A Low-Prep, High-Impact Strategy to reclaim the class story
For years Ben Slavic has told me that his very best lessons emerge from examining the characters that students have created on their own. Instead of the One Word Image (OWI) characters created through a whole class process, he found more success looking at student drawings made outside of class. I’ve found that once students have created several OWIs together, they no longer need the full-class imagination process at the start. That part of the process—while often fun—can sometimes be derailed by students who try to take the class off track. After a few shared experiences, it becomes less necessary. Students can create the characters on their own. Student-created drawings offer rich, compelling input. They spark deep engagement, fuel authentic story-building, and help re-engage students who’ve checked out.
How I Use the Drawings
Last Friday I gave each student a blank piece of paper and twenty minutes to create their own characters. After making many OWIs together, students understand what makes a strong class character. Not a single one was ‘inappropriate’ for school. I think that the urge some students feel to shock and disrupt class is short-circuited if the drawing process is not done live. Looking through the drawings, I feel genuinely excited for the final weeks of the school year. In twenty minutes of class time, we easily created more than enough material for six weeks of class conversations.
2-3 times a week I plan to introduce a new character by projecting an image of one of the drawings against the wall. There is something fascinating about the scale. Instead of holding up a paper for everyone to squint at, I snap a photo and project it six feet tall on the wall. Details come forward and everyone is immersed in the creativity of the student illustrator. We still delight in the students’ creativity, but I’ll be able to anticipate some of the less-common words that will surge forward (for example, the word “pickle” is a word in Spanish that I have to relearn every time it comes up).
Compelling Input Without Burning Out
For me, student creativity isn’t simply a whimsical feature of my classes; it is one of the defining features that I use to draw in many kinds of learners. You’ve likely seen the difference: some students process language actively, while others sit with glassy eyes until called on. When asked a question, they blink to wake themselves up and ask, “what was the question?” because their minds have been in another world.
Obviously, we want students to constantly process the target language spoken in class, even if they are not being spoken to directly. That’s what leads us teachers to turn a good class conversation into a worksheet: yes we need accountability, but our best teaching instincts also tell us that these class conversations are useless if the students are not tuning in. Choral responses are another way to pull minds back into the conversation. And I’m not judging; I need their heads in the game too.
A good story makes classroom management easier—everyone’s naturally focused on understanding what happens next. It is a lot easier when students really want to know what happens next. A good student illustration performs the same function. There is something about the energy in class that is entirely different from a picture talk based on some random image found on the internet. The “we made this” energy carries us further; the story that we imagine for our character is captivating in ways that most other stories are not.
Maybe it’s because the language isn’t driven by a teacher’s plan, a curriculum map, or a textbook committee. It is so clearly the students’ agenda that has taken over.
Stephen Krashen says that the best input for language acquistion is compelling input. While that points us toward the kind of conversations we should try to generate in class, I find the idea of constantly being compelling to be… exhausting! And unattainable, honestly. But demanding that our students develop our story ideas, make choices about characters, provide plot solutions… all of that requires a higher level of active engagement on the part of the student.
When I project one of these characters against the wall, first I’ll describe the obvious characteristics and then I’ll ask a few questions to probe deeper into the character: does our carrot have a family? Does he live with them, or has he moved out? Does he have a romantic interest? Does he have a job?
Once we have rounded out our understanding of who our character is (and of course given him a name), I’ll always announce that our character has a problem. It is a big problem; although it might seem small to us, it is quite a big problem for our character. Let’s figure out what is wrong so that we can help (character’s name) live a happy life. And then we follow the story creation process. Within 15-20 minutes, we have a complete story (usually about the length of a full paragraph) to write up in a Write & Discuss community text.
But why does this work so well? It’s not just novelty—it’s about how students engage.
Engagement and Mental Rehearsal
Lately I have been wondering aloud in my classes about the role of mental rehearsal in language acquisition. I ask, “Who acquires language faster: the quiet student who never speaks but follows closely and mentally rehearses answers, or the one who speaks often and participates aloud?”
My students often think that the answer is obvious, but it is not. As long as each student is actively processing the language, they are probably both acquiring at maximum efficiency. The real problem is the third student: the one who fails to process the language when not spoken to directly. The “huh, what was the question?” student.
Next time you project a student drawing, watch those third students. Often, these otherwise disconnected kids are drawn in when their work becomes the center of the lesson. Although they may not be speaking in the target language, take note of other cues that they are engaging.
I may not have hit my teacherly goals—like introducing pre-reading vocabulary or transition words for academic writing. In fact, if I did it right, then the only new vocabulary introduced were a few odd words chosen by students (for example, pickle). Yet, it was a really, very good use of class time.
So, the next time you’re planning a lesson, consider stepping back. Let students create. Let their characters lead the way. You might find the most powerful stories are the ones you never planned.
Best wishes,
Mike
Are you interested in diving deeper into learning about One Word Images and other CI techniques? Join the CI Master Class! A full year membership gives you access to all sorts of class ready resources, videos guiding you through the techniques, essays on technique and many tips to manage a CI classroom easily. Each membership includes full access to the Master Class library– every book I’ve published in French, German & Spanish– for you and for all of your students. Join today while there is still the Spring Discount and enjoy the last weeks of the school year with your students.
Read recent posts in this series about my return to the classroom:
Who gets left behind? (March 29)
Future Tense(March 22nd)
Everything becomes very easy(March 16th)
The Heritage Learner in my Level 1 Class(March 8th)
Students, front & Center(March 2nd)
Child Psychology(Feb 23rd)
Reading & Writing(Feb 15th)
Imagination Work(Feb 8th)
120 hours(Feb 1st)