Exquisite Corpse/Draw and Pass

Exquisite Corpse, or Draw and Pass, is a drama strategy by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. If using this strategy as a collection of words, the teacher can provide the students with a prompt and how much each student writes (e.g. a sentence) may be up to the teacher. After each student has written their line, they pass it on to the next student but must fold the piece of paper so that the following student only sees the last sentence. Once the whole class has had a chance to contribute to the story or other type of written text, the students can read aloud what they have come up with collaboratively. This is a great strategy to use even in the primary grades when students may not know how to read or write fluently yet as the teacher could create pre-made stories beforehand and have students fill in the blanks while building on their knowledge of the parts of speech, for example. A great way to incorporate this in the junior grades is to have students read a story as a class and then use this strategy to create a sequel to that book. Students have a lot of fun learning in this way and are always super engaged!

This strategy can also be used to connect with visual arts. For example, a teacher may hand out a square piece of paper to each student for them to draw something that might relate to a lesson taught in class or themes, ideas, and relationships represented in a story book or movie. Then, every minute, the teacher will have the students rotate the piece of paper clockwise and have that student add to the picture. Once the picture has rotated around the classroom (or in small groups) so that every student has had the chance to contribute, the teacher can bring all pieces of paper together to create a quilt! Students love their collaboratively created masterpiece at the end and feel proud of what they were able to contribute.