This post is the first in a lengthy series where I will be sharing the Web 2.0 tools that I’m using with my Beginning English Language Learners, along with explaining how we’re using and sharing multiple student examples of each one.

I’ve previously published some “Best” lists of easy Web 2.0 tools that students can use without having to register:

The Best Ways For Advanced ELL’s & Non-ELL’s To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly — REVISED

The “All-Time” Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly

The Best Web Tools For English Language Learners (In Other Words, The Ones My Students Regularly Use)

Today, I’d like to share about Phrase.it.

Phrase.it lets you — without requiring registration — either upload your own image, use one of their stock photos, or grab an image off the Web (in order to use that option, you have to click on “upload photo from your device”; past the url address of the image -“image location” – into the “file name” box and generally wait a little while until it loads onto the site).

After you have chosen a photo, you can then add different kinds of “thought bubbles” or “speech bubbles” to it.

It’s an easy tool that English Language Learners can use during the study of any thematic unit. For example, my Beginners are studying “food” right now. Their assignment was to make three food-related photos with thought bubbles and post the link of their creation in the comments section of the “Food” post on our class blog. Here’s one photo and you can see tons more at out blog:

0sxund

Students then chose one that we would show to the entire class (I teach a combination Beginning and Intermediate course) and which they say what they wrote.

In addition, all the Beginners also left comments, after seeing models, on the creations of their classmates. You can see those here, too.

It’s a simple activity that Beginners can do that provides writing, reading, speaking and listening language-learning opportunities. And, importantly, they can work on it by themselves while I’m using that time to work with the Intermediates in my class.

Look for the next post in this series in a few days…