Five Ways to Use Busy Pictures
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A quick google search of “busy pictures” brings up a ton of pictures that can be used quickly and easily in our language classes! Here’s how we use these versatile pictures with any class, any unit, and any level.
1. As a Listening Exercise
Add textboxes to label various locations throughout the scene (we keep it simple with “A” / “B” / “C”). Then, pick one of the letters and discuss what you see (using the tense or vocab students are working with), and have students identify which letter you’ve described. To make it even simpler, have them use mini whiteboards to write their answers! You can also pre-record yourself describing the scene on vocaroo or speakpipe and create a quick Google Form for students to choose the letter you’re describing.
2. As a Writing and Reading Exercise
Cut the scene into pieces and have students work in groups to describe the activities they see in their section of the scene. Then, collect their work and have students match their peers’ writing to the picture they described (this works great as a center or station activity!).
3. As a Writing or Speaking Activity
When we’re looking for one last activity to add to centers or a stations rotation, we love to throw in a busy picture! You can have students free-write about what they see, or ask them to record themselves talking about the picture for a specific amount of time. I like to give students sentence starters depending on what we’re learning (like “there is/are…” or “I see…”), and give them the option to use vocab lists or whatever resources they think would be helpful.
4. As a Grammar Activity
One way you can use a busy picture is as a visual “list” of subjects. You can give students a list of verbs that are happening in the picture, and then have them create sentences or simply conjugate the verbs around the people in the picture and who is doing that particular action. It’s a great way to practice with a particular tense, and a wonderful review of how to use subjects and subject pronouns in context.
5. To Improve Their Writing
You can create a list of short sentences about what’s happening in the picture, and then have students use transition words to make a robust description of what they see. You can also have them practice using conjunctive adverbs or subordinating conjunctions to create more complex sentences and improve their writing.
Did we miss any great ideas? Do you use busy pictures in your classroom?
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