Using Instagram in the classroom

[Т А Кузнецова]

Using Instagram in the classroom

http://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2017/05/04/8-ideas-using-instagram/

 

This social network, now familiar to many of us, allows users to share photos and videos. Once you have downloaded the app on your phone and created a private account for the class you are teaching, you can add a short biography and get started.

Instaphotos: Using images

1. Choose a few pictures related to the topic you’re teaching and upload them. For example, if the class is reviewing travelling vocabulary, pick photos of different countries. The students can then choose the one they like and write a descriptive paragraph or record themselves talking about it.

2. Upload an image of your choice and ask your students to comment on the post providing an adjective or word related to the vocabulary they are studying. To practise grammar, such as tenses, they can write full sentences describing the photo. You could even create an Awards System where a student who has given correct answers will score a point. After a certain period, the learner who has scored the most points should get a prize.

Instavideo: Using short videos

3. Film parts of the lesson that you consider relevant and upload them for the students to go back to whilst they are doing their homework. This works wonderfully when learners have to give short presentations on a topic as they can watch them again at home. You may even ask students to do a follow-up activity based on them.

4. Film yourself setting a homework task. When your students listen to it, they will not only be developing their comprehension skills, but also their listening skills.

5. Choose a learner each week to film themselves talking about something/someone (this will vary depending on the target language taught at the moment). Their classmates will have to post questions or take guesses as to what or whom the video is about. This will develop their listening, comprehension, lexical and grammatical skills while boosting interaction at the same time.

Instaresearch

6. Using INSTASTORY:Film yourself introducing something relevant on each day, different historical facts for example. Your learners will have to watch and listen and then do some research on the suggested topic. They could then write a summary about the most important facts or characteristics.

7. Using HASHTAGS: If you want your learners to find out about someone or something, you could upload a picture with different hashtags. For example, in a literature class, you might want them to do some research on Shakespeare, so you may add the following hashtags in your post: #Shakespeare #poet #poetry #sonnets #actor #writer #England etc. Students would then click on the hashtags and have access to posts about the relevant topic.

8. Using OTHER ACCOUNTS: An alternative to the option above would be to ask them to choose a free topic and navigate different Instagram accounts to write an essay or prepare a presentation about it with the information gathered.

Instagram is a really useful tool that can help us keep pace with the current technological advances, both inside and outside the classroom. It makes learning English fun and meaningful to students, two of the main ingredients in a successful teaching recipe. Try it, I’m sure you’ll get an Insta-thumbs up from your students!