Use this Alphabet Brainstorming Chart

This classic organizer worked for me at the 2020 Write-to-Learn Conference

I traveled to the 2020 Write-to-Learn Conference sponsored by the Missouri State Council of the Int’. Literacy Association, The Missouri Writing Projects Network, and the Missouri Council of Teachers of English. Even though I attended only one day of the three-day conference, I’m happy with the handful of tools I’ll be using in my classroom soon.

One of those tools is the Alphabet Brainstorming Chart shown below. Here’s a link to a similar handout that’s ready to use.

How to use this organizer:

1. Find a new topic you need your students to explore. “Critical literacy” was the new topic used to demonstrate how to use this chart in the classroom by our presenters, Dr. Lara Dieckmann, a teacher at Harrisburg (Mo.) R-VIII School District and Dr. Christy Goldsmith, assistant director of the Campus Writing Program at the University of Missouri. Critical literacy was a term I knew nothing about; however, it was still a topic I could still ponder, as in “I don’t know what critical literacy is, but I think I know what it might be about.”
2. Divide students into groups. Choose group size based on your needs.
3. Tell students to think about their topic and write a word or phrase that they can connect with the topic — one for each letter of the alphabet. You can see the words I connected to critical literacy in the photo above.
4. This activity encourages students to evaluate what they already know or think they know and enter their thinking into the squares.
5. Let students talk among their groups and share their ideas or words. This activity is about more than prior knowledge. It’s also about sharing ideas and getting kids talking about the topic at hand.
6. When students and groups are finished filling in the chart, go around the room and share out and discuss what students know about the new topic.

I like this chart much better than KWL charts, which have always seemed so boring to me. It has a game-like feel to it. And besides, with a KWL chart it’s really hard to come up with things you want to know about a new topic.

If I had been given a KWL chart to fill out about critical literacy, I would have been lost. With this ABC chart, I was able to come up with more ideas to discuss than I thought I could. I can see how it can be a confidence-booster with kids. It was also good to hear other ideas from my group members.

And finally, the best thing about this ABC Chart is you can make it a game!

Switch it up by…

• Giving a prize (or just designating a winner) to the first group that fills in all the squares.
• Giving a prize to the group that fills in the most squares in a designated number of minutes.
• Giving a prize to the group that fills in “X” with the best phrase that fits the topic.

Sort It! Map It! Exploring Critical Literacy

I received this handout during a session called “Sort It! Map It! Exploring Critical Literacy, Pedagogy, & Writing Process” taught by Dieckmann and Goldsmith.

The presenters readily acknowledged the original source of this classic organizer.

It was adapted from The Key to Know “PAINE” Know Gain, a 1998 paper presented by  G. Ricci and C. Wahlgren at the 43rd annual convention of the International Reading Association.

I’m looking forward to using this organizer with my seniors in a few weeks when we begin our Medieval Age unit in British Literature. I’ll let you know how that goes in an upcoming post.

---

Thanks for reading again this week! Have you ever used this chart? Do tell! Feel free to share your experience in the comments. Follow my blog to catch my follow-up post on how the chart works in my classroom. Here’s a link to another post inspired by a session at last year’s Write to Learn conference.