A great activity I like to use with my students is called “Chicken Foot”.

1. They love the name.
2. It’s a good way to teach students to pick out the main points of a text, primary source document, picture, etc.

I learned this strategy at a Pre-AP Summer Institute I went to in 2010 in Norman, Oklahoma. After viewing the document, students write the main idea on the “leg”, then they pick three points or elements of the text that the students feel are super important and that everyone needs to know about the document. They write the three main points on the “toes” (if that’s what they are!).

This can be used in a variety of ways . . . for jigsaw presentations, writing essays, answering DBQs, summarizing, etc.