Melissa+Mandryk

Visual stimulations are so important in the classroom. For some teachers, this might mean using clipart, photos or pictures to accompany a text, or having maps and/or posters around the classroom. Regardless of what it looks like for independent teachers, using visuals to accompany one's lesson plans is an integral part of teaching. Visual learners are hugely in the majority of learning preferences and we as teachers will consistently come across the need for visual stimulus in our lesson plans. ESL students in particular benefit significantly from having visual cues in the classroom as they are developing their own understanding of the English language. One great way to integrate visuals in the classroom is to have your students make 'picture books' that describe a specific process in any subject area. For example, the process of pollination can be illustrated strictly in pictures (and can have accompanying text) and thus ESL students or ANY student for that matter can understand the scientific procedure behind pollination without getting hung up on difficult words or having to read a lengthy text. Another example might be how to make an appropriate legend on a map. By incorporating this type of resource into the actual curriculum, you are including your students in the learning process (allowing for assessment too!) as well as creating resources for all students in your classroom, while significantly contributing to the learning of ESL students. A great resource for clipart that may help your students develop their picture books (as well as aid you in visually adding to your lesson plans) is []. Enjoy.