Using Your Students' Lives and ...Phone Cameras

     Most students liven up when they become the centre of attention; almost everyone likes showing their mobile photos and commenting them. I believe it's a great opportunity to make students feel more important and significant.   
      Depending on the topic we are covering at the moment, my students are asked to take photos of their room or pets, for instance, and then they've got a chance to speak about their photos, using the grammar and vocabulary of "current interest".                    It's kind of a Show and Tell activity, enjoyed by many kids. Instead of taking photos, students can make a video. 

 You can use a lot of different activities here:

1. just describing the picture
2. comparing things (finding differences)
3. a memory game (the owner of the picture shows the others his room (pet, house etc.) for a minute, then asks questions to find out how well they remember it)
4. a betting game (for example, before having been shown a picture of a bedroom, students share their thoughts about how it might look like and make a bet - the winner has the most right guesses)
5. finding a mistake (the owner of the picture is asked several questions, the answers should not be all true, then he shows his photo and the others try to find what was false)
Here's a list of possible topics with some suggestions:

house (furniture, there is/are, a/any/some, have got) - describing, comparing (finding differences), memory game, guessing/betting game

food and utensils (in the fridge/in the kitchen/cupboards)

pets (have got, to be, like doing)

favourite things (have got, places of preposition, to be)

family and friends (appearance, character, hobbies, personal info)

housework (face expressions to show like/dislike)

daily routine (Present Simple)

school life  (teachers, school things, subjects, classmates)

There are a lot of fantastic digital storytelling tools that could be used for talking about students' photos: