How Old Do You Think I Am?

Yesterday I was teaching my 3rd hour about the importance of being specific in their character descriptions. I first had them draw a picture of the following character:

"Jean has short hair and a pretty smile."

Then I showed them a picture of Jean, who was an old, wrinkled African-American woman.

The kids were stunned--half of them had thought Jean was a boy, and all of them assumed that Jean was around their own age.

So then I gave them a very detailed description of my husband and had them draw a picture of him. When they were finished drawing, I showed them a picture of Matt, then we talked about why their second picture was closer to the real person than the first picture.

At which point, a girl in the back of the room yells out, "WHOA! Your husband looks WAYYY younger than you. Like WAY younger."

Hmmm...