Drawing in the Classroom - Expressions

       Sketching on the board in class is something that most teachers do. As the saying goes, "a picture paints a thousand words". This is especially true in a language learning situation - ESL EFL in this case - where a quick sketch can help students focus and generate language related to the sketches.

 Of course, many of us are not artists. I'm sure you will have noticed that I am no Gauguin. Here we learn some handy techniques for making quick sketches that are useful in the classroom for making quick sketches that will help students - and not waste time while the teacher struggles to draw. Here are some great tips about expressing emotion quickly.

The key to drawing quickly is the fact that humans usually fill in the missing information. The difference between "happy" and "sad" is one simple stroke - the smile or frown. There are basically seven expressions which can be quickly expressed in a few strokes of the marker or piece of chalk and cover quite a wide range of situations.

Here are the other five:

As you can see, these figures convey a wealth of information with very little effort. You can liven up class discussions - or get them going - by quickly sketching a few of these on the board and asking how the person feels and why. Students fill in the information taking the sketches as cues.

The key to sketching quickly is adding just a few strokes which deliver the needed information.

 prepared by:Mrs.Shokoofe Naderi