ABC Summary
The ABC Summary uses the letters of the alphabets as prompts for remembering important
ideas or information about a topic. Students attempt to recall and connect summary words or
phrases about the topic they have been studying to letters of the alphabet.
ABC Summaries can be used in any subject area. For difficult letters such a Q, X, and Z, you can
bend the rules a little bit for your students.
Assign a letter:
Alphabet Soup-Each student pulls a letter of the alphabet out of a fishbowl and creates a
summary sentence about the topic starting with the chosen letter. As a closing activity—or an
opening activity the next class period, in alphabetical order students read their sentences for
the rest of the class or post their summary sentences on a bulletin board.
A-Z with Group Memory-Teams of students are given one section of the alphabet per team
(e.g. A-E). As a team they create summary statements starting with those letters. As a closing
activity—or an opening activity the next class period—in alphabetical order, teams read their
sentences for the rest of the class or post their summary sentences on charts or a bulletin
board.
A-Z Recording During Class-Distribute the A-Z graphic organizer at the beginning of a class.
Pause every ten minutes or so and have students work in pairs or small groups to summarize
important ideas or phrases and write the ideas next to the appropriate letter of the alphabet;
the intent is not to fill the whole alphabet but to capture important ideas where they connect
to a letter.
Alphabet Books-When the topic is big or significant enough, students’ final summaries might
take the form of alphabet books (A is for…). There are many illustrated alphabet books on the
market or in the children’s section of the library that would make excelled models for students
in terms of both text and illustrations.
Alphabet Sequential Roundtable
1. Give students a grid with each letter of the alphabet in a square.
2. In a small group, students are given a defined time to begin filling the grid with a word or phrase
that starts with the letter in the grid and which relates to the key learning of the lesson.
3. At the signal, the student passes the grid on (and receives another).
4. With each successive pass, students must read the concepts/ideas on the grid they receive, and
then continue the grid, adding (not repeating) new information to each grid.
ABC Summary
ABOUT…
______________________________________________________________________________
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
M.
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
N. ______________________________
O. ______________________________
P. ______________________________
Q. ______________________________
R. ______________________________
S. ______________________________
T. ______________________________
U. ______________________________
V. ______________________________
W. ______________________________
X. ______________________________
Y. ______________________________
Z. ______________________________
ABC Summary
ABOUT…
______________________________________________________________________________
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
XYZ