As a full time teacher of English as a Second Language I come across many ways in which to encourage learners to activate their acquired language. During this summer (2013) I was teaching teenaged Italian students in Ireland, and I found that more so that my past experiences, my students were very active online. I thought of ways in which I could get them to use this interest in a lesson.

I had an idea courtesy of the Korean tumblr, koreanstudentsspeak.tumblr.com. I would give the students a lesson which focused on how the felt expressing themselves and how they, as teenagers, could express themselves in society. I talked to them about how they used the internet as a means of expression, and if they found it to be important. There was a resoundingly positive response. They were then asked the design a poster, which gave the impression that it was a status update, and I then took their photograph and posted it on Instagram. And from here it could be shared, tweeted, and commented on.

These are the photos I took of the students during the lesson, as well as a few from afterwards which I think you’ll like.

Italian Students Speak, a set on Flickr.