Build vocabulary with photo of the day and increase reading comprehension skills! Using photos from various seasons, activities, or items reflective of the topic, help students make connections to new information as they read.
Why Use a Photo a Day?
There are many ways to incorporate real-life photos into your classroom. Students love looking at visuals and especially love them if they are new or interesting. Sometimes the interest comes from the fact that they recognize or connect to something in the photo. This makes for great conversations!
We all know how important oral language is in vocabulary development, background knowledge, and ultimately, reading comprehension. Use photos with all ages of students. Photos support the development of strong observation skills and self-awareness in students That also helps in science!
How to Use Photo a Day
There are so many ways to use a real photo to engage your students in learning and discussion. It can be difficult to tell sometimes when you are getting to know your students which ones require more background knowledge and vocabulary support. Over time, this becomes more obvious as students are developing in reading skills. Every student in your classroom will benefit from this approach because you will have some who need it to develop or increase reading comprehension and some who are already fluent and need to expand their vocabulary and deepen their comprehension as texts get more difficult. These students can also use these images to infer meaning.
Use photos of the day once a day or twice a week with added activities that help students apply what they are learning to deepen comprehension. You can use any photos but if you are short on time I have created it all for you in this winter or spring set.
However you choose to use a picture of the day in your classroom, the options for use and differentiation for your students are vast. Have you ever used photos in your classroom? If you have, share some ways you used them.
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