WHAT IT IS:

From The Writing Strategies Book (Serravalo, 2017), the Alphabox strategy helps students organize their knowledge on a topic as they prepare for and plan a writing task.

HOW IT WORKS:

Using a simple graphic organizer (downloadable template below), students list all the associated words or concepts they know about their topic alphabetically. The goal is to list as many terms as possible. The use of an alphabetical list helps students remember terms they might have missed.

Additionally, the strategy can be a drafting or revision aid to have students return to their alphabox organizer for reminders about ideas they may have neglected or to add more ideas to the organizer that they have discovered or remembered.

For a collaborative revision aid, consider having a partner read a student’s work with that student’s alphabox list to try to identify gaps.