Teacher, trainer and materials writer Samantha Lewis answers The Image Conference questionnaire.
Your favourite film/work of art/video game:
I don’t have a favourite film – too many to choose from. A couple of great ones which immediately spring to mind are “Life is beautiful” and “Once”.
.Your favourite video to use in class:
I often use http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/ because there’s a wide range of short videos with level-appropriate activities about all sorts of topics.
Useful image-related teaching tool:
My students absolutely love using the video creation tool www.animoto.com. The 30-second version is a manageable length for younger teens and they find the tool easy to use. In a couple of classes they can plan and put together a video with their own images, music and text. Students set their peers a viewing task to answer while we watch the final versions in class.
However, a staple with my younger primary students are good old flashcards. You can get so much mileage out of a few pictures!
Why are you interested in using images in your classes?
I can’t really imagine a class without images – they immediately motivate and engage students. They’re versatile, can be used with any activity and are so easy to get hold of.
What should your audience expect to learn?
Some features of comics and graphic novels and how they can be exploited in pre-, while and post reading tasks to work on skills, language and pronunciation.
What are three words that sum up your session?
Visual, participative, different!
Which other presenter(s) are you looking forward to seeing?
As many as possible – there’s such a great range to choose from!
Read more about Samantha and her session below.
Samantha Lewis teaches young learners and is Junior Academic Coordinator at the British Council in Somosaguas, Madrid. She writes for the British Council teen website http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/ and is co-author of Interactive, Cambridge’s new course for lower-secondary students. She has trained primary and secondary school teachers of English and has an MA specializing in English Language Teaching in secondary schools.
Getting to Grips with Graphic Novels
This workshop looks at the nature of graphic novels and reasons for using them with ELT students. Participants take part in a variety of skills and language activities based on a range of teen-friendly graphic novels including those in Interactive, Cambridge’s new teen course. It also focuses on online resources available for students to read, create and share their own comics.
