I have a fairly new student in one of my upper elementary classes. He is quite shy, and is rarely the first to speak out in class, which is understandable given that his two classmates have four years English experience. Under this condition, opportunities to have him feel success with English are few and far between…

This week, we had the AJ Picture Dictionary open to page 40 & 41 – the dinosaur museum page.

After some general interaction with the students on the contents of these pages, I had the students listen to the vocabulary CD and indicate with their finger on the page the vocabulary they heard: “teeth”, “fins”, “a fossil” etc.

I then gave the students a blank A4 paper and asked them to fold it into 8 boxes. On their shared desk I placed a dinosaur picture book:

＊We happen to have this book in our classroom. Googling “dinosaur” and clicking “image” on a class PC or Tablet would be equally effective.

With this book I gave the students a written instruction: “Draw a dinosaur with a long neck”. The students read the task together then searched for a dinosaur with a long neck and drew it on their paper in Box 1. Other instructions followed:

Of course, difficult vocabulary was referred back to AJ, pages 40 and 41.

In the end, the students had drawn 8 dinosaurs on their paper. Below is one student’s drawings:

←Click to enlarge

Pretty good, aren’t they? Certainly much better than my drawing!

Now, below is the new student’s drawings:

←Click to enlarge

Wow, right?! None of us knew that he was so artistically talented! He looked very happy with our outpouring of surprise and admiration.

The lesson may still not necessarily have added confidence to his use of English, but it did add to his feeling of self-esteem…!