Get the News Through Images

Images are a great way to create curiosity and get students interested in finding out more about a topic, that's why The Photo Stream could be such a handy tool for getting students interested in reading short news stories.


The site shows the images connected to news stories from all over the Internet. When you put the cursor over an image a brief summary / teaser text appears.

If you click on the image you can go to the story at its original source. The story will appear with a Photo Stream frame at the top and here you can click on 'Comments' and leave a comment about the story.


You just need to have an email address (which doesn't appear) to post your comment.


There are many ways you can use this with students:

• In class you can show students the most recent images (using a data projector) and summaries and see which ones they would most like to read. They could discuss and vote on the one they most want to read and argue about why. Then click and print the story for them.
• Before showing the site you could get them to predict what images they will see based upon what they know is happening in the news. Give points for correct guesses.
• Show the images and ask the Sts to guess what the story is about and what information will be contained. Then print some or get students to read and check the stories to see if they were correct.
• Get students to read an article then post a summary as a comment.

The main thing to be careful of with this site is the images may well be inappropriate for younger learners, so think carefully before letting your students loose on the site.

You can find 30 + more reading activities for EFL ESL students here.

Related links:

• Exploiting Travel Images
• Art Photography as a Basis for Language Activities
• Darwin and Evolution
• Create Image Books
• Create a Flickr Montage
• Great Time Line Tool
• Create a YouTube Carousel
• Interactive presentations
• A Picture's worth
• Picture phrases

Best

Nik Peachey