2. Photography and Images
-In the context of this presentation images
are to be defined as artifacts that depict or
record visual perception.
- This definition could include other art forms
but the focus for our purpose is on photos.
3. Photography
-People used to rely on photojournalists for
the visual recording of events.
-Now almost anyone has access to a digital
camera or a smartphone. Because of this
almost anyone can be a photojournalist at
anytime and anywhere. Ordinary people can
record events as they occur.
4. Photography cont...
-Photos are prevalent in the life of students.
Daily they receive Snapchats and
Instagrams.
-As teachers we can use the popularity of this
medium in our classrooms.
5. Images
-Students can take the photos
themselves, but they do not have to.
-It can be useful for teachers to use
interesting photos and give them to the
students.
-Students will still be engaging with a
medium they are very familiar with and
enjoy.
6. Benefits of Images
-Students can use images in their language
learning.
-Images can enhance their experience and
allow them to be more creative than a
standard grammar lesson, but they can still
be interacting with the TL.
- Photos also evoke emotion and that adds
depth to lessons.
7. Activities
1-Have students break up into small groups.
-Give each group a photo mounted on a
larger sheet of paper.
-Then have the students write responses in
TL to 3 questions posted on the board in the
TL. Students can use dictionaries to look up
words they don’t know.
8. Act 1 cont...
-The questions are 1) make a personal
connection to the photo, 2)write a question
that that the photo brings to mind, 3)write a
detailed observation of the photo.
- When students are done with this have them
switch their photo with another group and carry
out the same activity with the new photo, after
reading the last groups work. Groups will
continue this until each group has evaluated
9. Act 1 cont...
-Have the original pictures returned to the
original group, and have the group read all
of the comments.
-When students are all done the teacher can
have them share how their impressions of
the photos changed after they read the work
of other groups.
Kavanagh, S. Schulten, K. (2010, Jan. 11). Picture this! Building photo-based writing
skills. Retrieved from http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/picture-this-building-photo-based-writingskills/?_r=0
10. Activity 2
-Give students a photo and have them do a
creative writing prompt based off of the
photo.
-Students can think of the questions; what
happened before the photo was taken? Who
is taking the photo? What is happening in the
photo? If there are people in the photo what
are they talking about?
11. Act 2 cont...
- After students have answered one or more
of the questions they should write a short
essay as if they are one of the people in the
picture, the person taking the picture, or
someone who knows the people in the
picture.
Kavanagh, S. Schulten, K. (2010, Jan. 11). Picture this! Building photo-based writing
skills. Retrieved from http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/picture-this-building-photo-based-writingskills/?_r=0
12. Activity 3
- Have students take a photo of their own.
- After students have taken a photo they
want to use, they can practice prepositional
phrases using the photo.
- Have them write a description of the photo
using prepositional phrases like in front
of, behind, to the left
of, beneth, near, ect...
13. Act 3 cont...
- It can help if students work from the left to
the right of the photo so they do not miss
anything.
- Students could also use this for
interrogative sentences by creating a few
questions for their photos and asking and
answering each other.
Kavanagh, S. Schulten, K. (2010, Jan. 11). Picture this! Building photo-based writing
skills. Retrieved from http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/picture-this-building-photo-based-writingskills/?_r=0
14.
15. Real-world Application
- I had a teacher use the previous photo when I was in
high school for an english writing prompt.
- Although not in a foreign language a similar activity
could be done in the FL classroom.
- The teacher had us discuss what was happening/ or
what we thought was happening in the photo, what the
people were doing/ how were they acting, and what
were some observations we had.
- We then discussed where we were and how we felt the
day of Sept. 11th, 2001.
16. Application cont...
- Our teacher did this activity with us on the
anniversary of Sept. 11th.
- I do not remember the exact prompt we
wrote on using the photo, but even now 6
years later I remember how powerful the
lesson was because of the photo activity
included.
