# Leave a clue, or leave it wordless

Foundation Media Arts · Day 86 · optional flexible start

**Child invitation:** Want a little clue, or just your pictures?

**Target:** Make an optional picture/caption/description cue that agrees with the actual child-owned work, and inspect the chosen version.

**Prepare:** Actual work or a new picture. Optional own caption, broad arrow or exact spoken/signed description. Maker captions are plain text, not HTML; independent reading is not required.

## A runnable start

1. **Invite · 3 min.** Invite one clue for an actual available picture or start fresh. Child can choose no words, a short own phrase, a local invented mark or a description. No prescribed language, spelling, title or disclosure.

2. **Model · 4 min.** Adult adds 'round thing at the right' to their own circle picture, then removes it. Describe how a caption can carry information while readers may still interpret the picture differently. Do not assign universal meanings to arrows or colour.

3. **Make / direct · 8 min.** Child chooses an exact wanted clue or none and its place. Adult scribes only what the child directs. In the maker, use the caption box; paper can carry an own drawn cue or approved literal description.

4. **Try / inspect · 6 min.** Compare actual picture with actual clue. Ask 'Do they say what you want?' Correct an adult transcription mistake on the child's instruction. A description route conveys information; it is not evidence the child visually read the screen.

5. **Close · 4 min.** Keep or remove the cue. The child may finish wordless. Record the actual chosen relationship and operator; do not score literacy or an imagined reader effect.

## Switchable practical routes

### Route A · Pretend garden note

Make an invented garden-helper sequence and choose a wordless picture clue or an exact own phrase. Do not use it as real planting or weather advice.

### Route B · Screen caption swap

On an actual selected frame, add a child-chosen plain-text caption, inspect its generated description, then keep/change/remove it. A neutral adult can type the child's exact words.

### Route C · Talk-through companion

Child directs an exact description of actual broad drawings for an agreeing listener or private rehearsal. Choose what may be said; distinguish a real listener from an imagined one.

**Notice:** Actual clue or deliberate no-clue choice and relationship to the work. A fluent caption is not the target.

**Next teaching:** If an adult clue took over, remove that demand and offer one child-owned picture choice. If words and image differ, ask which the child wants to keep rather than choosing their meaning.

[Teacher setup](../TEACHER-GUIDE.md) · [Maker and paper route](../interactive/README.md) · [Complete source notice](../SOURCE-NOTICE.md)