method again. Groups will only have about 5 minutes to work. The teacher collects the sheet and passes it to the next group and they continue to fill out the key concepts.This rotation happens twice. On the third rotation, the groups are allowed to look in their text for some ideas. During the fourth rotation, the groups are to evaluate and summarize the concepts into a paragraph. These summary paragraphs are given back to the first groups and now the groups come up with a thesis statement that they will write on. Before the actual writing, the teacher can hold a discussion to highlight important concepts from the text.

Strategy implementation example: I would use this in my social studies class after the students read some primary, secondary, and fictional texts on the Oregon Trail. Here is an example of what the ABC Graffiti sheet would look like

Topic: Oregon Trail Title of text: Westward Expansion Almanac Adventure Better living Cattle Death on trail Exploration Food supplies Gold rush Homestead Act Immigrants Judging Kids die on trail Liberty Migration New life Over population of East Prairie Schooners Quick riches Restlessness Struggles Trading post Unknown territory Vexation Wagon train X-spenses Young families Zeal The class would continue the rotation of brainstorming papers and then come up with a summary paragraph. After the summary paragraph, I would lead a discussion and cover the main points of the text. Next the class will create a topic sentence and then write a paper on what they just learned about.