Teaching With Photos

It's no secret that today's tech-savvy kids love to take photos.

Photo via Pixabay

 Many of our learners have easy access to cameras.  As teachers, we have an amazing opportunity to capitalize on this passion by providing classroom opportunities for our students that allow them to document their learning via photos.

"Documenting is more than staying organized or writing down what will be or was taught. Documenting is part of the learning process."

                                                                                       -Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano


Help kids to capture authentic learning experiences by using photos and some of these easy-to-implement ideas for the classroom:

• Use a collage making tool such as Pic Collage  to document steps in a science experiment or math problem. Or have students create a scrapbook of a famous biographical figure with this same tool.
• Photo essays make an enticing alternative to the traditional essay. Thinglink is a fun tool to accomplish this. 
• Employ Blabberize or Chatterpix Kids to encourage your students to create book summaries from the perspective of their favorite character. These tools can make any photo speak!
• Engage your students in your content with a photo scavenger hunt using Google Photos.
• Our students love memes. Urge learners to make their own.  Suggest one of the many meme creation tools available, such as Imgflip for students to create memes about book characters or science lab procedures.
• Instead of having students write vocabulary definitions and sentences, change it up and ask them to represent their vocabulary through photos instead. 

Are you concerned about how to collect and give feedback on these types of assignments?

A platform such as Schoology or Google Classroom make collecting, checking and providing feedback a snap.

Do you have a great idea for using photos in the classroom? Please share your ideas in the comments below.