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Note: Some students are quite naturally sensitive about this sort of
exercise if they feel that it is being used to conduct some sort of
superficial and undignifying analysis of their state of mind.

Variation 1: Give the students a description, which involves all
the senses, not only the visual.
For example:
You are in a room. It is very quiet but you can hear some
noises. A clock is ticking. There is the sound of distant traffic,
a car going past, a motorbike. You are sitting in a soft, low
chair. How do you feel? You would like a drink. You bring
the drink to your mouth and take a sip. What is it? Do you
like it? Suddenly there is a noise; it's in the house. You stand
up.
Once more, ask the students to work with their neighbour. In this
variation, say that you will ask the questions and you want each
student to give their answers to the question to their neighbour. In
your questions, continually invite the students to describe their
version of what you sketched out.

Variation 2: Ask the students to close their eyes and listen to a
poem or a story: you might like to tell a story over several lessons,
just a few minutes each time. The students should relax and see
what sort of images come to their minds. They can describe these
to their neighbour.

Variation 3: Read a short section of a story or a poem (a
paragraph or a stanza), which focusses on a place. The moment
you have finished the reading, the students sketch their impression
of the place for exactly one minute. The brevity of time ensures an
ambiguous drawing with, for example, chairs represented by
rectangles. In pairs, the students spend three minutes explaining
their drawing and telling each other about what they imagined
whiles-hearing the text.

Selling freezers to Eskimos

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