Drawings from a Story

Drawings from a Story gives learners a chance to illustrate their understanding of a story. Images can be as simple as line drawings and stick figures, and stories can be chosen or written deliberately to match recent vocabulary.

Preparation

Select or write a story that uses vocabulary students have been introduced to previously. Be sure that the story is long enough to be illustrated in several frames. Look for line drawings online or draw your own to demonstrate to learners how the drawings will fit in with the activity.

Procedure

1. Prepare students for drawing a story by selecting about five simple line drawings and telling a story to match. Students can identify the five images that go with the story from several as you tell the story or as a summary exercise after the story is finished.

Inform students they will draw similar simple drawings to illustrate a new story you will tell them. 2. Tell the new story, going slow enough so learners can jot down ideas for their images. 3. Have learners focus on illustrating the main points or events of the story in five images.

When to Use It

• To give some practice for those with a visual learning style • To have students summarize a story focusing on the imagery created by words

Level

Skills

Practice

Materials

Paper

Preparation Time

20 minutes for the sample story

Activity Time

30 minutes

Variations

1. Learners can put each illustration on a separate paper, and different students can sequence the images as they understand them. 2. Learners use key words in the story and incorporate them into the imagery.