Graffiti / Placemat

Classroom graffiti boards can be used pre or post lesson, as a transitional piece, during centers, or in lieu of a morning job or exit ticket. You can use Post Its for student responses. However, I really L-O-V-E slapping a fresh white board marker in a student’s hand. There is just something about writing on a white board in a colorful pen that motivates our students to give more.

Blog by Kelley Dolling

Thinking Strategies - Deliberate and Challenge Graffiti.pdf

Graffiti - Deliberate and Challenge.pdf

Silent Discussion - Deliberate and Challenge.pdf

Graffiti Strategy

Placemat Strategy

Math Teacher idea!

I put one “placemat” in a plastic sleeve. Students work in groups 4, each student completes one of the problems on the placemat. They find the sum of their solutions and write the sum in the center of the placemat. I only have to check one number to know if they have all solved their problems correctly.

Writing idea!

The goal is for students to work together to plan a piece of writing such as an essay. Each quadrant has a topic heading which relates to central question. Students have 8-10 minutes to fill in their quadrant. You can rotate the paper and provide another 5-8 minutes. Keep rotating until they have worked through all the quadrants. They can get up do a gallery walk to see thinking of other groups and then come back and fill in the middle square with key bullet points that form the conclusion.