Activate: Games for Learning American English

Picture This
le s
Eat Your Vegetab Eat Your Vegetab
le s
1. What are three
vegetables on the
card?
2. What are two mo
re vegetables not
on the card? What
do they look like?
3. Which vegetables
are common in
this area? Which ve
getables are
uncommon in this
area? Why?
4. Which vegetables
do you like? What
other foods do you
eat with these
vegetables?
5. What vegetables
do you eat at
breakfast? At lunch
? At dinner?
6. What vegetables
would you grow in
your own garden?
Why?

Broccoli, Pepper,
Tomato, Carrot,
Peas, Onion
A Trip to the Zoo A Trip to the Zoo
the card is your
1. Which animal on
favor ite? Why?
out one animal.
2. Tell me more ab
What does it eat?
Where does it live?
ve you seen in real
3. Which animals ha
did you see
life? When and where
them?
other animals you
4. What are three
o? What do they
might see in e zo
th
look like?
uld you like to
5. Which animal wo
to ? Wh at wo uld you say to the
speak
animal?
one of these
6. Imagine you are
al would you
animals. Which anim
be? Why?
Bear, Elephant,
Monkey, Lion,
Kangaroo, Giraffe

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 Activate: Games for Learning American English

ABOUT PICTURE THIS

Picture This cards are a set of cards that can be used for a variety of conversation and word games in
English classes. These cards form the foundation for conversational games that give students the op-
portunity to practice speaking with each other about a variety of topics. Picture This cards stimulate
conversation through a series of thematically related questions and interesting images that engage
students, activate background knowledge, and help match vocabulary words with concrete objects.

Activate: Games for Learning American English comes with a set of 24 Picture This cards that are ready for
use in the classroom, and there are cards that are appropriate for a wide range of language abilities. On
one side of the card, there are six small pictures and words or phrases (in random order) that match
the pictures. The six pictures are all related to a similar theme, which is indicated by the brief title at
the top of the card. On the other side of the card, there are six questions or prompts that are related
to the pictures and theme of the card. Each card also contains questions at a range of difficulty levels,
usually beginning with less challenging questions and moving to more difficult ones.

The cards included in this collection are intended to be a starter kit that will encourage teachers and
students to make more Picture This cards and games. Some ideas for making your own Picture This cards
are included in the DIY! section of this chapter. Students and teachers can expand their collection to
match language levels, interests, and specific language features.

Example Picture This Card

Picture Side (pictures and topic) Question Side

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 Activate: Games for Learning American English

STUDENTS' ROLE
Students use the Picture This cards to talk and play games in groups. Small groups of 3–4 students are
ideal, as the students will have more opportunities to speak and to respond to each other’s comments.
Students can first match the pictures on the front of the card with the correct word written below.
This can help them to activate background knowledge about the topic, review and recall vocabulary
that they have learned before, and learn new vocabulary words. Then students take turns asking and
answering the questions on the back of the Picture This cards. The questions direct students to think
about a variety of items or topics related to the theme of the card. They use English vocabulary to
identify additional related objects, give their opinions about some aspect of the theme, explain their
answers, and so on. Because these questions are open-ended and because many of the questions ask
students to rely on their personal experience and opinions, there are no right or wrong answers. In
fact, there is always more than one possible answer.

TEACHER'S ROLE
Before Play
When Picture This cards are first introduced, the teacher should take a few minutes to show students
a card and to establish some vocabulary for referring to the parts of the card. Teachers can refer to
the side of the card containing the title/topic, pictures, and vocabulary words as the ‘picture side’ of
the card. The opposite side is the ‘question side.’ On the picture side, teachers should explain that
the title gives a brief clue about how the pictures on the card are related, and therefore about possible
topics that might be focused on in the six discussion questions. On the picture side, teachers should
also clearly point out that the vocabulary words at the bottom are printed in random order. That is, the
order of the printed words does not match the order of the pictures on the card. This is because one
way for students to use the cards is to match the vocabulary words with the pictures that represent
their meanings.

To prepare to play with Picture This cards, the teach-

er should make sure that each group of students has
a place to sit where they can easily hear each other,
but not be interrupted by the conversations of other
groups. In addition, the teacher should provide a bas-
ket, bag, or other container to hold the entire set of
Picture This cards and place it in a central location in
the room. The students will need to be able to easily
move between their group and the collection of Picture
This cards to get a new card when they have finished
with a card.

The teacher should determine a set amount of time to

use Picture This cards in the language classroom. Since
students will be working in small groups and exchang-
ing Picture This cards once they have completed the card, each group can work at its own pace. It is not
necessary for all groups to finish a card at the same time. Instead, students can use as many cards as
they need during that time, and teachers should end the game after the specified amount of time has
passed.

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 Activate: Games for Learning American English

During Play
During the game, the teacher should circulate among the groups and encourage students to speak
in English as much as possible. The students may ask for help with English words, and the teacher
may help if he or she wishes to. The teacher should be careful, however, that the focus remains on
fluency, or producing a lot of language. That is, students should not spend a lot of time looking for or
asking about words. Rather, the students can describe the item that they are thinking of to their group
members and try to come up with the English word on their own. The teacher should walk around
and remind students that the goal is to practice conversation in English and not just to learn new vo-
cabulary. In addition, the teacher should ensure that all players are taking turns speaking to the rest
of the group.

While walking around the classroom and visiting each group, the teacher should remind the groups
to exchange their card for a new one when they finish a card so that another group can use that card.

After Play
When the game is finished, the teacher can review for a few minutes. Students can be asked to share
any interesting ideas that they heard from their classmates. If groups have played with the same card,
teachers can ask them to summarize their responses for one or two of the questions and make com-
parisons between the responses. Teachers can focus on the grammatical patterns and their meanings
in the sentences that the students produced. At the end, the teacher should collect the Picture This
cards and store them for their next use.

In the next section, directions for playing Picture This are given, followed by many other activities that
students can do using the same cards.

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