African American History: A Photographic Record
Jacqueline Porter - Clinton
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Give FeedbackLesson III: Time Travel with Photographs
Purpose:
To gain a sense of what it was like to live in an historical period for African Americans. This lesson will be completed after each time period photograph discussion.
Objective:
The students will:
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· place themselves in a historical period using source material to get a sense of what it was to be African American that period.
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· write descriptive and accurate essay / journals about a historical period.
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· understand the historical perspective.
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· gather and use information for research purposes.
Time Frame:
2 -- 3 class periods
Materials:
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· Access to online photo collection
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· Reference materials
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· Essay Organizational Sheet
Procedure:
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1. Start a discussion on how do we know about the past. Possible responses are:
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reading past time periods, talking to people who lived in a certain time period, or looking at art, photography and film. (Only needs to take place at the beginning of the first time period slavery)
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2. Introduce the time period along with the photograph discussed in the unit that represents that period using Lesson I: Learning to Look as a guided discussion.
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3. Allowing students to chose a picture from an online collection as a point of focus for their essays / journals. ( This will be done after each time period)
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4. The students will gather information about their chosen period and about photography at that time. Questions to think about: Was camera ownership common? Why were photographs taken? Were photographs in magazines and/or newspapers? Based on the information gathered, students should placed themselves in the historical period and imagine how they would have responded to one of the photographs of that time.
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5. Have students write their essay / journal using the essay organizational structure worksheet. Students can adopt a perspectives while writing about the photograph for example: as it relates to an individual, a family, or the community.
Essay Organizational Structure
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· Opening Paragraph
Statement of place, identity and time period
Identification of photograph and initial response
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· Body ( three or four paragraphs: response and reason can be combined)
Description of photograph
Response to photograph
Reason for response
Historical Viewpoint
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· Conclusion
Summarization of Response