Word collages

Life: a collage...

In the Spanish Department here at IH Barcelona we have a blog project "Las palabras más bellas", in which students each write a post on what they consider the "loveliest" word.

A colleague, Susana Ortiz, got her learners to produce collages to accompany their words. She took a pile of magazines, scissors and glue into class, and had a fun 15-minute activity which also produced a surprising amount of language ("Can you lend me the scissors?", "Has anyone got a picture of a flower?" etc).

For the blog, the students used a digital camera to photograph their collages (with more language practice discussing how best to take the pictures...)

It was fun, it produced a lot of language practice, it had a neat end product and made only minimal, non-intrusive use of technology...

I'd suggest that is how we should use technology in our classrooms.