This seventeen-day unit is designed for students in sixth grade to analyze photographs, interpret them, and respond in their response logs, prompted by
Response Starters
(Appendix 2). At the end of each lesson, they will use their journals to summarize in a paragraph what they learned. This unit can easily be adapted /modified to meet your needs. It is inter-disciplinary -- Writing and Social Studies. (1)
The first lesson will be targeted towards building background of the unit by activating prior knowledge of students. The method will be direct instruction, outlining the subject of photography. I will make charts to display the photographs that we will study in this unit-- photographs of people, historical events, environment, architecture, cityscapes, landscapes, group portraits, occupational portraits--and ask the students to give suitable captions for each photograph. Students will be exposed to a variety of photographs and be encouraged to translate what they observe into good writing. I will ask them if they own cameras and if they have taken pictures. What kind of cameras have they used? What was their purpose in taking pictures? Students will brainstorm ideas using a word web and do a quick write on "a world without photography." We will discuss how images are formed by the reflection of light and furnish evidence of the objects they capture. We will trace the history of photography since its invention in 1839 to the advance of photographic technology, from the Kodak cameras of the late 19th century to today's ordinary camera/zoom/ flash/digital/ video. We will probe into how images were preserved before the introduction of photography--stones, clay, papyrus, drawings, and paintings. Students will talk about the different kinds of photographs -- daguerreotypes, color, black and white, and respond to essential questions such as--Why is photography important? What are the qualities of a good photo? Why are photos important in newspapers and magazines? Do photographs conjure a world of reality or fantasy? Can you identify the time period by looking at the style of clothes or the architecture of buildings? Are photographs social documents? Why do some photographers focus on a specific subject like nature, whereas others photograph people, objects, and activities? Are the images literal or symbolic? What are the similarities and differences between art and photography? (students can use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast) Are the figures posed or spontaneous? Is it action packed? What is the range of emotions? Is the picture powerful? Is the image focused sharply or blurred? What about the background? We will discuss the specific vocabulary relevant to photographs--aesthetic composition, material construction, content, theme, subject, design, juxtaposition of light and dark, shadow, reflection, contrast between foreground and background, visual effect, patterns, symmetry, urban, rural, organic shape, objective, intention, shapes, repetition, texture, balance, central focus, color, setting, symbol, appeal, diagonals, contours, horizontal, columns, vertical, and others.
I will introduce two daguerreotypes (1853) of two occupational portraits in the second lesson (Detailed Lesson Plan one).One is of the seamstress (Figure A)-- which is one of the few surviving visual documents of working women in U.S. before the civil war. The other is the telegrapher (figure B)
