Activity Name: Picture Mill

Time Required: 1½-2 hrs

Class Size: 15-30

Level: Beginner, Intermediate

Material Req.: One picture for each student

Optimum Time: Not after third week

Aim: To get students to guess a picture story by describing pictures to each other.

Background: Picture Mills are excellent activities requiring little preparation.

Procedure: Inbrief - Tell students the following rules: 1. Don't show picture to other students 2. Give detail when describing picture 3. Students meet one-on-one 4. Must meet every student. Give one picture to each student and allow a few minutes to study.

Mill - Get students to stand up and find a partner. Student describes his picture to partner and vice versa. When finished he finds another partner and repeats process. This continues until every student has met every student.

Group Work - Sit students down in groups of four or five. Students hypothesize and try to put together a story from what they know. Invite one or two "group leaders" to stand up and tell their group's version of the story to class. Correct mistakes. Encourage others to challenge story.

Debrief - Teacher reveals story. Model sentences and write some vocabulary items on board.

Additional Notes: Teacher should have his own picture and be involved in mill. Great fun can be had by giving false information and leading students down wrong path. Push and pull students into pairs. Don't allow students to be passive. Some students will have same picture - this is okay. They have to find this out themselves.

Language Feature: Concrete description of pictures. Some detective-type work required. Encourage circumlocution and dredging.

If time is short/long?: If short, cut out group work. Just debrief. If long, model sentences and write vocabulary on board; get students to write out story; have students re-mill if they cannot guess complete story.