I discovered an amazing way to teach how to describe images. Usually I introduce this with a lesson (here’s the history, context, best practices, etc) and students respond as if it’s a difficult skill. This time I did it differently (not really planning to). 1/

When giving the prompt for our introductions thread, I added the casual request, “and if you include an image, please describe it briefly.” Then I described my own user pic as an example and left it at that. 2/

To my surprise, students described their user pictures and also the extra images they added to the thread, with seeming ease and great skill. And they are still doing it in other threads. It’s just folded into our practices as a class now. 3/

So now, when I introduce the lesson on description, I can say, “and you’ve already been doing this really well! Here are some of the choices I see you making, etc etc.”

I’m surprised and excited. Also thanks to @ThatJBF for teaching me about using Slack! It’s easy and fun.