The Language Show Live 2012 – What I learnt from Isabelle Jones

I really enjoyed Isabelle’s talk – in my opinion it was the most useful of all the ones I went to. Like most teachers, I need images on an almost daily basis. I can’t draw so I rely on finding copyright free images and it isn’t always easy. Here’s what I learnt from Isabelle…

How to Use Visuals

Choose them to support cultural awareness, eg for “maison” have a picture of a French house not an English one.
Think about colours and contrast – some children may be colourblind, so using different colours to show silent letters (for example) may well be lost on them
White text on a white background makes for a really dramatic reveal
Use pictures that the children themselves have drawn to give them ownership of the text
Have letters appearing one at a time for pupils to guess which letter is coming next – it will make them focus on their spelling

Where to Get Visuals From

http://www.metaatem.net/words/ : type a word into the search box, and it will search the internet for pictures of letters to make up that word
Flickr : this is a useful one because for each picture it clearly states the copyright details so you know whether or not you are allowed to use the picture, and if you can what conditions are attached. You can also upload and tag your own pictures for other people to use.
taggalaxy.de : again the copyright details are clearly stated, but the best thing about this site is the fun you have searching for images and watching them being collated. You have to just try it and see for yourself!
www.photopin.com : another useful site with great selection of pictures. When you select the picture you want, you will find some html code to paste into your blog/website which includes the photo credit.
www.pics4learning.com : I’ve enjoyed exploring this site. There’s a good selection of pictures, categorised by topic, and all free to use for educational purposes. I think this one may become the first place I look for images in future.

For language teaching and tuition from beginner to GCSE, visit my website www.sjbteaching.com.