PRACTICAL IDEAS

Drawing on drawing games

Part three
Alex Case gets students involved in drawing competitions, challenges and cooperation.

I
f you saw my own less than best product that they can. Some specific
professional drawings illustrating ideas for getting groups or the whole
Drawing on Drawing Games Part class to work cooperatively are given
One and Part Two1,2, you are probably towards the end of this article. These can
wondering why I would ask my students be a great antidote to the ones nearer
to compete to complete great pictures the beginning that try to get students
when I am clearly not capable of doing a bit more wound up (in a good way!).
the same – and the answer is that I Although there isn’t a clear distinction
wouldn’t! Instead, many of the games between the three categories, the ideas
below use the common element of below are more or less arranged to start
competition to add fun while students with competition, move onto other
try to produce drawings that are challenges, and end with the ones based
faster, better for language learning, more on cooperation.
more imaginative, etc. than the other Some of these games were inspired
groups – with drawing skills never being by rereading Andrew Wright’s Art and
necessary, or even desirable! Other Crafts with Children3, although most
games set students mental challenges, have become unrecognisable during my
e.g. ones similar to logic puzzles, that adaptation of them to be suitable for
they complete with the help of drawing adults and teens.
or that finish with a drawing as the end
product. Drawing race
The main issue with getting students Students race to draw something that
to compete or setting them challenges the teacher says or writes on the board
they could fail at is that there are often quicker than the other teams, e.g. “There
losers as well as winners. Solutions is some chicken on the table”. You can
include getting students to compete organise this by giving them a very strict
within their groups rather than as a
class (and maybe mixing up the groups

“ The main issue with getting students to

from time to time), getting students or
groups who always win to do something
else such as setting challenges for the
rest of the class, getting the students to compete or setting them challenges they could
challenge the teacher, planning what
hints and other help you will give (to
particular groups who are struggling, or
fail at is that there are often losers as well as
to the whole class), and having rewards
for different kinds of skills (e.g. the most winners … You can also often remove the
imaginative picture as well as the one
that is closest to the image they based
it on). Examples of these and other
element of competition entirely and just get
solutions are given in some of the game
ideas below. people working together to produce the best
You can also often remove the element
of competition entirely and just get
people working together to produce the

Volume 19 No. 2 www.onlineMET.com

product that they can.
” 21
 PRACTICAL IDEAS

time limit and giving points for the most Pick a card drawing sentence
complete picture(s) within that time, or challenge
have students put up their hands as they
think they have finished and then check For classes where you want to practise
that they have drawn what you said. For particular vocabulary or in which your
the latter variation, you could restrict students don’t have much imagination,
teams to putting up their hands once (so you can vary Drawing Sentence Challenge
they are out of that round if they haven’t by giving them a pack of cards they
actually drawn the right thing), therefore pick cards randomly from. They then
giving the slower and more careful teams put that word into the sentence to draw
a chance. You could also give points to themselves or challenge another team
all but the last team, and points for good to draw, e.g. taking the card “banana”
pictures as well as quick ones. This game and so changing the sentence “The man
works best with sentences that could be is sitting on a horse” to “The banana is
misinterpreted, such as foods that can sitting on a horse” or “The man is sitting
be uncountable or uncountable (e.g. best attempt (even if none of them are on a banana”. You can also play this
“There are some chocolates in the box”) truly successful). without having an original sentence,
and easily confused multiword verbs i.e. let the students make any sentence
(“washing up” and “washing”, “wake up” Drawing sentence challenge (and therefore drawing) from the words
and “get up”, etc). In this variation on Drawing Challenge or expressions on the card(s) that they
above, students can only change one picked.
Brainstorm drawing race word or part of the sentence on the
Ask students to work together to draw board to make it difficult or impossible Design competition
as many things as possible in the for other groups or members of their Ask students to work in groups to design
category you say within the time limit group to draw, e.g. changing the and draw something, e.g. a theme park,
you set. Possible categories include sentence “The spider is on the man” a city, a house, a car, the transport of the
“uncountable things in bathrooms”, that they have been given to “The future, a household robot, a street sign, a
“actions people in the classroom and mountain is on the man”. The next window display, or a monster. Points are
their relatives are doing now”, “actions round can then be played by changing then given for the best one, e.g. by having
you can do carefully” and “words with the same sentence again (e.g. “The a class vote where teams cannot vote for
the same vowel sound as ‘ground’”. mountain is through the man”) or with their own designs. You can add to the
After the time limit is up, they can pass a new sentence to change. amount of speaking by asking students to
their A3 page of drawings to another present their designs to the whole class,
group for them to check whether all the Drawing sentence extension take questions about it and/or criticize
things they drew match the category. challenge other teams’ efforts and say why theirs is
You can ask them to write the name A more complicated and grammar better. You can also give points to several
of each object as they draw it, or just intensive version of Drawing Sentence efforts by having several rounds, having
brainstorm all the names afterwards Challenge is to make students add to a second place and third place prize, or
so that they aren’t stopped from using the sentence rather than substitute having several different categories like
things they know fit the category but words that are in it, e.g. going from “most imaginative/ original” and “most
don’t know the name of yet. You can “The cat is playing the flute” to “The cat attractive”. You can also add more of a
also play the game on the whiteboard is playing the flute that the elephant is direct connection to language learning
by dividing the board into columns and sitting on”. by asking them to make the best drawing
lining each team up in front of one
section. The person at the front of the
line draws one thing (with their team
members shouting out things to help
them if they need it), passes the board
pen to the person behind them, and
goes to the back of the line.

Drawing challenge
This is a slight variation on Drawing
Race above. Students are challenged by
other teams or by the teacher to draw
something seemingly impossible, e.g.
a car drawn only with triangles or an
angry potato. Time limits can be set, or
points can be given to the first team to
manage something acceptable or the

22 Modern English Teacher Volume 19 No. 2

 PRACTICAL IDEAS

to remember a piece of vocabulary, an students to draw your bicycle (that they more quickly than the other teams, or
illustration of the best/most memorable have never seen) and giving points to making the most attractive drawing whilst
example sentence to remember a the one that looks most like the real following the instructions. This game is
grammatical form or functional language thing. This can be done while allowing good practice of following instructions,
phrase, best illustration of why a typical them to ask you questions (yes/no, with especially for exam classes and Technical
mistake is wrong, etc. You can also tie it certain questions not allowed, or any English classes. For those kinds of groups,
into skills work by asking them to design questions at all being okay) or just from you might sometimes want to include
the scenery for the dramatic scene they their imaginations. Other ideas for things the classic trick of writing “Read through
just listened to, draw something that is they can draw include what you are all the instructions first.” at the top and
described in the listening, a cover for thinking about now, things you did last then “Ignore instructions 2 to 13 above.”
the book that the extract you read came weekend, the perfect birthday present further down to catch out those who pick
from, an idea of what happens in the last for you or a member of your family, your up their pens too quickly. Other things
scene, etc. This can be turned into more favourite toy when you were a child, the students might find tricky include “Make a
of a cooperative activity by asking groups clothes you like to wear on your days picture (of…) using only these shapes,…”,
to design parts of a whole, e.g. different off, a plan of your bedroom, the surface “Draw… with the minimum number
theme park rides, and then coming of your desk, or your car. You could of lines/shapes you can.”, “Draw…
together to decide how to put them then describe what is wrong with their using only one line, making sure that
together. Please note that many of these pictures so that they can change them line doesn’t touch itself.”, “Change this
ideas are projects that could take up a 45 until they match reality. picture to a picture of … while making
minute lesson and so, as with many of the as few changes as you can”, “Change this
cooperative ideas in this article, depend Pronunciation drawing picture to a picture of… only by adding/
a lot on students working together in challenge deleting lines” and “Draw a mirror image
English (rather than switching to L1) to be Ask students to draw the internal mouth of…”. The instructions can be given
worthwhile. shape (e.g. tongue position) or the on a worksheet, on the whiteboard, or
shape of the lips of the sound you say. orally. You can also combine skills with a
Drawing guessing challenge dictation or variations such as a running
This is obviously much easier with the
Any guessing games, e.g. 20 Questions, dictation. They can then make their own
latter and can only be done with sounds
can be played with a drawing element instructions for other teams to follow, e.g.
where the lips don’t move while it is
added to them. For example, students ways to easily draw animals by basing
being pronounced, e.g. /m/, /n/ and long
can draw what they think you had for them on geometric shapes.
vowel sounds. Drawing anything inside
breakfast (some rashers of bacon, cereal,
the mouth can be challenging even for Logic puzzles
etc.) instead of or as well as shouting
language teachers, but can be used for
out guesses. For example, they start by A good number of the ideas in
asking normal yes/no questions like “Did clear distinctions like the first sounds in Instructions Challenge above are quite
you eat something hot?” and “Was it ‘tat’ and ‘that’ if you allow all attempts similar to the logic puzzles you can
meat?”, and then draw their final guess that are obviously not confusing the two. find in books and on the internet, such
if they don’t know its name in English. Ultimate pronunciation drawing as moving matchsticks only a certain
This allows lower level students who are number of times to make particular
usually held back from taking part by lack
challenge shapes. Many other logic puzzles can be
of vocabulary (rather than lack of ideas) You can also ask students to draw more adapted to include a drawing element,
to fully take part in the game and allows detailed pronunciation practice for the e.g. piecing together and drawing the
students who usually limit themselves to point you are working on, such as writing movements of a murderer to find where
what they can already say in English to a tongue twister and then drawing and when they did the deed, or drawing
stretch themselves a little. Being able to the scene to elicit the sentence(s) from the positions of everyone in the house at
make a recognisable sketch can also be an other groups, e.g. a picture of a woman the time of the murder to find out who
important communication strategy in real selling sea shells on the sea shore. You did it. Making a sketch of what they hear
life when you run out of vocabulary while could also ask them to prepare minimal and understand can also help solve logic
shopping on holiday! You can elicit the pairs in drawing form, e.g. a picture of a puzzles that are good for narrative tenses
names of any useful vocabulary when you ship and sheep. You might want to give practice such as “A man was dead on the
finish the guessing stage. This technique different groups different sounds to work floor of a phone box. There was broken
can be used for virtually anything you on, so that the class can cover the whole glass on two sides and water on the floor.
could play 20 Questions with, e.g. “Guess phonemic chart in a month or two. What had happened?”
which job I am thinking of” or “Animal,
vegetable or mineral?” Instructions challenge Don’t draw challenge
Give students some complicated The student who is being asked to draw
Drawing guessing challenge two instructions on what to draw and how what their partner is describing tries to
You can also get students to guess and to draw it and give points for the best keep stalling by asking more questions,
draw something and then give points efforts. The best effort could mean e.g. for “Draw a hand.” they can ask
for the sketch that is closest to reality or following the instructions most precisely, “Should the fingers be long?”, “Is the
what you are thinking about, e.g. asking reading and following the instructions ring finger or index finger longer?”, “Do

Volume 19 No. 2 www.onlineMET.com 23

 PRACTICAL IDEAS

you want me to draw it palm up or extended version of a picture dictation used in class with these three Drawing
palm down?”, etc. This is quite fun even and obviously much more challenging. on Drawing Games articles and will
without a competitive element, but you be moving onto mingling games in
could get the students to time who stalls Predict the image drawing my next contribution to MET. I have,
the longest or who can ask the most challenge however, come up with and found quite
questions before they finish the picture. Ask groups of students to predict things a few new variations on Pictionary and
about pairs of images before they start picture dictations in the months since
Join the dots drawing them, and then pick up their I wrote the first two articles, and the
This is a classic children’s game where pencils and start sketching to check. other possible uses of drawing in adult
they draw lines between numbered dots Examples include “Which will look more EFL classes must be almost endless.
to discover what the finished drawing realistic/younger – drawing the eyes in Perhaps the secret is to always keep the
will turn out to be. You can make it more the middle of the face or drawing them possibility of drawing games in mind
challenging and suitable for adults by further down?” and “Which will make when you are preparing your lessons
mixing up the number order and giving this face look more attractive – adding and see what comes to mind that
instructions on how they should be joined a beard or adding sideburns?” This is matches the language point of the day.
up, e.g. “After dot 123, draw a line to dot obviously good for prompting discussion If you do come up with any new ideas
7100”. Writing the numbers as full words and for practice of will for predictions. or variations, the article where I first
(“next draw a line to one thousand two started writing up my drawing games
hundred and twenty three” rather than Chain drawings ideas has a comments section where
“…1223”) or dictating them can also help Ask each group of students to fold a you can share your ideas: http://edition.
with classes that need numbers practice piece of blank paper into between tefl.net/ideas/games/drawing-games/
– which is almost all classes, if you add three and five equal sections, so that a
things like large numbers, fractions, dates standing person drawn on it will have
and decimals! You can also add maths their legs divided from their trunk, etc. REFERENCES
puzzles (“The next dot is a hundred and by horizontal folds. The first team should 1. Case, A. (2009) Drawing on Drawing
forty four divided by two.” or “Go from draw the head in the first section with just Games: Part One, Modern English
there to the square root of 36.”), practice a tiny bit of the neck drawn over into the Teacher 18.4 Oct 2009
of Technical English (“The picture ends next section, then fold so that the next
group can only see that tiny bit of the 2. Case, A. (2009) Drawing on Drawing
at the number of feet in a mile.” or “The
neck. They then pass their pictures round Games: Part Two, Modern English
second dot is the length of the whiteboard
to the next group for them to continue Teacher 19.1 Jan 2010
in this room in centimetres.”) and general
knowledge (“Start the picture at the the picture with just that little section as a 3. Wright, A. (2001) Arts and Crafts with
number which is the same as the number clue to help them make the two sections Children (Resource Books for Teachers)
of Wonders of the Ancient World.”) match. Continue passing and drawing Oxford University Press
until the pictures are completed, then
Physical drawing challenges pass one more time for a team to open it
A good warmer is to ask students to draw up and see whether the finished images
something with their left hand (or right are possible, attractive or fashionable.
hand if they are left handed), with gloves This is a classic party game and lots of fun, Alex Case
or mittens on, with a really long pencil, or but in its original form contains almost
even blindfolded. This completely takes no language apart from the discussion
away any pressure they might feel to of what to draw next in each group. You
draw well (especially if you demonstrate can add extra language output by asking
the activity first) and leads on well to students to describe the section they drew
discussion of left and right sides of the (in writing or by speaking) to the team
brain, memory, imagination, etc. they pass it to before that team continues
the picture. Another idea is for the people
Instant animation who end up with the finished drawings to
One person draws illustrations to describe their picture to the class (without
accompany a story, poem, song lyrics, showing it to the others) so that everyone Alex Case has been a teacher and
dialogue, etc. in real time as their partner can vote on the craziest, one in which occasional teacher trainer and ELT
or someone from another team reads it the parts match each other best, or most writer and editor in Turkey, Thailand,
out. For example, someone tells the Roald suitable date for someone famous. The Spain, Greece, Italy, Japan, the UK and
pictures are then all revealed for the class now Korea. He writes regular TEFL
Dahl variation on the Red Riding Hood
to discuss whether they made the right articles online and TEFLtastic blog
story and their partner draws her shooting
decisions or not, and what about their (www.tefl.net/alexcase).
the wolf, wearing a wolf skin coat, etc.
classmates’ descriptions confused them.
as their partner tells those parts of the
story. This can be done with or without I have now finally exhausted the
rehearsal, with the latter being like an categories of drawing games I have

24 Modern English Teacher Volume 19 No. 2