Verbal Collage

Purpose: To help learners build their familiarity with basic parts of speech and improve their writing skills.

Prep Time: 5 minutes                    

Materials Needed: Pictures from magazines or printed off from the computer. The pictures should be in color, and have multiple actions happening in them.

Procedure:

1. Break the class into groups of three or four. Have each group select one learner to be the writer for round one.
2. Give each group a picture. Have the groups brainstorm nouns that they see in the picture for one minute. The writer records all of the nouns.
3. After one minute is up, have the writers put down their pencils. Have each group select a new learner to be the writer for round two.
4. All of the groups pass their pictures in the same direction so that every group has a new picture. For the second round, have the groups brainstorm adjectives that they see in the picture for one minute. The writer records all of the adjectives.
5. After one minute is up, have the writers put down their pencils. Have each group select a new learner to be the writer for round three.
6. All of the groups pass their pictures in the same direction so that every group has a new picture. For the third round, have the groups brainstorm verbs that they see in the picture for one minute. The writer records all of the verbs.
7. After one minute is up, have the writers put down their pencils. Collect all of the pictures and have the groups select a learner to be the writer for the final round.
8. Give the groups 5-10 minutes (lower level classes will need for time for this round) to come up with a story that uses only the nouns, adjectives, and verbs that the groups wrote down. The groups can add in function words, such as pronouns (he, she, it, they), articles (a, an, the), prepositions (over, on, next to), and auxiliary verbs (be, do, have). To make it extra challenging, ask the groups to write their stories in a particular tense.
9. After the writing time is up, have the groups take turns reading their stories out loud.

Extension: Put the pictures up on the board. As each group reads, have the class examine the pictures to guess which picture they used for round one, which picture they used for round two, and which picture they used for round three.