Picture Talk - World's Worst Album Covers

Yesterday, I was cleaning out files on my computer and came across a number of folders related to Picture Talk, an activity which I had done years ago but had completely forgotten about it these past two years. I do not know why Picture Talk had slipped my mind, because it is a great way to dialogue with students in the target language and to get students to interact with it.

Picture Talk is part Movie Talk (without the movie), One Word Picture, and part story-asking. The basic idea is to project a picture and to narrate what is happening in it in the target language, to ask questions about it, and maybe to create a story based upon it. Primarily, I have used it to preview new vocabulary. Like Movie Talks, in order for this activity to be effective, it needs to be compelling for students to want to take part in it. Since movie shorts have a built-in plot, pictures can be difficult, because it can be hit-or-miss with students depending on how they engaged they are with what it is presented. I have heard Katya Paukova often say that the best movie talks are those which emotionally engage students, so with pictures, I try to do the same using the "World's Worst Album Covers"!

If you do an online search of "World's Worst Album Covers," you will see that there are TONS of websites dedicated to this topic. In addition, if you take a look at these album covers, you will find that there are TONS which are definitely INAPPROPRIATE to show in a classroom (let alone wanting to discuss them in the target language with native speakers!). However, there are some which are absolute gems for use in a Picture Talk - here is one of my favorites with possible questions to ask. For those of you Latin teachers who use the Cambridge Latin Course, I was previewing vocabulary in Stage 9 related to Quintus' birthday celebration:

1. What objects/people do you see in the picture?
2. Is this a girl or woman?
3. Is this girl Julie?
4. How old is Julie?
5. Do you think that Julie is having a birthday party in the picture?
6. Is Julie celebrating her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese? at Build-A-Bear?
7. Why do you think that Julie in this place?
8. Is Julie happy or sad?
9. Why do you think is Julie sad?
10. Why do you think that is Julie alone on her birthday - did she not invite anyone?
11. Did no one show up to Julie's birthday party?
12. Why do you think that no one came to Julie's birthday party?
13. Is this a boy or man?
14. Do you think that this man is Julie's father?
15. What do you think is happening in this picture?
16. What do you think happens next?

As you begin to ask questions about things in the picture, you can start creating a story in the target language. For the above picture, I recall a class creating a story about Julie running away from home on her 16th birthday. She was fighting with her parents, because they wanted to have a Hello-Kitty themed party, but Julie wanted to go to the movies with her friends. As a a result, she ran away to a bar to celebrate, but immediately Julie was sorry when she was approached by an older man who wanted her to run away with him. Julie ran home and happily celebrated her 16th birthday with her parents and Hello Kitty. Julie learned a valuable lesson (I like for my stories to have a moral at the end if possible).

Here are some other world's worst album covers which I have used:

So consider giving Picture Talk a try with some of these pictures!

5 Ways to Use One Set of Ilustrations

In preparing a CI unit involving a story, sometimes I like to incorporate my own illustrations of a story into my lessons. I think that it adds another level of comprehensible input for students, as well as aids in engaging students. At the same time, however, I also do not wish to create a series of illustrations if I am only going to use it just once for five minutes in a unit. I want to get maximum benefit from my time creating them. As the brain craves novelty, here is a way to use one set of illustrations in five different ways in a unit. This will require you drawing a set of pictures only once, in addition to using a photo scanner.

NOTE - if you do not feel like you are good enough of an "artist," then you can always have a student illustrate for you. By no means am I a skilled illustrator, but I can definitely draw stick figures, and as the great Sally Davis once told me, "Everyone can draw stick figures."

1. First, create a series of illustrations for Find a Sentence. This set of pictures will serve as your basis which can be used for the other four activities. N.B. - I actually will try to illustrate each sentence in the story (which could be as many as 15), so there may be a 2nd page of pictures, but for Find a Sentence, I will only use one of the pages.
2. Now scan each of those frames individually. Now that you have each picture scanned individually, create a slide presentation of your story with the text and corresponding picture. This can be used to project the story as a review.
   
   
3. Duplicate that slide presentation but now use it as a Cloze Sentence activity.
   
4. Now duplicate that slide presentation of the story but remove the text. Print that slide presentation (in color if possible) for a Picture Story Retell. 
5. Using the original page(s) of pictures, now create a Sentence Picture Relay of the story.

For me, Telling a Story with Pictures and then Cloze Sentences would be early in a unit, Find the Sentence would be in the middle, and both a Sentence Picture Relay and Picture Story Retell would be at the end - all in combination with other activities.

Observations

1. I have found that when using the same pictures of a story for different activities lends to their comprehensibility, since students become very familiar with them and what the illustrations are communicating.

Quick Draw

Here is another fun Comprehensible Input activity, which I tried out for the first time this week. I learned Quick Draw from Lauren Watson, a fellow CI French teacher in my district (she is the one who gave me the idea for Scrambled Eggs). Lauren, in turn, learned this activity from Dr. Sherah Carr, who had conducted some professional development at Lauren's school awhile back. This is a fun way for students to review already-acquired vocabulary.

The activity is called Quick Draw and for good reason! It is essentially Pictionary involving white boards and a great SILENT partner activity! You will need to create a powerpoint, where each slide has a category (such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, emotions, anything, etc) and four vocabulary words which relate to that category. Here are Lauren's directions:

1. Students are in pairs, and each have a dry erase board with markers.
2. Designate Partner A and Partner B.  
3. Each partner divides his/her dry erase board in quads with a marker. Number the quads 1-4
4. For Round 1, Partner A faces the screen and Partner B turns their back to the screen.  Project the PPT. I tell everyone the category for each round.  
5. Partner A looks at the list of words on the screen and draws a picture for each vocab. word.  S/he draws picture 1 in quad 1, picture 2 in quad 2...etc.
6. Partner B writes the vocabulary word which s/he thinks the picture represents in the appropriate quad.  
7. They can't talk or gesture or write words/numbers - ONLY pictures.  
8. The round ends with the first pair who successfully finishes all 4. 
9. Switch roles between partners for the next round

My variation: Instead of having the round end with the first pair who successfully finishes all 4, I gave 75-seconds for each round. This way, there was still a feeling of having to draw quickly but it gave the slow processors a chance. At the end of each round, I had teams simply tally their score, and they kept a running tally throughout the game,

Observations

1. Students LOVED this activity and asked for more rounds (even though we had played 5 rounds!). 
2. The silent aspect of guessing the words makes it a lot more manageable and enjoyable for students. I have played regular Pictionary with students before, and it always gets really loud.
3. Giving students a set amount of time helped lower the affective filter, because it was not a competition to finish first.
4. I was surprised at how easily most students were able to write down the vocabulary words, based only upon a picture. This is more proof to me that when limiting vocabulary and targeting high frequency words, acquisition occurs more quickly and naturally.
5. So many different modalities are addressed in this activity!
6. The categories help students focus on which words will be used. I threw in an "anything" category (meaning it could be "any" vocabulary word) at the end, and although it made it more difficult, students still enjoyed it.

I will definitely add this activity to my arsenal (which means I will do it every 5-6 weeks in order to preserve the novelty). Thanks, Lauren, for yet another great activity!

Pictionary/Tell A Story

This is an activity which I learned at my first Rusticatio in 2010. It is part Pictionary, part Tell A Story.

1) Ask a student in the class for a letter of the alphabet.
2) Now play Pictionary with the class, where students will volunteer to draw pictoral representations of the vocabulary words beginning with that particular letter
3) Do not erase the picture after a student draws it, but keep it up on the board. In fact, students may add to the existing picture if they choose (as long as the word begins with that letter).
4) Once you have 8-9 words, then tell the class that you will tell them a story involving those words which were drawn. You can also do this as an Ask a Story.

Here is an example which I did with one of my Latin 2 classes. The letter which a student picked was "A"

The words which were drawn were: agricola, auris, audit, animal, amat, amicus, arbor, ad, aqua, aedificat

Here is the story which they came up with as an Ask a Story: agricola animal amat, sed animal agricolam non amat. ergo, animal ad silvam fugit. in silva sunt multae arbores. in silva, animal duos amicos aedificantes villam conspicit. agricola est tristis, et clamat quod amat animal. animal agricolam clamantem auribus audit et ad aquam fugit.

Observations:
1) A fun activity for students. The Pictionary aspect gives students a different way to interact with vocabulary.
2) Using only particular words for the Tell/Ask a Story can be a bit tricky since there are some specific parameters but at the same time, the parameters keep the story from getting off task
3) Since the students determined which words are going to be in the story, it gives them some ownership of the story.

Guess the Word/Hot Seat

This is another fun vocabulary activity involving whiteboards - I learned this at my first Rusticatio in 2010:

1. Divide the class into 3 teams
2. Pick one student from each team to sit in front of the classroom with their backs to the classroom board - the three students are facing their teams. I usually ask for volunteers so that no one feels like he/she is "on the spot" without his/her permission.  The rest of the class has whiteboards.
3. On the classroom board, write a known vocabulary word
4. The class will then draw a pictorial representation of that word on their whiteboards but not show the 3 students. If a student does not know the meaning of the word, he/she can look at a neighbor's whiteboard. Students may not use letters, numbers or any symbol found on a computer keyboard.
5. On cue, have all of the students show the 3 students their pictures
6. The 3 students guess the Latin vocabulary word. First one who guesses the correct word gets a point for his/her team.
7. Variations: instead of pictures, have students write one-word synonyms or antonyms in Latin. Depending on ability, have students write definitions of the vocabulary word in Latin sentences.

Observations

1. This is a very low-stress, highly engaging and competitive activity. 
2. Because students are drawing their own interpretation of the vocabulary, it helps to personalize the acquisition process
3. In order for the students to guess the word, the picture needs to be comprehensible. Sometimes, the simpler the picture is drawn, the better.
4. Because the 3 students are looking at a variety of pictures to guess the word, they are receiving multiple comprehensible messages.
5. Pick vocabulary words which can be easily understood from a picture. Sometimes, "concept" words, e,g, dignitas, are difficult to draw.

Four Word Vocabulary Picture

I've always said that students love any activity involving whiteboards and dry-erase markers. Here is a fun vocabulary activity:

1. Write four known random vocabulary words on the board.
2. Students have one minute to draw a picture on their whiteboards which incorporates/depicts all of the words (not four separate pictures, but one)
3. Tell students if they do not know a word, then they should focus on what words they do know.
4. When the minute is up, students show their whiteboards to each other, pointing out each word in Latin.
5. Ask students to show their whiteboards to you, while you walk around and check them.
6. Pick 2-3 boards to show the class, and using a document camera, project student pictures onto the screen
7. Describe these pictures in Latin to the class, using the vocabulary words
8. You can also circle questions about words in the picture
9. Added variation - if you have time, draw a picture yourself beforehand involving the four words and show your version to students.
10. If you are able, try now to Ask a Story from one of the pictures projected. Ask the student who did the drawing for details. He/she will usually be able to come up with a great story since it is his/her picture.

Obervations

1. Drawing a visual depiction of the vocabulary word gives students another way to acquire vocabulary.
2. Since students are drawing the vocabulary words themselves, it personalizes the acquisition process
3. Even though everyone is drawing a picture using the same four words, I am always surprised by how many different interpretations there are. Students are too and enjoy seeing each other's pictures. 
4. I will usually do 2-3 rounds of this activity in a period, lasting a total of 15 minutes (if I do not do an Ask a Story from one of the pictures)

One Word Picture

One of my favorite CI activities is One Word Picture, because it does not require any real preparation on my part as the teacher, and the burden for this activity is actually on the students. All I have to do is simply ask questions in Latin in order to keep the activity going and to draw what students tell me. Here is the setup: 

1. Take a vocabulary word and draw it on the board. This works great if you are trying to introduce a new vocabulary word.
2. Define the word for students in English in order to establish meaning. Hopefully, the meaning of the word is obvious from the picture.
3. Now tell your students in English, "Now I need you to tell me what to draw/add to this picture, but I will only do it if you tell me in Latin. intelligitisne? ita? tunc incipiamus!"
4. Begin to ask students simple questions in Latin to elicit responses, and based on what they say, add to the picture. For example, if you are starting with a vir, ask "qualis vir est? ubi est vir? quid vir agit/facit?"
5. Take comprehension timeouts to ask students in Latin about the new picture which has been drawn, pointing to various parts. Students are the ones who created the picture, so they should have not have a problem answering. Example: in pictura est vir - qualis vir est? (mortuus). estne vir vivus an mortuus? (mortuus). estne vir vivus? (minime)
6. Whenever things start to slow down in One Word Picture, in order to regain momentum, I will always say "_____ aliquid portat - quid _____ portat?" Once you get a response and add it to the picture, then you can start all over again with questions about this new addition. Example: vir aliquid portat - quid vir portat? (avis). vir avem portat - qualis avis est? quid avis agit/facit? quid avis portat?
7. Depending on the level of your students, you can start asking "why" questions to come up with a story. This is an intermediate level skill and actually requires a great amount of language production for students, so be careful.
8. At the end, ask students to describe the entire picture back to you in Latin, as you point to various parts of the drawing. Due to sheer number of repetitions and because it is a visual representation of the word, they should not have a problem telling you about the picture
9. Depending on your comfort level with CI, what you have drawn based on student input transitions very easily to now telling a TPRS story to the class.
10. If you think your students are up to it, turn it into a timed-write where students need to write a story about what is happening in the picture.

Why this activity works

• it is low key and non-threatening. No one is being put on the spot.
• because students are the ones creating the picture, it is a compelling activity; therefore, they have a degree of ownership. It is okay to say no to certain suggestions if you do not think it is appropriate or if you do not know how to draw it. I had students want me to draw puella obstupefacta est, and although I commend them for having internalized the phrase, that is way beyond my basic drawing ability - what does obstupefacta est look like?
• it is a simple comprehensible activity, and if you keep restating what you are drawing and asking questions about various parts of the picture, you will get in a TON of repetitions.
• you are creating an actual picture for students, and students are relying on the visual image instead of words for cues.
• because you the teacher are doing the drawing, most likely, that in itself is enough to keep students engaged. I myself cannot draw my way out of a paper bag, but I remember Sally Davis saying, "Everyone can draw stick figures," so that it is what I do.

Below is an example of a Word Picture which I did with one of my Latin 2 classes a few weeks ago. It simply started with a picture of a rex;

After 10 minutes of simply asking questions, below is the final picture:

Here is what they came up with in Latin: in pictura est rex. rex caput filiae Metellae consumit. Metella est laetissima, et portat corpus suae filiae. rex pecuniam portat. rex est in taberna. rex ursae cantat. ursa saltat. subito, mortuambulans intrat. mortuambulans est ebrius et vinum portat. taberna est pro Monte Vesuvio. Mons Vesuvius displodit. e Monte Vesuvio venit hippopotamus et infans. dea est in caelo. dea est Isis et volat in caelo.

And I did not have to do anything other than just ask questions and draw.