This Listen, Write, Draw activity is an example of one of those activities I had been doing before I encountered comprehensible input strategies that I didn’t have to throw out the window! It’s low-energy for the teacher and students, but a great way for students to be hearing those messages! It’s also a good way for you to do a formative assessment of their understanding as they illustrate the sentences. Let’s take a closer look!
Listen, Write, Draw is really very similar to Classic Dictation. Here’s how it works:
- Students listen to you read sentences.
- Then they write what they hear.
- Finally, students draw what they understand.
Simple, right? There are a few things I like to do to change it up in my classroom when I use this activity! As much as I love Classic Dictation and how calm and low-energy it is, it still requires me to be front and center as I deliver the sentences, then provide the correct responses. Some days, I just don’t want to repeat reading sentences over and over again!
Also, when you add in the drawing aspect of Listen, Write, Draw, I like to give students the option to spend a good amount of time illustrating sentences to show how they understand.
How do I make these tweaks? I like to record the sentences ahead of time and post them in Google Classroom! Then, after our start of class and daily routine I have students take out their devices and complete the activity individually. They can listen and re-listen if they want to, and I encourage them to take a significant amount of time to make their drawings complete.
