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.

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.