Teaching English Online: Using Photographs To Inject Color And Creativity Into Activities.

Teaching English Online: Using Photographs to inject color and creativity into activities.

Teaching online these days has become the reality for many teachers all around the world. Going from the physical to the virtual classroom, for everyone, has been a challenge in varying degrees, with educators having to rethink their approach to interactivity and their methodology. In this article, we will look at 10 fun activities to use with your students using pictures.  Whilst all of these activities were originally designed to be used in the physical classroom, each of them works great in virtual classes using screen sharing and breakout room functions in video conferencing platforms such as Zoom!

Each of these activities is great for students of all ages, they can be adapted to any level and designed with a particular language focus so no matter whether you’re teaching the verb to be in Basic English class or the use of cleft sentences at C1 level proficiency classes, you can utilize your collection of photos and adjust your instructions as necessary.

I hope that you enjoy these activities, and taking the time to adapt them to your new, virtual classes.

1. Fill-In The Bubbles

Choose a picture with two or more people, and in pairs, have your students design an interesting dialogue OR use it to focus on a particular grammar structure such as tag questions.

You could even choose a picture with two or more objects and ask your students to use their imaginations to add dialogue bubbles to the objects.  This is a fun activity that is appropriate for all ages and levels of English, and is so versatile in the fact that you can focus on whatever grammar/vocabulary that you wish to review.!

2. Storyteller

Storyteller is a very popular activity in the ESL classroom but it means sourcing a sequence of pictures which can be a challenge!  Personally, I go to Google images and search for the traditional comic strips that are common in Newspapers (See example below) and I then print the comic, white-out the dialogue, and have my students rewrite it. If you’re feeling creative, using your own camera, you could take a series of images in sequence and ask your students to write an appropriate story. 

Storyteller is great for focusing on particular grammar structures as you can assign unlimited structures for them to practice.  For example, maybe ‘Past Perfect Continuous’ with your higher levels (He had been waiting for the right moment to save her) or Past Simple with your lower levels (He saved the woman and jumped out the window).

3. If Only I Were There.

For this activity, you need to choose a picture of an interesting setting or location. This is a great task to practice the Second Conditional.  ‘If I were there, I would spend my life cruising along this beautiful river.’ Can your students think of 3 Second Conditional sentences in relation to this setting?

English Grammar and 11 Guidlines for Making it More Understandable.
https://englishforyoutheteachersvoice.blogspot.com/2020/07/understanding-grammar-11-key-rules-for.html

Making the Rules of Grammar Easy to Understand
https://englishforyoutheteachersvoice.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-essential-rules-of-english-grammar.html

4. Who Is This

Choose half a dozen pictures of interesting people. Next, get your students to work together to describe the appearance of the people in the pictures as well as to build a profile of the people using the following headings: Name, Nationality, Age, Profession, Likes/Dislikes, Life Goals and Ambitions, and 3 words to describe the person’s character.  

When they have finished, the groups can share their profiles and discuss their choices; a great way to practice present simple, present simple continuous and adjectives for description and character at the lower levels.

5. Hmmmm, Now I`m Hungry!

Take or source a picture of either a starter, a main course, or a dessert.  Ask your students to describe the dish to their partners including the ingredients that they think were used and the recipe that they believe would have been followed in order to create the dish.  Now, ask your students to come up with a three-course menu to include this dish!

If you provide a picture like the one below of Ceviche, your students might consider creating a Peruvian themed menu and they should investigate and discuss Peruvian dishes and drinks.

6.‘I remember when…’

Bring in a picture of yourself when you were younger and describe the picture to the class. Now, tell the students about this time in your life starting with i.e, ‘I remember when I was sixteen years old…’  This is a very useful activity to practice structures such as ‘Have/had’, `Would/ Wouldnt`, and ‘used to’ to talk about past habits. 

7. Making Comparisons

This is a well-known, useful activity for introducing students of all ages to the format of speaking assessments in international exams such as those from Cambridge University.

Choose two photos with a similar theme such as the two below on the theme of vacations.  Start by asking students to describe what they see in the two pictures to their partners and then to use phrases such as ‘They are similar in that….’ And ‘in contrast to the first picture’ to compare and contrast.  As a follow-up, you could ask your students to choose their next two pictures to bring in to class to describe.

8. My Short Story In Photos.

Ask your students to work in pairs, and together for homework, either take a series of pictures, or use existing pictures to illustrate their learning experience, their vacation, or even their family.  They should bring their collage into class the next day to present to the class.  Students describe their photos, why they took them, and why they play an important part in their lives.

This task is great for adults and teenagers and encourages them to use a wide range of vocabulary which they have already learned. This is a fun and motivating fluency focused activity. If your students have access, they could use www.fotojet.com to create online collages.

9. Describe The Picture.

Student A – The Describer
Student B – The Artist
Student C – The Writer

A fun and engaging task for groups of three students.  Source a picture that has enough detail for students to describe, draw, and write about!   Assign your most fluent student in each group the role of ‘Describer’ – This student is the only one who will see the picture; the other students, the ‘Artist’ will draw his picture based upon what student A describes and the ‘Writer’ will write the description.

When finished, the three students compare their picture, drawing, and written description and together discuss the similarities and differences.  Drawings and pictures could be posted on the classroom walls afterward for other groups to decide which representation is the best and why!

10. Prediction.

In Google images, find an interesting picture that relates in some way to the subject that you are studying, and wish to review.  Use the picture as a lead-in task for students to predict what the following task will be about.  If they are having difficulty, give them some vocabulary on the board to help them put together a full prediction.

Coursebooks often use lead-in pictures but if you can find a picture of your own that personalizes the topic, it will add a more intriguing layer to your introduction. For example, the following lead-in picture could be used to initiate students personal interest in the topic of traveling before reading an article on ‘An Increase in international vacations’ 



Well, I hope that you enjoyed reading this article and that you find these activities suitable to adapt to your virtual classroom.

Good luck and good teaching.

David White

Managing Director English For You Language Institute Trujillo Peru

Headmaster American School Trujillo Peru.