Reflection about the use of images in teaching English

There are many types of learners within any one class. Teachers should aim to appeal to all the different learner types at some point during the course. It is particularly important to appeal to visual learners, as a very high proportion of learners have this type of intelligence. Images can be bright and colourful and make a real impact on visual learners

Flash cards are a really handy resource to have and can be useful at every stage of the class. They are a great way to present, practise and recycle vocabulary and when students become familiar with the activities used in class, they can be given out to early-finishers to use in small groups.

You can create a debate using different images. For example with images of the planet you can talk about some ecologic issues. You can also create some games using images in order to have a more interactive lesson

I think that images are a very useful resource for developing the knowledge of our students and to encourage creativity in their minds

Lesson Plan – Taller de Medios Audiovisuales

Objective: The students will be able to describe orally some pictures that show different emotions using verb to be.

Content: Grammatical structures: He/She is…

Vocabulary related to emotions: tired, jealous, curious, angry, happy, funny, hungry, worried, surprised, sad

Skills: Speaking, listening, reading, writing

Age of the Students: 6 years old

Grade: first grade

Student Teacher: Aquiles Jiménez

Gain Attention: The teacher greets the students and asks about their day. Then, he projects on the whiteboard an image with different kind of emotions

He asks the students to look at the image and tell him what the image is about. The students give their opinions. Then, he asks them what they think the class is going to be about

Describe the Goal: The teacher writes the objectives for the class on the whiteboard, reads and explains them to the students.

Recall Previous Knowledge: After this, the teacher comes back to the picture he showed at the beginning and asks the students if they know the name of the emotions that is shown in the image. The whole class listens to the students that want to say something about it The students give the name of some emotions presented in the image

Present the content: The teacher writes on the whiteboard the expressions “He is…”, and “She is …” and the vocabulary related to emotions: tired, jealous, curious, angry, happy, funny, hungry, worried, surprised, sad. The students will copy the contents on their notebooks

Then the teacher will ask the student to repeat louder those expressions. After that, he teacher will ask the students if they know the meaning of those expressions, and he/she will tell the students that they are going to learn that watching some images

The teacher will show the students every image related to emotions and will ask them to say the grammatical expression “He or she is … with the emotion shown in the picture. For example: “He is sad”, or “she is tired”

Provide Guidance:   The teacher asks the students to form groups of three. The teacher gives the students some flashcards with the emotions that was presented on the images; every student will have one flashcard with a specific emotion

Then the teacher explains the students that they have to show each other “He or she is… adding the emotion showed in the picture. For example: “He is surprised”

The teacher models the activity in front of the class with one or two students, repeating the example in order to be completely clear.

Elicit Performance: The students work in groups of three, telling each other about the emotions on the flashcards, using the grammatical expressions and the vocabulary according to the instructions of the teacher.

Provide feedback: The teacher goes around the classroom listening to each group, correcting and reinforcing the pronunciation of the students, and answering all their questions

The teacher gives feedback to the students according to their performances. He congratulates those who do it right, or corrects the mistakes they make (if it is the case).

Assess performance: Then the teacher asks the students to be in silence. Now, one student has to choose a classmate from another group and repeat the activity lauder, while the other classmates pay attention, then the student who answers the question has to choose another classmate from another group and do the same. They have to repeat this sequence at least with one member of each group

Enhance retention: To finish the class the teacher asks the students to repeat all together louder the grammatical expressions: “He/she is…adding a flashcard with a certain emotion. The teacher also asks the students to think in some different emotions to practice for the next class

Tired

Jealous

Curious

Angry

Happy

Funny

Hungry

Worried

Surprised

Sad