Post on 16-Apr-2017
Photography and Images in the ClassroomBy: Katrina Morgan
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Activities1--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.
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 each photo.
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 writingskills. Retrieved from
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/picture-this-building-photo-based-writing-skills/?_r=0
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?
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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 writingskills. Retrieved from
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/picture-this-building-photo-based-writing-skills/?_r=0
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...
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 writingskills. Retrieved from
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/picture-this-building-photo-based-writing-skills/?_r=0
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.
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.