Graffiti

This strategy will help students to:

  • generate ideas and cover several issues or aspects efficiently
  • work collaboratively to learn from and share with others.

Implementation

  1. Divide the class into small groups. 
  2. Give each group a large sheet of paper and different coloured felt pens (a different colour for each group member allows for individual contributions to be tracked). 
  3. Provide each group with a different question, issue or statement to consider.
  4. Within a designated time, groups ‘graffiti' their paper with words, phrases or drawings related to their question, issue or statement. Advise students that they ‘own' the word/comments/drawings they record. This means that they could be asked to explain or clarify information where necessary.
  5. The graffiti sheets are then passed to another group. 
  6. Instruct students to avoid repetition of ideas by ticking the comments they agree with, writing comments next to ideas and writing their own new responses on the graffiti sheet.
  7. The process is repeated until the graffiti sheets are returned to their original owners. 
  8. Groups read, discuss and summarise the graffiti sheets. Comments may be categorised in order to draw conclusions or present a brief summary presentation to the class. 
  9. Planning for further learning experiences can be carried out using the students' responses.

Variations

Graffiti walk

Display the graffiti sheets around the room. After step 4, groups leave their graffiti sheet behind and walk to the next sheet to add and comment on previous response. Remind groups they cannot return to their original graffiti sheet until consideration has been given to all other sheets. Groups then complete the activity as before by reading, discussing and summarising the ideas generated from the graffiti.

ABC graffiti 

Pose a question or statement related to a health or safety topic. Ask groups to attempt to make an A-Z of words or phrases linked to the question or statement. For example:

What do you know about sexually transmitted infections?
A- Are itchy, B- Bumps, C- Chlamydia….

Students review their responses and choose five words or phrases that best reflect the question or statement. These are then written into a sentence or several sentences to summarise what students think would be the most important things for someone their age to know about the topic.