I recently had a parent ask me if there is something like a dictionary of facial expressions that could be used to teach how to interpret people's emotions. The only resources I could recall did not have the level of detail I wanted. Sure, there are picture books that label drawings or photos of people looking sad, glad, or mad... but no resource I know answers the question, "WHAT makes this face sad but that face mad?"
I want something that can show students a variety of facial expressions while at the same time highlighting the details about each expression that make it unique. Enter my new favorite Web 2.0 tool: Thinglink. This tool is online, free, and easy to use!
First, I wanted to collect some facial expressions. Thank you, Creative Commons. I did a quick search for 'angry face' and found a great photograph of an expressive child. When I uploaded the photo to Thinglink, it took no more than one minute to turn the photo into a teaching tool for my students.
Anywhere you click on the image, you will place a 'tag.' There are many kinds of tags available, but I only needed the text tag for my purposes. I tagged each of the parts of the angry face that I wanted students to notice, and I labeled the characteristic that helps us identify the feeling that person may be having.
Now, I can have a student look at the face and use the computer's mouse to see what each tag tells us about that face. Thinglink provides the ability to create a profile for each student. Even if the student does not have their own email address, Thinglink will provide an email address for use with the program... they've thought of everything!
I'm excited to pilot this with a few students to see if it is worth developing a catalogue of labeled faces. It even looks like it would be easy to share the resources I develop with parents who would like to practice with their students at home. So cool. Thank you Thinglink.
Sharon this is a great use of the tool! I'm going to pass this on to our teachers that are using Second Step!
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