Contributor:
Robin James
While trying to think of a way to motivate junior high students to be attentive to a pre-test review, I realised there were a lot of visual images related to the test. That reminded me of how much fun playing Pictionary is to my friends and me.
I took as many topics / items / questions in the test and started thinking about what I could draw. Ideas came to mind, but I’m no artist. Then it dawned on me to use clipart. I have several CDs with clipart, so I just started word-searching the items I wanted to draw. I was able to find pretty much everything I needed.
Next, I prepared a list of topics / words / terms and beside each one, I pasted or hand-copied the art on my paper.
When I did this activity in class, I called on volunteers to draw. At first, only one or two volunteered, the best artists. But as soon we started, everyone wanted in on the fun.
When students came forward, I gave them a topic and asked if they had an idea of what to draw. if they did, I let them go for it. If they didn’t, I showed them my artwork and told them that is what I would draw if I were doing it.
This is the most animated and active this class has ever been. It was fun, and it was educational.
I give them candy as a reward for correctly identifying the correct answer.
This has been a huge success and I have used it several times in classes from 7th to 11th.