The Best and Worst Part of the Summer

The new school year had begun on Tuesday, August 30, 2022, for me.  For many public schools around the country, they are going back after the Labor Day.  Teachers, are you thinking about what should be your first day activities?

This year, I decided to do one simple fun activity to kick off the first day of school: Picture Talk – The best and the worst part of the summer.

In previous years, I have done back-to-school bingo, summer-activity bingo or find someone who has done… bingo, and many other things.  These are fun activities.  However, regardless how mindful I am in choosing the activities to be inclusive, there were always someone/something got excluded since I just couldn’t fit everything in a bingo.  Additionally, teaching in an independent school, it’s challenging to acknowledge everyone’s experience while some families might be traveling around the world and signing their kids up in many college-prep programs; but for some of the students on scholarship and financial aid, they might only be skateboarding or biking on the streets, and occasionally driving to a nearby big city.  Plus, each year, I spent lots of time thinking about these bingos and designing them.  It can be mentally taxing as well.

“What if I come up with something super fun, inclusive, supportive of each individual’s experience with low prep?”  It seems to be a win-win scenario.  That was the idea of “the best and the worst part of the summer” popped into my head.

The procedure is very simple:

• Handout an index card and ask students to draw the best/worst part of their summer.
• To keep their identity hidden, they must not write down their names nor let others see it when they draw. This simple tweak prompts so much more “negotiation of meaning”.
• Once they finish drawing, collect all the index cards, shuffle them and hand it out to each student. If a student receives their own card, switch it with someone else.
• Students find a partner to discuss what they see, and what happened based on the illustrations ,and guess who draws it.
• Then they switch the card with someone else and repeat the process above with a new partner.

Remember to provide some useful phrases for students to communicate.

Here is a sample for a lower-level class:

• 你觉得这里画的是什么？
• Do you think what are the illustration about here?
• Ta 喜欢做什么？
• What does he/she like doing?
• Ta 不喜欢做什么？
• What doesn’t he/she like doing?
• 如果是你，你会不会做这里画的。
• If it’s you, would you do what has been drawn here?
• 哎呀，发生了什么？
• Oh, no!  What happened?
• 你想到了什么？
• What occurred to you?
• 我看不懂ta画的，你能解释一下吗？
• I don’t know what’s going on here，can you explain?

Here is an example for a high-level class:

• 你觉得这里画的是什么？
• Do you think what are the illustration about here?
• 这个暑假最好的部分是什么？
• What’s the best part of this summer break?
• 这个暑假最糟糕的部分是什么？
• What’s the worst part of this summer break? (
• 我觉得这里画的是… 你同意吗？
• I feel the illustrations here are about… Do you agree?
• 哎呀，发生了什么？
• Oh, no!  What happened?
• 你想到了什么？
• What occurred to you?
• 我能看出你为什么这么想，但是，我觉得…
• I can tell why you thought that, but I think…

How did it go?

The secret identity part keeps lots of drawing in suspense.  Students were very curious and engaged in discussing what they saw and who might draw the pictures.  My room was buzzed with energy, laughter, or surprised moaning.

After they exchanged ideas a few times, I gathered the class and asked them if they had any wonders, comments, or observations to share to the group.  It was a time to clear out any confusion.  The whole class was offering their opinions.  We had a great time together.  Here I’m attaching a few sample illustrations.  I’m also providing you a PDF file3047_001 if you’d like to use some of the illustration for the Picture Talk.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!