Tuesday, March 5, 2013

SEMINAR WITH BEN GOLDSTEIN

Last February the whole teaching staff at Centre d'idiomes de la Universitat de València had the chance to attend a seminar with author Ben Goldstein. He has written the Framework series and more recently The Big Picture, both published by Richmond publishing.
 Here at the school we have been using Framework for the last 8 years and now that The Big Picture is out we have introduced the elementary level for A1 courses this year. These course materials come with a very fancy digital textbook for digital whiteboards.

During the seminar, apart from presenting the book and how we can make the most out of it, we had an interesting discussion on using images in order to engage students in motivating conversations.

The whole approach was slightly different to what we are used to. With close-up images students must use their imagination to figure out what the picture actually represents, which means that there is not just one valid answer but multiple possible answers; this allows more opportunities for discussion.

Another key aspect discussed was pictures where everyday objects or common actions appear in strange environments as we can see in the photo on the right. Using this kind of images allows the teacher to ask multiple questions but also gets students to engage in a discussion about the connotations of the picture.

With a photo like this, a plate and a glass full of money, what do you think the photographer was trying to portray??   

2 comments:

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