At first the One Word Image is amorphous and undefined. All we know is that somewhere in this space in front of the room, a corn dog or a chicken or a star sh exists. The fun is in learning its particular details. The students will bring the object to life by responding to a series of questions in class, discussed next.
Like any good storyteller, we want to develop the characters inside and out. The physical portrait of a One Word Image is developed in class as a group. It is a pleasant process, full of creativity, ideas, and fun. It builds group cohesion because we negotiate the details together. The emotional portrait is of equal importance. It is developed after the physical portrait, sometimes simply in an exit activity at the end of class if time is running low.
For the sake of the student artists who will be drawing the character, it is important to establish details of the character’s physical portrait by asking the rst four questions of our questioning sequence in this particular order:
1. Quantity
2. Size
3. Color
4. Happy or Sad
The artists need to hear these things in this order to quickly sketch out the character. Often time is short, especially?in the beginning of the year when there is so much more need to clarify meaning—to repeat, to gesture, to write on the board, to go slowly, to pause and point to words— and so many more interruptions due to teaching kids the Classroom Rules, explaining to them how their “showing up” in class will be connected to their grade, etc. In that case, we can rest assured that even these four simple questions will be enough to result in memorable characters that demonstrate some originality and personality.
How can four simple questions elicit a memorable character? A lot depends on the manner in which we speak to our students. First, we must speak slowly, far more slowly than we think is necessary, and then we need to take the speed down a notch, even from there.
If our rate of speech is painfully slow to us, then it is at the right speed for our students. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. If we feel comfortable with how fast we are talking, then it is painful for our students.
In some of our videos we have looked at the timing of?our speech and there are literally two to four seconds of silence between each short meaningful word chunk at?the beginning of the year in beginning levels. Try it! Try saying “Is… the corn dog… really big… or… microscopic?” To do that, extend two fingers between each word chunk, counting two full seconds of silence. Feel how slow that is. Now do that in class.
In addition to going slower than you feel is natural, you will find that the more you can use physicality and body language and facial expressions and give the object real space, the more you are able to use your vocal intonation to express wonder, incredulity, excitement, compassion, and other human qualities (to which human beings of any age cannot help but respond), the more you will be able to “milk” each utterance for its full dramatic and pedagogical potential.
As we say, “Class… the lazy cat….is very sad…” and walk around the imagined cat, we convey that idea not with any additional language, as that would overwhelm the students, but by making our thoughts visible with our body language.
We want to be like actors in a silent movie. Silent film critics have pointed out that, before talkies arrived, members of the audience were seen sitting on the edge of their seats, completely absorbed in the action, and when the talking movies arrived, they began sitting back in their seats and munching popcorn in a markedly more disinterested way. Why is this?
According to many studies, the human experience is more than 90% visual. If this is true, then we can see why it is so hard to get most kids to suggest cute answers for stories. Too much was asked of the students, whose atrophied (by school) imaginations just couldn’t create much of anything cute in their minds.
This is because they were hearing only words, and words spoken too quickly, most likely, and often without any emotion at all by their beleaguered teachers, who were typically being worked far more than is good for any human being. No blame on them.
If we are intent on reaching our students as language teachers to the fullest extent possible, then we must ensure that the scene and the characters we create in class are visually interesting and emotionally engaging. The students lap up the repetitions of the language we offer them when doing what is described above.
Why are One Word Images so engaging? One reason is that they are based on group creativity. Another is that the students understand everything—we have spoken sufficiently slowly about a simple topic that was built together from one word in English. A third reason that One Word Images are so engaging is that there is strong visual appeal involved. The artwork serves as a vehicle for deep interest while furthering our ability to get large numbers of repetitions of the language.
Their understanding is the foundation. When students?do not understand, the input is not comprehensible and bad feelings jump on them. This is especially true when it appears to them (falsely) that everyone else understands. When using One Word Images as a basis for stories, we limit the amount of information that is being collected. Thus, the students can relax and enjoy watching the image develop.