GIST for Alice Walker’s “Without Commercials” 

Name:  ____________________       Period:  _____       Directions:

1. Read the first three stanzas of the poem.2. Capture a summary or main message in a sentence using 20 words or less.3. Repeat this process for the last two stanzas of the poem.  Realize that the second GIST

statement will become a combination of the first GIST statement and the new material. However, the second statement is still limited to exactly 20 words. 

By revising and combining each GIST statement throughout reading, the main message of the poem will be identified.

 Stanzas 1, 2, and 3         __________    __________    __________    __________         __________    __________    __________    __________         __________    __________    __________    __________         __________    __________    __________    __________         __________    __________    __________    __________  Stanzas 4 and 5           __________    __________    __________    __________         __________    __________    __________    __________         __________    __________    __________    __________         __________    __________    __________    __________         __________    __________    __________    __________