When doing one word images, as we walk to the word on the board, we put our hand on it, then we say it. We don’t say it while we are walking toward the board, which can confuse the kids*. Thus, in the sentence:
…the apple has a hat on its head….
we first walk to the sculpting space (the commonly agreed upon space where the image is being built), put our hands out to indicate the apple, and then at that point, not before, we say the word apple in the TL. Then we can skip the verb “has” because it is implicitly understood. (We are building a static image and don’t need to concern ourselves with verbs when our image is static.) Then we walk to the board where we had earlier written the word “hat” and not until we have arrived at the word and put our hand on it do we say it. Then we walk back to the space where the image is being “sculpted” in the kids’ imaginations, and we stretch out our hands and only when we have arrived at the image and stretched out our hands do we say the word “head”, moving our hands to the upper part of the space where the hat would be. We thus train ourselves to walk and wait before talking. We can add additional support to the clarity of the message by shaping a hat on our heads with our hands. But it’s all very slow and deliberate and we walk before we talk.
To communicate the last part of the sentence, we don’t need to go to the board and write down “on” because the image is clear with just the three key words:
apple
hat
head
In a story we would need to TPR words, of course, as needed. But not in a one word image.
It is of critical importance to always work in the same space. We can’t build anything in the minds of the kids if the space we are working with keeps moving around to different parts of the stage area in the front of the room. The space should always be front and center, about the size of a table, in front of us, and about half way out to the videographer.
So doing a one word image involves not walking and talking at the same time (confusing to the kids), but rather walking and waiting until we arrive at where what we are talking about is located (object in the sculpting space or the word on the board).
*The ten finger comprehension checks and required signaling moves provide false reads of student comprehension. They lie on the hand comprehension checks. Most don’t know how to self advocate so how can they make the fist sign thing to show us that they don’t understand. They don’t know if they don’t understand. They are kids who are used memorizing….
Therefore it is 100% our task to know which of our students are not getting our input, slowing down and directing our instruction more towards them, inviting them to comprehend whatever they can in a loving way instead of requiring them to take control of their learning, which requires a conscious effort on their part and thus interferes with the natural unconscious process that the research indicates is how people actually acquire languages.
The faster processors can wait. They are still getting input.
Thus the kids affective filters remain down as we take full responsibility for making ourselves 100% comprehensible to our kids.