Adventures in CI Activities pt 2: Read, Draw, Write, Pass

November 2021 – 

If you are a fan of The Comprehensible Classroom and the SOMOS curriculum, then you have likely done Martina Bex’s version of write-pass-draw in the curriculum a few times. This is a twist on that activity and is more closely aligned (in my mind) with a one sentence story activity, but in the target language + add in art. 

Here’s how we played: 

Step 1: We read a story together as a class. (This particular example references the story “La Presidenta” from the SOMOS 1 Unit 4 FLEX curriculum). As we read I circled and checked for comprehension as always. The kids particularly enjoyed this story… although one class was a little confused because our random storyasking from a few days coincidentally featured similar characters. 😂

Step 2: *Pre Class* type up a few slides (click here for a template) with a random sentence from the story you read as a class. Personally, I chose sentences that contained one of the verbs we have been working with AND that lended itself well to continuing a story. I printed one copy for each student. *Note: I chose about 10 different starter sentences so students would have a lot of variety. 

Step 3: (okay, really this is Step 1 again) Read the story

Step 4: Explain to students how the activity will work: Each student will get a piece of paper (mine also got a clipboard). They will read the sentence on the page they are given (I gave about 30 seconds for this) then they draw a picture for the sentence that they read (I gave about 60 seconds for this) then they write the next sentence in the story ( I gave about another 60 seconds for this). I told my students that their goal should be for the sentence use one of the verbs we’ve been working with, but it wasn’t required. 

Step 5: Pass the paper and repeat! I chose to have 6 total sentence written on the paper, but you could always add more or do less. The last person will not write a sentence, only read and draw. I chose to have my students make any “edits” they saw as they read the completed story (most did not, but a few advanced students did!)

Step 6: Now you have about 30 version of short stories that you can read to your students, use for practice or embedded readings, to practice TPR, and the option continue!