Are you looking for some fresh ideas for your learners after the summer? I recently had the opportunity to attend the NATECLA Online Conference 2021 and I would like to share some inspiring thoughts and ideas that came from one of the seminars. The seminar was called, Take photos, tell stories, write poems: participatory photography and poetry given by Sarah Sheldon. Maybe you love taking photos and maybe you’ve even heard of George the Poet? Either way, photography and poetry are the ‘in thing’ and we can use them in our ESL classroom not only to encourage language but also as a bridge to connect to deeper spiritual topics.
Sarah Sheldon (Learning Unlimited) and Ingrid Guyon (Fotosynthesis) explain how the idea for the seminar came about. “During 2020, over the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fotosynthesis (photography) and Learning Unlimited (ESOL) designed, developed and delivered the Picture This! project – two innovative 8-week online participatory ESOL and photography courses. This was an opportunity for ESOL learners to practise their English, and express themselves while exploring their surroundings, their feelings, their lives and identities through images. A key component of this project was the online and offline support provided by the team of multicultural volunteers. Picture this! was funded by the Greater London Authority (GLA) as part of the ESOL plus Arts initiative, encouraging organisations working with ESOL learners to work in partnership with arts organisations to creatively meet the needs of Londoners facing barriers to learning. As their website explains:
“The original plan was for the project to take place face-to-face, but it was adapted immediately in response to the pandemic, seeing this as an opportunity to capture a moment in time and also make it accessible to ESOL learners from all around London who may be facing more barriers than ever before.” (more information on Picture This! can be found here.)
So you ask, Why photography and poetry? First, let’s look at photography.
These days, nearly everyone has a smartphone and photos are a normal part of everyday life. Photos cross language barriers and they help us share our lives. They can also be a stimulus for critical thinking and, in the classroom, can serve as scaffolding for language learning by generating conversations and producing vocabulary. They can help build community, be therapeutic (for those taking as well as seeing them), and also help with memory as they require attention.
Please note, the ideas that follow can be adapted for any level of learner. They can be used online on Zoom, Meet or Teams, as well as in person. Some tasks may have to be done by learners away from the classroom and brought into the next lesson, or they could post photos on a WhatsApp group. It is important to establish ‘rules’ with your learners about gaining the permission of their subjects. Some learners may want to use pictures from the internet but rules limiting the use of copyrighted images must be explained. Here are some links you can share for copyright free images:
https://unsplash.com/images/stock/royalty-free
https://www.pexels.com/royalty-free-images/
Photos don’t always have to be of people (and some of your learners may have cultural or religious reasons not to do so). Encourage your learners to take photos of a range of things: people (with permission), places, food, events, signs, objects, shapes, scenery (and anything else you and they can think of).
Photography Ideas for the ESL classroom
Places
Show a photo that you have taken of a busy market/shopping centre, or get the learners to take one at a local event.
Ask some simple questions What can you see? What is happening here? What are the people doing?
Elicit some vocabulary by asking them to describe the scene/people/food etc.
Using the five senses, ask what they can see/smell/hear/taste/feel?
Introduce the present tense/present continuous by encouraging learners to talk about what is happening now in the photo and then get them to talk about what happened the day before the photo (using past tense forms). You could extend this to talking about what will happen after the market closes later that day/the following day.
Feelings/Moods
Ask your learners how they are feeling today?
Take a photo that represents how you are feeling today. Share it online or show the photo in class. It could be of you or of an object that helps explain how you are feeling today. In the “Take photos, tell stories” seminar breakout room I took a photo of a little soft toy monkey I have with a huge smiley face. It showed that I was feeling extremely happy because my eldest son had just returned from university, and I hadn’t seen him since Christmas!
Sounds
Focus on the sounds your learners find difficult and need to practise and give them a task using those particular sounds (e.g. Take a photo of something that begins with ch/k/th, etc.) This will help with pronunciation practice as it provides a natural and intentional focus for learners. They share the photo with a partner in class. It may also lead to new vocabulary being introduced to the group.
Senses
Use our five senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste) and brainstorm adjectives.
Learners take photographs of things that are: soft, hard, smelly, sweet, sour, savoury, salty, spiky, prickly, silent, noisy, loud, rough, sweaty, cold, warm, colourful, waxy, smooth, etc. Learners can categorise the photos and adjectives according to the correct sense, or you could focus on one of the senses. Choose the adjectives according to your topic or level, or just choose at random. The photos will help learners remember words.
Portraits / Self-portraits
Learners photograph five things that represent themselves or bring those five items into class. They can also take photos that represent another person, if that is more comfortable, or even choose objects that describe a day in their life. Ask them to talk about the photos they have taken/objects they have brought in. Why have they chosen them? What story do they tell? Learners could share information in pairs, then A could share B’s objects with the class and vice versa.
‘Happy’ around the house
Alphabet
Take photos of ‘letters’ you see in shapes in your surroundings. This activity encourages learners to get creative and explore their surroundings while learning about photographic techniques of framing, composition and seeing things with new eyes and from different angles. It is also a great way to bring the class together, collating their letters to form words they choose.
Now we come to poetry. So why poetry?
Poetry can provide scaffolding, a frame for writing. Repetition and rhythm supports learning (although sentences do not have to rhyme and can be short and chunked). Poetry is therapeutic and poems cross borders and generations. It also connects to music, songs and lyrics.
Poetry ideas for the ESL classroom
Frames
Use a ‘frame’ to help your learners write about a photo they have taken. Below are some examples you could use or adapt.
Name acrostic
Learners take a photo of themselves or another person they know (e.g. Emma, Sadiq, Sonny), and choose to describe that person using the letters of the name, e.g.
Energetic
Mysterious
Married
Affectionate
Haiku poem
This contains only 3 lines and can be used with any photo/subject chosen. The Haiku has the following form:
The first line has five syllables
The second line has seven syllables
The last line has five syllables
Cinquain poem
This contains five lines of varying number of syllables in a pattern and can be used with any photo/subject chosen. It has the following form:
The first line has two syllables (2)
The second line has four syllables. (4)
The third line has six (6)
The fourth line has eight (8)
The last line has two. (2)
5-4-3-2-1
Take a photo of a person. Write about them using five words in the first line, and decrease the number of words on each line until you get to the last line which contains only one word. This can also be used to write about a place, e.g. a hometown/place with a pleasant memory (or even a painful one). Some learners may really respond to this ‘therapeutic’ space to share all sorts of memories/hopes/dreams. Here’s what it would look like:
‘She/It is….’ (write 5 words)
‘She/It is….’ (write 4 words)
‘She/It is….’ (write 3 words)
‘She/It is….’ (write 2 words)
‘She/It is….’ (write 1 word)
Photo of yourself: ‘Who am I?’
Write about yourself using the template below.
Who am I?
I am… (a noun)
I am … (an adjective)
I am… (an adjective of character)
I am… (an adjective of physical description)
Freestyle
Get learners to write a few thoughts about any photo you give them, or one that they have taken recently.
More ideas
- Show a photo of a shut door and a photo of an open door. Learners talk or write a poem about these images.
- Take a photo of something you do not know the word for and share with the class. This increases learners’ vocabulary.
- Write a short poem entitled ‘The best part of me’. You could accompany it with a photo.
- Take a photo of a funny expression on your face, or choose a learner to pull a face, and ask the others learners to guess what the face represents. This could be a photo of an emotion, responding to a smell or an animal, etc.
For those more interested in writing poetry, take a look at Rupi Kaur ‘Instapoetry’ for some simple poems and ideas.
Written by
Marina Swainston-Harrison, ESL Lead Specialist at 2:19
July 2021