Materials: One cell phone camera for each group of kids (I usually tell the kids their groups can be anywhere from two to five people – as long as one person in the group has a camera).
Description: This has to be done as a homework assignment (unless you want to let your little dears run loose during class time). Create a list of 15-20 things in English and distribute the list to the class (or write it on the board and make each group copy it down). The groups then have to go and take pictures of everything on the list. Items should for the most part be clear and easy to understand – like a horse, a broken window, someone eating cake, a building with a sign written in English, a yellow car that’s not a taxi, etc. – but I’ve used some vague descriptions with interesting results – like “a picture of a person that’s not alive” I meant a mannequin, but I got photos of everything from statues of Hristo Botev to magazine covers to (I kid you not) a small skull. Not sure where they found it, and I don’t want to know.
To insure that all group members participate, the rule is that every team member must appear individually in at least one of the photos on the list, and all team members must be together in one of the starred items on the list – usually something like “students playing basketball” or “people sleeping on something that’s not a bed, or my favorrite: “students doing their homework.” This way, even those students whose English isn’t as good have to participate and don’t get a free ride from their friends.
The kids love the chance to play with their phones, and find interesting things to take pictures of!
-Abeth S.
Filed under: Level: Intermediate, Level: Multi-level, Skills: Creativity, Skills: Vocabulary
