This is another activity which I learned from Emma Vanderpool, a Latin colleague and few CI-user in Massachusetts. It is a collaborative activity which can be used to preview a story, to review a known one, or as a warmup using known vocabulary. Here are her directions:
- Students should sit in a large circle. All should have a whiteboard/marker/eraser.
- Project the story/reading on the board.
- Students have a set amount of time to draw (varying from 20 seconds to 1 minute).
- After the timer goes off, students then pass the whiteboard clockwise.
- Students should then pick up from where their peer left off.
- After the timer goes off again, students again pass their whiteboard, and so on until you judge that the time is up.
- Return the original whiteboard to students to review what should be illustrated there.
Observations
- For each round, I gave students 25-30 seconds to read what was on the board and then 15 seconds to draw. The 25 seconds gave students a chance to re-read the story/sentences on the board, to look at what had already been drawn, and what needed to be added. Giving students only 15 seconds meant that they had to be quick in their drawing but essentially, they drew less which allowed for more rounds and for the activity to last longer.
- There is a lot of critical thinking in this activity, because it causes students to re-read the sentences and to compare it with the whiteboard pictures which they have each time to see what is missing. Lots of close reading required!
- Instead of a circle, I made it one continuous circuit so that the whiteboards traveled about 8-9 students. When we finished, students got their whiteboards back, and it was fun for them to see what had been added to their original drawing. Plus, since they had illustrated the story over a series of different whiteboards, they knew how they themselves had drawn the various parts of the story, so they liked seeing how others had drawn it.
Can you clarify: are they drawing just one select image of something that happened from the story that they choose at random? So then the next person just adds more details to what they started? Or trying to draw multiple parts of the story in order?
ReplyDeleteIt can be either depending on how you use it. I used it as a warmup where there was a paragraph of number of sentences describing a drawing which had a lot of details. The end goal is that by the end of the activity, the full drawing is complete. Students can add the next details to the picture if they are reading the sentences in order or they can go out of order if they choose. However they do it, it still requires them to do a close reading to see what has already been done and what new parts need to be added.
DeleteThis was a great activity! With some of my classes I would display the text for a small amount of time where they were only supposed to read and pick out a detail to draw. I'd then stop projecting and have them draw. They'd draw and then pass the board while I put the text back up so that they could compare it with the image and pick out another detail to add. While they were drawing and the text wasn't projected, I'd read certain parts of it and rephrase aspects so they could work on their listening at the same time. I then put in a final "fun" round where they could add another random detail to the image before passing it back its owner. I will definitely be adding this activity to my rotation, thank you!
ReplyDeleteI did this recently, and I found that many students end up picking the same detail to add over and over again if they see that it's not there already. This seems like a loophole for them to avoid having to think too much about the rest of the story. I told them that an additional rule is that they can't keep adding the same missing detail, but they still did it anyway; any ideas on how to avoid this?
ReplyDeleteHere's one thought, although this would require extra prep. Create multiple short texts using the same target vocabulary and structures, print out copies of each one, distribute them so that each member of the group has a different story or different version of the story. Then pass the stories along with the whiteboards so that students are getting exposure to the same target material but in different contexts.