Let’s Get Started: Plain Hook or Photo Soup?

PhotoSoup is a visual word puzzle generator that allows users to create word search puzzles with tag-related photos taken from Flickr. The words are hidden in the puzzle, and only the associated photo is shown as a clue although it is possible to reveal the words on the screen. The objective is to find all the words hidden in the puzzle before you run out of time.

This has a lot of potential for being used with an Interactive Whiteboard as a starter or a “hook” into a new topic. Our Languages faculty has been experimenting with the use of interesting visuals as “hooks” in an attempt to maximise students’ engagement at the beginning of the lesson. This concept is also linked with the “Connect” phase of the Accelerated Learning cycle,when the teacher provides an opportunity for students to make new connections across lessons and if possible across subjects too.

To create and play a new puzzle, you have to provide a topic. Alternatively, you can use your own username to generate a puzzle that shows your photos. Only public Flickr photos that have the Creative Commons Attribution license are used when generating a PhotoSoup puzzle, so you will not have to worry about copyright issues.

If you choose to provide the topic in Spanish, this works quite well although some words in English may appear too. However, when I tried this in French, the results were not as good and varied greatly according to the topic entered.

This is my attempt for the topic “transporte”