Lesson skeleton: YLs and drawing
October 19, 2011 10 Comments
This is an idea I’ve been using quite frequently lately as an introduction to a topic in a coursebook. It works well with lower-level young learners who, despite a lack of language, have many ideas they want to express.
1. Put a title on the board or a picture on the board and ask learners to draw it. For example “when I am happy” or “what does a cool person look like” and ask learners to draw the answer to the question.
2. Monitor what learners are drawing and consider the sort of language they will need to describe their picture.
3. Inevitably, some learners will finish more quickly than others. Move around the classroom and ask learners to explain their pictures to you. Have a selection of cards on which you can write chunks to help them explain their picture. In this way, the language you input is directly linked to a context and very easy for them to understand in terms of meaning.
4. Once you have done the whole class, ask them to write a description of their picture using the vocabulary.
5. At this point, you can direct learners’ attention to the relevant part of the coursebook as an extension of your springboard activity.
6. Or, one of the following may work as an extension activity:
a) Create a classroom survey using all the pictures, including language like “we all/some of us/a few of us/half of us/ like/likes___” “we often/sometimes/rarely/hardly ever/never do/go/eat (for daily routines).
b) Ask learners to describe their pictures and draw what they hear. If the initial drawing activity does not take too much time, otherwise they may be tired of drawing.
c) Write language on the board and ask learners to match it to which picture they think it corresponds. Put the pictures on tables and ask them to walk around in pairs and complete the activity.
d) Put some true/false statements on the board. Clarify any vocabulary they may not understand and ask them to answer the questions using the pictures and/or explanations.
e) Put a question box on the board and ask learners to make questions to ask others about their pictures.
Advantages:
- Creates a personal context in which you can input vocabulary.
- Creates interest and engages students before opening their course book.
- Gives learners an opportunity to express what they want without language before trying with language.
- High flyers can write a longer description with more language, while weaker students can still express themselves and feel positive about completing the task well.
Disadvantages:
- Make sure the picture is not too time-consuming or the lesson could turn into art class.
- If learners do not like drawing, they are unlikely to respond to the stimulus. I have not come across this problem yet but I am sure there will be a class one day that hates drawing.
- A lot of personalised language inputted in this activity. If it’s necessary for the whole class to be on the same page, then an extension activity in which language is clarified and contextualised in all pictures may be necessary, otherwise extending, revising etc will be problematic.
Hi Dale,
Drawing is a great way to connect with kids and get them producing despite limited language. I like the way you explain how you use the pictures as a chance to literally see what language they need in order to move onto a conversation and/or written production.
One thing that works well if you do have any reluctant artists is to get stuck in yourself. When the kids see my stickmen, they relax a bit as it helps them see the quality of art is not the point of the lesson.
This does, however, restrict your ability to monitor and note down those language chunks.
Sadly, I can’t escape from the reality of exams but I personalise our prep sessions for the Starters, movers and Flyers exams with the students’ own pictures. For example, one question in those exams has 5 or 6 sentences under a picture, which the students have to label ‘yes’ or ‘no’ depending on the accuracy. I get the students to make their own sentnces based on their own picture before passing them on to another group. We also use pairs of pictures for ‘spot the difference’ practice and one other activity is write names for people in the picture around the edge of it (assuming there is more than one!) I then have the one student describe a person while the others listen and match the name, mirroring one of the exam listening questions.
There’s a lot of mileage to be had from just a few pictures and I’ll be blogging about it soon!
Hi Dave. Thank you to you for the idea! I look forward to reading about it more on your blog.
Exam classes are a reality for all of us. But, as you said, personalisation can still play a part. What’s more, if, like you do, it includes exam skills in a personalised way, student will feel more natural during the exam, having practised the skills a number of times. Do you make it clear to your students that this sort of thing happens in their exams?
Dale
In true dogme spirit, I reveal the relevance to the exam when I feel the time is right in that particular class. Some kids will have an adverse reaction to anything presented as ‘exam practice’ while others will take it more seriously!
I try to avoid mentioning the exam too much as that is not where I want their minds to be. As the exam date draws closer though, I will point out that we have done similar activites many times before. To build confidence, I tell them “you have even written questions like this so answering them will be no problem!”
I guess the moment you mention the word exam, all the good work on personalising and appealing to students goes out the window and they think about one thing!
Exams are extrinsic motivation, but pictures are intrinsic, and in the long run, helping children learn to love an English environment is what’s most important. I regularly ask children to draw, and like you, all (?) seem to enjoy it.
Good point David. From a intrinsic motivation perspective, ‘marketing’ exam skills along these lines is not only going to help them pass the exam, but also leave them with much more post-exam motivation to continue with English. There’s a lot to be said for a positive learning experience. Thanks for the comment.
There’s never enough drawing! Cross-curricular stuff can work wonders I think. In fact, if teaching English with art works then why can’t we have more or even solely mixed topic classes? Same in the EFL class, there’s nothing as dull as a 2 hour grammar class but a grammar/oral/writing class is a different story.
I love this post. THANK YOU
God, Dale this is a fantastic idea. Frustratingly I have just finished a four week intensive with Italian teenagers 5 hours a day (hence my lack of blogging) – wish I’d read about this drawing idea before. Will certainly use it next time. Brilliant.
Thanks Emi, there’ll be more to come. I’m working on some at the moment that include lots scaffolding… stay tuned!