Reading images is a versatile technique to use in science.

It gets pupils to extract information collaboratively from a picture or photo rather than from text. It makes a great opener for new units, or as a revision lesson.

Firstly, find an image which relates to your classwork. Reproduce the image on A4 and stick it on an A3 sheet.

Give small groups the image; ask them to spend 15 minutes annotating it; writing around it, vocabulary they associate with the image; science links they are seeing; questions it raises, or laws they see illustrated. They then give it a title. The whole class can have one image, or you can distribute several.

Groups give feedback and take questions. The technique works by fixing their understanding to an image for easier recall and consolidates their scientific vocabulary

Suzie Phillips is a science teacher at Bungay Middle School, Suffolk