DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION:
USING PICTURES

Pictures can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom to help develop skills, assess student knowledge, and to enrich, inspire and personalize learning. The availability of digital cameras, scanners and the Internet has greatly eased the process of acquiring and manipulating pictures. Teachers can easily make templates for students to work from by inserting pictures into Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, Kidspiration and Inspiration. Students at all levels can use pictures to help show what they know or need to know. Here are some suggestions for using pictures with your students:
  • Identify and list the nouns you can see (and those you can't).
  • Put "a" or "an" in front of each noun.
  • Make plurals - discover patterns.
  • Add adjectives to each noun.
  • Identify and list the verbs you think about while looking at your picture.
  • Change the tense.
  • Add -ing.
  • Add an adverb.
  • Write a conversation between people, animals or items.
  • Write a conversation between someone or something in one picture with that in another picture.
  • List all the items in the picture. Write sentences that contain 3 or 4 items. Put commas in the right places.
  • Write 3 kinds of sentences about the picture(s).
  • Divide sentences into subject and predicate.
  • Write 3 questions related to the picture(s) then answer the questions.
  • Write sentences with prepositional phrases about your picture.
  • Choose which picture is the odd one out.
  • Think of a question you want answered.
  • How do the people feel? Would you feel comfortable in this situation?
  • Draw something from your picture - identify the beginning sound.
  • Find and draw more items with the same sound.
  • Find and draw items with the same spelling pattern
  • Find items related by cause and effect
  • Write similes and metaphors for items.
  • Identify living and non-living things.
  • Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast items in a picture or pair of pictures.
  • Do a five-sense activity using the picture.
  • What season is it? Add things to change the season. Redraw the picture in a different season. Write a descriptive paragraph telling how the picture would be during another season.
  • Arrange a collection of pictures in sequence then write or record what they know about what's happening in the pictures.
  • Add captions to the pictures and/or predict what will happen next.
  • Write math word problems about the picture(s) then solve the problem.
  • Study pictures for color, line, design or shape.
  • Use pictures to assist identification (e.g. of insects, animals, plants, etc.)
  • Use pictures in maps to identify places or resources.
  • Use pictures as starters for group discussion or individual/group writing.
  • Use pictures to aid in vocabulary development and/or as clues for period, temperature, environment, etc.