Creative ways of using 'Picture Dictations'

In a ‘picture dictation’ activity the teacher describes a drawing that the students cannot see, and the students draw what they understand from the description. It’s a classic ELT activity and in the Hands up Project we’ve been playing around with different online versions of it since the very beginnings of our work in Gaza. See for example this early example in Jabalia camp that we came to call ‘Reverse picture dictation’

Even now, despite everything, in our Stories Alive clubs and drama clubs in Gaza that we’ve had operating since May and before , our brilliant and dedicated teachers are finding new ways to use picture dictation to provide motivating and learning rich activities for children who have been immersed in total hell on earth for the past 10 months.

Ashraf, the coordinator of the whole Stories Alive programme in Gaza, was working with the story ‘The farmer who followed his dream’. Before telling the story he asked everyone to draw a picture of a farmer following his dream. This is a very loose and creative activity; It’s beauty lies in the fact that it’s completely open to interpretation and provides an opportunity for some interesting conversations when students describe their drawings afterwards. Here are some examples from his class.

This farmer is dreaming about being able to harvest his crops again.

This farmer wants a tractor and a peaceful life

This farmer wants a good harvest and lots of technical devices

And in the video below, with Sahar’s drama club in the South, we can see a whole sequence of learning rich activities using a more traditional picture dictation approach. The class is very well structured to incorporate a range of revision, activation and freer activities which all stem from a single picture dictation activity. What about you? How do you use picture dictation activities in your classes?