In the picture - A Unit related to photo description

1. I.S.F.D LENGUAS VIVAS BARILOCHE
PRÁCTICA DOCENTE III
ENTREGA DE PLANIFICACIÓN
ALUMNA PRACTICANTE: Valeria Zentner
Institución educativa: Charles Dickens Institute
Año y sección: Second Juniors - Única Sección
Nivel lingüístico del curso: Elementary
Cantidad de alumnos: 8
Tipo de Planificación: Clase
Unidad Temática: In the Picture
Clase Nº: 1
Duración de la clase: 90 minutos
Fecha de la clase: Tuesday, August 3rd
Fecha de entrega de la planificación: July 4th
Learning Aims
During this lesson, learners will be able to…
→ Interpret photos by identifying actions and movement in progress at the moment they
were taken.
→ Identify and understand key phrases to describe a photo.
→ Use key phrases to describe a photo in detail orally and in writing.
→ Be creative and use their imagination to follow descriptions and take photos.
→ Work collaboratively and communicatively to solve tasks and games.
Language Focus
LEXIS FUNCTIONS STRUCTURE
R
E
V
N
E
W
Actions and movement:
climb up, hang from,
hold, jump up, kick, lie
on, sit on, stand in, pick
up, walk on
Describing a photo in
detail:
In the middle, In front of,
Behind, On the left/On
the right, At the top/At
the bottom, In the
foreground/In the
background
To describe what was
happening when a
picture was taken
Past Continuous (only
general exposition to the
structure)

2. Materials
→ Mobile-phones
→ 6 big photos to analyse (taken from English Plus 2, SB, pages 38 & 39)
→ Verbs and Actions & Movement flashcards
→ Dictionaries
→ SB, pages 38 & 39
→ Audio-file 1.36
→ 8 mini whiteboards and markers
→ Illustrations of key phrases to describe a photo
→ 2 Photography Competition cards.
Procedures
NOTE: All of the activities are described as suggested by the tutor, in
terms of timing, description and instructions, and transition comments.
Scaffolding strategies are included within the description of each
activity.
ROUTINE
→ Timing: 5 minutes
→ Activity description and instructions as they will be said to students (direct
speech and scaffolding strategies are included):
Students will be received in the institute‟s door. As always, the teacher will check their
temperature and sterilize their hands, feet and school objects, and then let them in (It usually
takes a while). Once in the classroom, they will be greeted by the teacher. She will say
"Good afternoon, my dear students! How are you today? How was your afternoon so far?"
As a next step, she will ask "What day of the week is today? And what date? Of what
month?" and then copy the date on the board.
→ Transition comment to link each stage of the lesson with the next one:
“You’re allowed to use your mobile-phones today. Get them out!”
WARM-UP
→ Timing: 5 minutes
→ Activity description and instructions as they will be said to students (direct speech
and scaffolding strategies are included):
The teacher will introduce the topic of the new unit by saying, “Do you have a favourite
photo on your phone? Well, I do! Here it is” while approaching and showing them my
favourite picture on my phone. She will go on by saying, “This picture was taken by me in
La Chiquita. She’s my goddaughter. It was very early in the morning and we weren’t
sleeping. So we decided to go to the beach. We were walking and wanted to sit down
and see the sunrise. It was the most peaceful moment in the whole summer. That’s why it’s
my favourite!” She will then encourage them to show their favourite photos by saying,”Well,
what about you? Can you show me your favourite photo on your phone? Why is it your
favourite?”

3. To be shown to the students
→ Transition comment to link each stage of the lesson with the next one:
“I loved your photos! I have here some more from unknown people. They are quite funny. Do
you want to see them?”
PRESENTATION
→ Timing: 15 minutes
→ Activity description and instructions as they will be said to students (direct speech and
scaffolding strategies are included):
Six pictures will be displayed on the board one at a time. The teacher may ask, “What do
you see? Where were the people at the moment the photo was taken? What were they
doing? Were they having a good time?”
She may go on by saying, “You know? We can use several verbs to describe the actions and
movements taking place in these photos, such as these ones” while displaying some

4. flashcards on the board.
CLIMB UP HANG FROM HOLD JUMP UP KICK
LIE ON SIT ON STAND IN PICK UP WALK ON
“Do you know/remember any of these words? Don’t worry if you don’t. We’re going to play
a game. In pairs, you’ll have only 2 minutes and a half to find these words in your dictionaries
and match them with these pictures. They clearly show their meaning. Okay… ready,
steady, GO!” while setting the timer on 2:30 minutes.
When the time is up, it will be checked on the board. After that, the teacher will say, “Let’s
go back to the photos I showed you some minutes ago. How would you describe them
now? What were the people doing when the photo was taken? Look at photo A, for
example, it seems that the man was… what was he doing? And what about the woman?”
so to encourage the description.
→ Transition comment to link each stage of the lesson with the next one:
“Good descriptions, but I wrote some descriptions too. Let’s read them!”
DEVELOPMENT (PRACTICE and PRODUCTION)
Activity 1
→ Timing: 10 minutes
→ Activity description and instructions as they will be said to students (direct speech and
scaffolding strategies are included):
Students will be asked to open their Student‟s Books at pages 38 and 39. The teacher may
then say, “Look at the Observation Test. There you have four descriptions of four of the
photos we have already discussed. In pairs, you’re going to read them and decide which
photo they describe. As you do so, you have to choose the correct verb phrase. Let’s read
and do number one all together!”. She will read the first description aloud and ask, “What
photo do you think it describes? It’s photo D. Now that we know that… which are the
correct verb phrases?”. After that, the teacher will ask students to do the same with
descriptions 2, 3 and 4. Once everyone is ready, the photos and phrases from each
description will be discussed with the whole class.
As a following step, it will be said “As you may have noticed, photos E and F have no
description. I want you to describe them”. To guide such description, the teacher may say
“Look at photo E. Where were they? What kind of place is that? What„s the woman doing?
And what‟s the man doing? You can use the verb phrases we discussed some minutes
ago!”. The same process will be repeated to describe photo F.
Comentario [A1]: If necessary
Comentario [A2]: I don´t
understand if each pair will have a
set. That would be great, so that
they could actually manipulate the
cards and match VERBS with
PICTURES.

5. Taken from English Plus 2. Student‟s Book, pages 38 & 39.
→ Transition comment to link each stage of the lesson with the next one:
“Excellent job! You’ve done very good descriptions. Now, some teenagers have also
described these photographs, too. Let’s listen to them!”
Activity 2
→ Timing: 8 minutes
→ Activity description and instructions as they will be said to students (direct speech and
scaffolding strategies are included):
The teacher will explain the task as follows: “You will hear four teenagers describing some of
the photos we discussed. What I want you to do is to identify which ones they are describing.
Okay?”. She will then give them a small whiteboard to every student and explain that they
may write numbers from one to four to easily match the pictures with the speakers. She will
them play audio 1.36 for students to do the task. Once this is ready, the whole class will
check their answers with the teacher. She might say “Hmmm… interesting descriptions. Let‟s
see. What photo did speaker 1 describe? And speaker 2? Speaker 3? And 4?”.
1-36 English Plus
Second Edition Students Book 2.mp3
→ Transition comment to link each stage of the lesson with the next one:
“Well done! Do you think the descriptions we listened to are different from yours? Why/Why
not?”
Activity 3
→ Timing: 15 minutes
→ Activity description and instructions as they will be said to students (direct speech and
scaffolding strategies are included):
It will be explained that they are going to listen to the four speakers again, but this time, to
complete a transcription. The teacher might say “Here you have the transcription of each
speaker’s photo description. As you can see, it’s not complete. There are some phrases and
words in a box, you see them? While you listen, I want you to use those phrases to complete
the transcriptions. Okay? Let’s do it!”
In the middle - (x2) in front of - (x2) behind - on the left -
on the right - (x2) in the foreground - (x2) in the background
1)
Comentario [A3]: Nice!

6. - What can you see in this photo?
- I can see people in an open space. A man standing 1_________________ and two
people are hanging from his arms. There‟s one person 2_________________ and one
person 3_________________. He‟s a superman!
2)
- Look at this photo and tell me what you can see.
- Hey, that‟s a good one! There‟s a woman and she‟s sitting somewhere like a rock.
She‟s holding a tiny man, who‟s jumping up and down on a hand. That‟s funny.
3)
- What can you see in this photo?
- Hmm! Oh, it‟s an illusion! It looks like there are two people hanging from the man‟s
arms, but they aren‟t really. The man is actually standing 4_________________ and the
two people are standing 5_________________him 6_________________. It‟s a clever
picture!
4)
- What can you see in this photo?
- There‟s a woman holding a really small jumping man. What? Oh, not really! Of course!
The man is jumping up 7_________________. And it looks small because it
8_________________ the woman. She‟s 9_________________, 10_________________. So, she
looks bigger than him. So, it looks like she‟s holding him, but she isn‟t really. She‟s not
holding anything. Oh, I like that!
If necessary, the audio-file will be played twice. When they are ready, the task will be
checked with the whole class. The teacher will read the descriptions and they will say what
they wrote in the gaps, as she writes the correct answers on the board. After that, she might
say “Can you tell me what the function of these phrases we used to complete the
descriptions is?”. To help students, she will read the first description and make emphasis on
the key phrases while pointing at the part of the photo they describe. As the key phrases
and their functions are noticed, the teacher will display some photos to illustrate such
phrases.
It will be also said “There are more phrases we can use to describe where things are in a
photograph. For example, we can say that something is at the top of the photo or at the
bottom” while displaying the illustrations on the board and pointing at those places on a
Comentario [A4]: I would use A
and B in each conversation, to
identify each speaker.

7. photo.
→ Transition comment to link each stage of the lesson with the next one:
“Let‟s see if you can use these phrases to describe photos too!”
Activity 4
→ Timing: 15 minutes
→ Activity description and instructions as they will be said to students (direct speech and
scaffolding strategies are included):
The students will be divided into two large groups of four students each. To do this activity, it
will be explained that they will use the mini whiteboards again to write detailed descriptions
of some of the photos displayed on the board (the same ones they have discussed during
the whole class). The teacher will say “It’s a competencecompetition. Group 1 and Group 2
will have 3 minutes to write detailed descriptions of 3 of the photos on the board. You can
write them on the mini whiteboards. Be careful! You MUST include the verbs for actions and
movements we discussed at the beginning of the class, and also the key phrases to describe
pictures. Okay? You’ll have 5 minutes to write the descriptions. Ready, steady, go!” while
setting the timer. When time is up, the groups will take turns to read one of their descriptions
to the other group so they guess which photo they are describing. The process will be
repeated until the two groups have read their three descriptions.
→ Transition comment to link each stage of the lesson with the next one:
“You’ve done great! Now… let’s play another game! Have you got your mobile phones?
You’re going to need them!”
CLOSURE
→ Timing: 15 minutes
→ Activity description and instructions as they will be said to students (direct speech
and scaffolding strategies are included):
To close this lesson, the students will continue working in the same two groups than in the
previous activity. The teacher will provide them with five photo descriptions. Then she will
explain "To play this game, you will have to take photos following the instructions I just gave
you. The idea is to recreate these actions and movements following the descriptions. Be
creative and use your imagination. You can go to the place you want: the classrooms, the
waiting room, and even the garden to take pictures! Are you ready? Let’s get started!". The
teacher will be close to both groups to ensure that they do not go outside the marked
limits.
Comentario [A5]: It´s a short task.
Unless you provide them with more
time to write the descriptions, I´d
divide them into pairs to do the
writing activity.
Comentario [A6]: Will it be
enough?

8. Follow the descriptions and take photos.
Photo 1: There‟s only one person. It seems he/she has got 4 arms and 4 legs.
Photo 2: There‟s a person lying on a very big pencil case.
Photo 3: There are two people on this photo. One of them seems to be a giant and is
picking up the other one, who is too tiny.
Photo 4: There‟s one person walking on a very big head.
Photo 5: There‟s a person hanging from a pencil.
When the students have finished, the teacher will read the descriptions and the groups will
share the photos taken and explain how they took their photos. To do so, they must use the
key phrases to describe a photo and de action and movement vocabulary worked in this
lesson.
The group that best followed the descriptions to take the photos will be the winner.
→ Transition comment to link each stage of the lesson with the next one:
“You’ve done an excellent job! Please, share the photos through the Whatsapp group! I
want to see them all. Okay, see you next class!”
To be completed by your tutor:
Lesson plan
component
Excellent
5
Very
Good
4
Good
3
Acceptable
2
Needs
improvement
1
Visual
organization
x
Coherence
and
sequencing
x
Variety of
resources
x
Stages and
activities
x
Scaffolding
strategies
x
Language
accuracy
x

9. Observations
I just looooved the photography competition! I need to see those
pics, please!