Best Practices: Using Personal Photos in Class

Have you ever noticed that students pay more attention when you're talking about yourself or just 'chatting' with them in the language? My theory is that students tune-in when the language is actually being put to a real social use - if they pay attention, they might learn something about you or another student that they didn't already know.

Muna uses this tactic brilliantly in her Arabic classes. Last week, she used her own family photographs to review some new vocabulary with her students. Here's a sample of what she did:

1. Students first reviewed some family-related vocabulary by drawing the family tree of a fictional character (one of the characters from the book's video resources) on the board. Students labeled each person by name, relationship to the central character, and profession. Muna and the students worked together all in Arabic until the family tree was correct.

2. Muna then showed the students a photograph of her own family and talked about each person shown - their name, their relationship to her, their profession, where they lived...

3. In a second family photograph, Muna again talked about the people shown. Since some people appeared in both photos, this gave Muna the chance to repeat much of the information and vocabulary in a way that felt relevant and natural.

4. A third photo was shown and discussed, again with many of the same people pictured.

5. When Muna took out the fourth photo, it was time for the students to do the talking. She asked them about the identities of the people shown - their names, their relationships to her, their professions, and any of the details she'd shared about them. The students identified the people in several more photographs, and all students were involved in providing as many details as they could remember and correcting one another.

6. Students then worked together to draw and label Muna's family tree on the board.

7. Finally, students talked about their own family members, and were asked questions about their families and the families of their classmates.

8. The students' assignment for the next class is to bring family photos to describe and discuss with their classmates.

The students and Muna all used ONLY ARABIC during the whole activity, and all students were fully involved in the discussions. Wonderful job, Muna! I plan to use my own family photographs with every class learning to talk about their families and professions from now on... thanks for sharing.