Teaching with MyEC Photo Gallery

Why use Photos for Teaching English?

• Give students a break from text
• Let beginners have a-ha moments
• Allow learners to show their creative side
• Offer a new way of using computers in class
• Find new activities that are useful in multi-level classes
• Explore cultural traditions and customs from around the world
• Teach the rules and regulations of fair use

How has the MyEC Gallery changed?

In the last few months, EnglishClub’s members and moderators have been working hard to clean up MyEC’s Photo Gallery. While it used to be a free for all (cluttered with images unrelated to learning or teaching English), it is evolving into a useful resource for learners and teachers. Since EnglishClub.com’s April 2010 Photo Contest, members have been encouraged to add titles, descriptions, and tags to their photos (in English). * Most importantly, members are asked to only upload photos that they have permission to use. Besides having fun with their own images, members around the world are learning to respect the property of photographers.

How can I Teach with Images?

Below you will find a list of activities that you can do with the images on MyEC. Some can be done without creating a profile page, while others work better if members have a page of their own. If you or your students are interested in joining MyEC, now is the perfect time. Give each student a few moments to leave class and set up a MyEC profile page on your classroom or school computer. If you teach private lessons, this is a great activity to do together. (Use two computers and work side by side as you sign up for your FREE.)

Ideas for using the MyEC Photo Gallery in Class

1. Have a fashion show in class. Take pictures of the event and upload the photos to MyEC, including descriptions of the outfits. (clothing themed lessons)
2. Hold your own photo contest (use a unique #tag for your school, such as #school1 to make the photos easy to find).
3. Have students spot grammar and usage mistakes in the titles, descriptions, and comments.
4. Write stories based on 3 pictures from the gallery (see Writing Challenge #20 for examples)
5. Participate in Wordless Wednesdays
6. Interview a MyEC photographer (Join MyEC and contact a photographer. Students can post their interviews on a blog.)
7. Create and share theme based photo albums (My Family, The Beach, Christmas, Seasons) with titles, tags, locations, descriptions.
8. Teach photo editing in English (How to upload photos, edit photos, align photos, etc.). You might also show them Picnik.
9. Tell an oral story based on one or more pictures. Once upon a time there was a…
10. Choose a picture from the gallery and make it come alive by having students act it out.
11. Describe the picture. One person looks at and describes a photo while the other person draws. (pair activity)
12. Create picture dictionaries. Use the tag picture-dictionary.
13. Leave comments for MyEC photographers. At MyEC we like the No photo left behind rule.
14. Teach learners How to Avoid Plagiarism. Have your learners join MyEC and sign the Plagiarism Pledge.
15. Check out these Sample Activities for using images in the classroom. With the MyEC gallery, you don’t need magazines! Add your own ideas to the comments below.

From Alex Case:

Talking about photos: Extended Speaking Worksheet

Discussion Questions using Images

*Images uploaded to the MyEC Gallery before April 2010 are still being cleaned up. For best results, use the most recent pages of images for your activities. If you upload new images it may take a day or two to see new photos on your page.