Teaching high school students to visualize what they are reading and to create graphic symbols helps them develop as readers. The Literary Graffiti interactive combines the process of drawing with analytical thinking about a text by pairing an online drawing space with writing prompts (shown at left) that encourage students to make connections between their visual designs and the text. The tool can be used for whole-class discussion of a text, small-group work, or individually, where students use "graffiti," symbols, drawings, shapes, and colors to construct a graphic of the text they are reading. After completing their individual or group images, students have the ability to print out their final versions for feedback and assessment.

Visit this interactive tool at: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/graffiti/.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

Creating Psychological Profiles of Characters in To Kill a Mockingbird (9-12)
This lesson asks students to explore the motivation behind characters’ actions. After reading To Kill A Mockingbird, groups of  students create psychological profiles for characters from the novel, determining what specific factors (such as family, career, environment, and so forth) have the greatest influences on the characters’ decision making throughout the novel.

Discovering a Passion for Poetry With Langston Hughes (9-12)
Much like today's youth, poetry can bundle a great deal of passion in a small package. Through close readings and historical research of select poems by Langston Hughes, students identify, illustrate, and present connections between an author's time and place in history and his writings.

Graffiti Wall: Discussing and Responding to Literature Using Graphics  (9-12)
Students respond to literature in a variety of ways. Here teachers can tap the students' desire to doodle and draw by having them create a Graffiti Wall, using graphics to discuss a piece of literature that they have read in common. After doing both group and individual activities, students write essays analyzing some element of their novel.

Stairway to Heaven: Examining Metaphor in Popular Music (9-12)
In this lesson students examine metaphors they find in the lyrics of popular music. Using an interactive graffiti tool, students illustrate and explain the metaphor. The lesson has students make connections between the literary texts they read in the classroom and popular culture texts with which they are already familiar.

Teaching Student Annotation: Constructing Meaning Through Connections  (9-12)
Believing that the meaning of text lies in the teacher's notes, not within themselves, students often fail to realize that their experiences and understandings are just as important in constructing meaning. Through annotations, students begin to find ways to make personal connections with text and grow in confidence as they work with text.

Using Technology to Analyze and Illustrate Symbolism in Night (6-8)
This lesson, which can also be used for the high school grades, has students explore the use of symbolism in Elie Wiesel's Night. Students synthesize what they have learned by using an online tool to illustrate their ideas and creating a photomontage of images and text culled from Internet sources.