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.

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. Check any difficult vocabulayr (‘selfie’ / ‘keen’/ ‘upload’). 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?’ Then demonstrate asking a follow up question : ‘’What kind of photos do you like taking?’’ Students should have different people for each question and they should ask an additional question to get some extra information for the third column.

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 for web addresses.)

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.

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. Put students in pairs (As together and Bs together) first to give them time to prepare what they are going to say with other members of the same group.

Copy and cut up a set of discussion statements. Put students in groups and rotate the statements around the groups for students to discuss. Encourage students to give reasons for their opinions. Feedback as a class at the end.