Icon Stories: Fresh Ideas for Teaching English!
Material for ESL Teachers
Start using our ideas in your lesson plans, Emojis help to motivate your students. Here you can find a wide range of interactive exercises and vocabulary activities for ESL kids. The ▸ 72 Emoji Quizzes are broken up by topic & skill level.
Our Project, Our Goals
Is it possible to tell a story without text in the form of letters? Is it possible to tell a story "only" with icons and symbols like Emojis, a story that anyone in this world can understand, no matter what language she or he speaks? So is there some kind of universal language that can really achieve this?
Yes, exactly that is possible. Even very young people can do it. Or can they do it even better than older people?
Use "Icon Stories" in your English lessons and your students will have fun, improve their vocabulary and language skills, all in a playful and creative way.
The "Book from the Ground" - Our Source of Inspiration
In 2014, the Chinese artist Xu Bing (徐冰) published a new type of book. A book without words, recounting a day in the life of an office worker, told completely in the symbols, icons, and logos of modern life. Xu Bing spent seven years gathering materials, experimenting, revising, and arranging thousands of pictograms to construct the narrative of his novel. The result is a readable story without words, an account of twenty-four hours in the life of "Mr. Black," a typical urban white-collar worker.
We would like to thank Xo Bing for his wonderfull book. Without his work it would never have been possible to publish our project!
More information about the "Book from the Ground" can be found on the links page.
So, that's enough talking now, let's make our own "Schoolbook from the Ground".
Our Emoji Quizzes and Our Bingo
Our various quizzes are a great way to practice vocab in your English classes. The students already know many Emoji from their daily communication with Messenger Apps, but they will surely discover some new icons as well. The quizzes are graded and sortable by level of difficulty so that all ages can benefit.
With the Bingo you can use the newly learned words in a playful way. It's supposed to be a game you can play with the whole class. You need a beamer for a good experience. By the way, it's worth arranging the bingo together with the students.