Why use drawing in the classroom?
Here are 10 good reasons for both teachers and students to draw in the classroom:
1
Some things are more easily conveyed using a quick drawing on the board than a vocal explanation, especially if the teacher wants to avoid using the students‘mother tongue in class. Drawing makes a very good elicitation technique, especially if the teacher draws the object bit by bit encouraging the students to 'guess what it is'.
2
Teacher drawings can be used to express not only concrete items, but also abstract ideas such as tenses.
3
A student drawing activity can be used as a way of reinforcing language work carried out in class.
4
The slower pace of a drawing activity allows learners more time to take in and process the language they have learned.
5
Drawing also provides an aid to memory. By drawing pictures this helps children to remember vocabulary. Labelling the pictures they have drawn will further increase this.
6
With very young children who are not able to write, drawing becomes a fun activity that can be used to practise language.
7
With young children it's good to use a variety of activities. We call these 'settlers' and 'stirrers'. A settler is a quiet activity where children sit quietly and work at a slower more relaxed pace and a stirrer is the opposite, like a run-around game, or a lively song with actions. Drawing is a good settler-type activity.
8
Drawing also allows for creativity and freer thinking. Kids love to invent and make up things.
9
Drawing can also provide a meaningful and interesting task for students - making a Christmas or Mother's Day card, for example.
10
And last but not least, children learn best when they are having fun and kids love to draw.
Glossary
convey (an idea) (v.) 传达
elicitation (n.) 启发
concrete (adj.) 具体的
abstract (adj.) 抽象的
take in (v.) 吸收，接受
settler (n.) 学生们静静坐着的学习形式
stirrer (n.) 学生们很活跃的学习形式
creativity (n.) 创造力
invent (v.) 发明
make up (v.) 虚构，编
，少儿英语课堂上的绘画