ABC Brainstorm
www.readingquest.org:
Making Sense in Social Studies
Why?
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Use the ABC Brainstorm to activate students’ prior knowledge
ABC Brainstorm provides teachers with an overall picture of student understanding on a
selected topic
Use with a previously studied topic to recap and summarize
How?
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Select your focus before discussing a new and important topic in content areas such as
social studies and/or science. Make sure that the topic is broad enough to get a wide
range of responses. If your topic is too narrow, it makes the task too difficult.
Provide students with a copy of an ABC Brainstorm template or have them write the
letters of the alphabet down the left-hand side of a sheet of paper.
Working individually, students try to generate a words or phrases that they associate
with the selected topic.
Work in pairs or small groups to work on letters they have not finished. (Works like a
think-pair-share.) Students work together to write a summary paragraph that is based on
their shared lists.
Share with class. Students should be able to explain the relevancy of their word or
phrase choices. Be open to their responses!
ABC Brainstorm
Tuesdays with Morrie
DIRECTIONS: Preview the book like someone thinking about buying it would. Look at the cover,
the back, the inside pages before the chapters start, pictures, chapter titles, etc.
What did you learn? Come up with as many different things you learned as there are letters
in the alphabet. You do not have to go in order. You should NOT look for a word that begins with
the letter. Be creative. Three sample entries have been done for you.
A
About an old teacher and his student
B Bestselling book
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W World discussion
X
Y
Z
Prediction Paragraph –Write a 6 sentence
prediction about the book’s contents.