I just wanted to make a comment into a post in case anyone wants the latest information, learned this summer in the workshops, on One Word Images:
There is an art to deciding on the object. It must be simple and not have many moving parts. Ask for size, color, name and add a face, at least eyes.
Above all, do not tell the kids what the image is at the start of class. Anything from a teacher is suspicious, could be on a test, related to a grade. Act like there is an invisible kid in the back of the class. This invisible kid is the one who suggests suitcase, wheel, whatever YOU feel like working with that day (how YOU feel about the image counts most because in one word images and in all comprehensible input you have to be into it, to feel like it is interesting to you, etc. That is why I am fine with a different image/Invisibles story from each class. [Credit: the Invisible Kid idea to Joe Neilson.]
Stairs as an image are too difficult to give a personality to, I would think.
The way the invisible kid in the back works is that you say, “Wheel! I like that!” and point to the back of the room. By the time the class has finished turning back to the front of the room to see from whence came the suggestion, you have roue – wheel written on the board. You have succeeded at this point in making the kids think that the suggestion of a wheel for a one word image came from them. It is so important to do it that way as we all know, because nothing we say can be interesting. We blew that a hundred years ago when we first started making ourselves into know-it-all judges and test givers instead of love givers in our profession.
I like to get size and name and color and mood and then maybe get into the eye color, size of the face. Small faces in big heads really draw the kids in. The ideas presented in this comment represent an improvement on OWI as it is described currently in the Big CI Book and in TPRS -the Easy Way, which I will upgrade to reflect the information in this post unless I can get Tina to do it, who somehow has the same mind as I do when it comes to comprehensible input, which is really weird to find someone like that.
Then one more thing: you want to add in one “hook” detail. For example, the image has a REALLY BIG body and a REALLY SMALL head. Or three eyes. Stuff like that. Anything that has the same effect as when a dog hears some weird sound and crooks its neck to the side to try to figure out what is happening.
Also, be careful not to let the artist start drawing until the image has been decided by the class. Otherwise, they often draw in stuff that is not happening which screws things up later. I am changing Rule #7 to “Actors and artists synchronize your actions with my words.”
The odd hook detail and face is what ropes the kids in. How can they resist an unhappy (in case it becomes an Invisibles story, unhappy is easier to create a problem but of course the problem can be that happiness becomes sadness so there are no rules) dog with a really big body and a really small head with a very small face with yellow eyes named Chet?
Also avoid asking “where” and “with whom” because once you ask those two questions you have basically launched things into a story. All that is needed once you add those two things in is a problem. Of course there is nothing more wonderful than when all your careful questioning as per the points made above leads you and the kids into a story. It happens a lot!
One more thing, and we learned to do this over the summer at the various workshops – sculpt the image, as per:
https://benslavic.com/blog/sculpting-one-word-images/