Secrets that will make you use Picture Talk activities

Picture Talk uses one image to spark class discussion. It can be something outrageous, fictional, or correspond to a topic you need to cover such as family or sports.

I find that often a simple image can also be quite effective because it allows for more creativity from the students. This is an amazing Picture Talk!! I love it because it includes multiple characters (Twins…interesting…) and lends itself easily to story telling. 

DAY ONE: I start class by talking about the picture and what we see. It is a fantastic way to recycle vocabulary such as weather, names, & physical descriptions. From there, you can slowly introduce new structures such as reflexive verbs. Some sample questions I ask (in the target language):

• Is it hot or cold? Sunny or rainy?
• Are they big or small? Tall or short?
• What color are they? 
• Do they greet one another?
• Do they hug one another? 

Once you’ve gotten the most out of what the students see, let their imaginations run wild. 

We then use this picture to create a backstory for the characters. You can do this in past or present tense. For example:

• What are their names?
• Where are/were they from? 
• What are/were their favorite activities? 
• What do/did they like to eat? 
• Are they siblings? Father and son? Friends?

I use a lot of circling and repetition of key words/structures. Once we have created a descriptive background story, I finish the activity with “write and discuss” summarizing the story on the board by soliciting student input. I always take a picture of the board after so I have a record of what we talked about. I highly recommend starting by writing the date and class period. That way when you go back through your pictures, it’s easy to keep them separate.

DAY TWO: On the second day students draw a cartoon strip with dialogue between the two characters. You can set up the story for them with a prompt such as putting the characters in a new setting. Another option is to pose a problem such as the character needs to go somewhere new, is missing an important item, or needs to talk to someone different. A third option is to let the students design the dialogue how they want. The dialogue format helps to reinforce the first and second person verbs and allows them to be creative with the story.  

DAY THREE: On the third day I give them running dictations based on the story of the characters that we created as a whole class. For detailed directions on running dictations from The Comprehensible Classroom click here. 

DAY FOUR: On the fourth day I ask for student volunteers and we act out the story. Each student takes a different role based on the characters in the picture and we begin by reviewing what we already know about the characters. Then comes the twist! I add a new character (and another student)  to the mix and present a problem. As a class we develop a solution to that problem. To wrap up the activity, do another write and discuss. 

DAY FIVE: On the fifth day I give the students a printout of our story from the Write and Discuss with questions to answer showing their comprehension. For reading activities I like to give questions in English and they respond in English so I can really see that they understood the text. If the questions are in Spanish then they sometimes just copy words from the text without really knowing what they mean. I use a mix of true/false and more open ended questions. 

I hope this post has inspired you to think of new and creative ways to extend your activities to help reinforce and recycle language with your students (and also to make your life a little easier!!). One tiny picture can inspire an entire week of lessons! The more you let the students use their creativity and take ownership of the story, the more engaged they will be.