Photography
By Jo Budden

Age range: 12 - adult
Theme: Photography
Lexical area: Describing photos

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
This lesson is about photography. Task 1 looks at photography vocabulary and Task 2 is a ‘find somebody who..’ task for students to talk to one another about photos and taking photos. Task 3 involves setting up the class as a photography exhibition and inviting students to discuss the pictures. Task 4 asks students to guess information about people in photographs and Task 5 is a role play based on a paparazzi photographer and a celebrity. Task 6 offers some discussion statements based on the topic.

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1. Say cheese!
This is a simple task to introduce camera and photo vocabulary. Draw the simple line drawing of a camera and ask students to think of any words connected with cameras and photography. Add in words that you think are useful for the level you’re teaching. For example, take a photo, have your photo taken, zoom, digital, flash, photographer, paparazzi etc. At this early stage in the lesson it may be a good idea to focus on the pronunciation of these words as students often put the word stress in the wrong place. Photo / photograph / photographer / photographic / photogenic.

Task 1 Say cheese!
Make a note of useful vocabulary in the table.

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2. Find a photographer
This is a group speaking task to find people in the class who are keen photographers. It is a Find somebody who.. mingle. Practise the first couple of questions as a group first to support weaker students and write on the board if necessary. For example,

   ‘Are you a keen photographer?’ or ‘have you got a photo of yourself on the internet?’

Students should have different people for each question and they should ask an additional question to get some extra information for the third column.

Task 2 Find a photographer

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3. Let’s go to a photography exhibition
For this task you need a selection of photographs. The easiest way to get them is to use photos from newspapers and magazines. Cut out about twenty or thirty of the most striking photos and stick them up around the walls of the classroom. If this is not practical for your classroom set up you can rotate the photos amongst groups of students. Encourage students to react to the photos and to try to explain why they like/don’t like certain pictures. They can use the table to make a note of their thoughts after they have looked at all the pictures. Complete the final space in the table yourself depending on the type of photos you have selected for your exhibition.

(If you have a computer and data projector in your class, you could use photos from the internet and take your students to a slide show instead. See the Internet Links section below for web addresses.)

Task 3 Let’s go to a photography exhibition

• Have you ever been to a photography exhibition? If not, would you like to? If you have, tell your group about it.
• Now you’re going to go to a photography exhibition. Use the space below to write your comments when you have had a good look at all the photos.

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4. Who is it?
For this task you need some photos of people. If you have photos of your friends and family, you could use them, if not cut some out of the newspaper. Put students into pairs and give each pair a photo of somebody. They are going to invent the person behind the photo. They have to decide on a name, age, job, hobbies etc. and fill in the personal information. Then put two groups together and they have to introduce their characters to the other group. You could extend this task by getting the two pairs of students to imagine that these people meet each other and they can write a dialogue of their first meeting.

Task 4 Who is it?
Look at the photo your teacher gives you. Work in pairs to decide who it is.

Name:

Age:

Job:

Hobbies and interests:

Now introduce the character to another group.

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5. Paparazzi role play
Set the scene by showing some photos of famous people that were taken when they were going about their daily business. Ask your students how you think the celebrities feel to be constantly followed by photographers.

Task 5 Paparazzi role play

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6. The camera never lies! Discussion statements.
Copy and cut up a set of discussion statements. Put students in groups and rotate the statements around the groups for students to discuss.

Task 6 The camera never lies! Discussion statements.

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Internet links
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/   This is the BBC site there are hundreds of photos you can see in slide show.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/   This is theBBC photographer of the year site and has an excellent slide show that would give your students lots to talk about.
http://www.thebppa.com  This is the the British Press Photographers Association it links on to sites of British photographers.
http://customwire.ap.org/specials/interactives/photoweek/index.html  Here are some nice photo galleries.
http://www.time.com/time/  This is the Time magazines pictures of the week site.
http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/  If you want photos of places this is an excellent site.