These activities help students organize their ideas and prepare for longer writing assignments. Students may download their responses as PDFs.
T-Chart: Two Sides of an Issue
This activity helps students prepare to argue different sides of an issue by visualizing their ideas in T-chart format. Students will identify two sides of an issue and brainstorm a list related to each side.
T-Chart: Unique Characteristics
This activity helps students prepare to distinguish between two items, topics, or ideas by visualizing their ideas in T-chart format. Students will identify two categories and brainstorm a list related to each category.
T-Chart: Similarities and Differences
This activity helps students prepare to compare two items, topics, or ideas by visualizing their ideas in T-chart format. Students will identify two categories and brainstorm a list related to each category.
Venn Diagram
This activity helps students prepare to compare two things by visualizing their ideas in Venn diagram format. Students will identify a topic with two categories and brainstorm a list of the categories’ unique and common features.
Know, Wonder, Learn (KWL)
This two-part activity helps students approach and consider a chapter or a reading by identifying what they already know and would like to know (in part one), and then by identifying what they have learned (in part two).