The picture pack activity is designed for exploring a new theme with a group and helping identify relevant and engaging sub-themes which you could develop on later. For example, beginning with the theme ‘community’ might lead to discussion around local services or complaining to the council about housing repairs. The activity is designed to be open to allow participants’ interests to determine the direction of discussion. Pictures serve as a catalyst and support for the discussion where there are different languages and language levels in a group.
You will need:
a large collection of photos (images cut from newspapers and magazines, old postcards or Dixit cards also work well). Pictures can be random and do not need to connect with any specific theme.
a surface on which to spread the photos
Time: 1 hour (depending on group size)
Step-by-step
1 – Lay out photos across a surface (floor, table) for participants to rifle through.
2 – Give the instruction: ‘Choose a picture that…
– shows what community means to you.’
- communicates challenges that you and your community face.’
- makes you think of an experience you had when communication was a problem.’
When giving instructions it can be helpful to prompt participants to personalise their response and speak from experience.
3 – Once everyone has an image, ask participants to find a partner and tell them why they have chosen their image. This stage is important for participants who may initially be reluctant to speak in front of the whole group.
4 – Finally, ask each participant to share with the whole group (or smaller groups if the group is very large) which picture they have chosen and why. It is important that participants do not just describe their picture but relate it to the theme and their experience.
Tips
The activity is creative and ambiguous so responses may be too. Be careful about when and how to intervene when there is misinterpretation. ‘Can anyone see how this connects with X theme?’ Rather than, ‘No, do it again.’ It may take some time to understand what kind of response is appropriate.
“I liked it because we learned different opinions of our colleagues. There are many ways to view the same photo in a group.” – English for Action ESOL student
