Graffiti

Description

The Graffiti teaching strategy is a group brainstorming activity that can enhance students’ thinking skills, promote their writing skills, and stimulate class participation. It allows all students to consider a few important questions related to the given learning in the Healthy Living strand.

Educators provide questions related to same topic. They record one question per sheet of paper. Students work in small groups, with the number of groups being equal to the number of question sheets.

Instructions

  1. Create a list of five pertinent questions regarding a particular issue or topic. Write each question on the top of a separate sheet of chart paper. Divide students into five groups accordingly.
  2. Distribute the chart paper and different coloured markers to each group. (For example, Group 1 receives blue markers, Group 2 receives red markers, etc.) The different marker colours allow the educator to assess each group’s specific contribution to the whole activity.
  3. Tell the students they will have 3 to 5 minutes to answer each question. All group members write “graffiti”—words, phrases, diagrams, etc.—regarding their first question.
  4. Once the time is up, ask groups to pass their graffiti sheet to the next group.
  5. When groups receive their new graffiti sheet, ask them to first read what has already been written or drawn on the sheet, and then add new information.
  6. Continue this process until each group’s original sheet has been returned to them.
  7. Instruct groups to read all of the contributing comments, discuss, them, and summarize them.
  8. Asking each group to prepare a brief presentation to the class. Explain to students what information should be shared during the presentation and how it will be evaluated.

Important Considerations

Group work provides students with the opportunity to learn about diverse perspectives and practice their living skills. However, if the task will be used for evaluation purposes, each student’s work within the group project should be evaluated independently and assigned an individual mark, as opposed to being assigned a common group marki. Consider conferencing with students throughout the activity or culminate the task with an opportunity for students to demonstrate their personal knowledge of the topic.

The content in this section was sourced from: Instructional Strategies for Teachers. (2012). Graffiti teaching strategy [web page content]. Retrieved from: http://teachers2012.blogspot.ca/2012/03/graffiti-teaching-strategy.html

i Ontario Ministry of Education. (2010). Growing success: Assessment, evaluation, and reporting in Ontario schools (1st ed., Covering Grades 1 to 12), page 39. Retrieved from: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growSuccess.pdf