Monday App: The Guardian Eyewitness

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanskgiving break.  My 4 days off were lovely.  I could definitely use more long weekends!

I've mentioned how I love free apps, before, right?  And how I am always looking for relevant information to work with my students on?  I am not a huge fan of straight up workbooks and vocab cards, so I try to find things that better reflect what's happening in the world.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  Enter: The Guardian Eyewitness.

Hands down, this is my go-to for inferencing work.  I use the pictures to talk about the differences between an observation, inference, and prediction.  We then practice using those skills.  The app has  a picture of the day gallery (screen them first- in the past I have seen tribes with topless women, flag burning, and  violent moments), which gives plenty of choices.  Each picture has a caption, which gives information about the picture, but I usually like the students to try and figure out as much as possible, then compare their response to the caption at the end.The app also allows students to zoom in for detail, which some really like.

In recent weeks, I've used it as a launching off point to talk about Sandy, and the East Coast especially with my middle schoolers.  It's hard for my students to really understand some of the devastation, because they have no frame of reference.  So taking the time to look at pictures, talk about what was happening, and apply this all to something that is happening right now has been really beneficial for some of them.

Do you have any good pictures from online that you use for inferencing?