Mary Lou L. Narowski
The hook of this unit will center on a consideration of journalistic and, sometimes, amateur photographs documenting the 9/11 attack on New York City. These images are dramatic, shocking, and powerful: the perfect hook for opening class periods. They evoke immediate and, sometimes, divisive responses. No introduction is necessary. In fact, it would actually be beneficial if nothing is explained ahead of time. In this way, students would have no preconceived ideas or prejudices to bring to bear on the discussion. Although some may not consider these photos art, in the finer sense of the word, they certainly can be used to develop correct syntax, to describe and demonstrate the elements and principles of design, and to show the human condition that is a large part of art.
Teachers will need to decide how to present the first photo. Will everyone get their own photograph? Will it be shown on an overhead projector? Will students use laptops to view it online, or will the picture be placed in the front of the room, large enough for all to see? It would probably be wise to use a combination of these presentations. If students have their own copies, they will be able to reflect on them at home. In this way, the alternative lessons suggested below could be real possibilities.
9/11 Photographs: Image One
The first shot I envision using is one in which firemen, policeman, and just average people are all working together heroically in an effort to save anyone they can. The image-one exercises should take two to three days. There are wonderful series of images from which to draw. The website http://911.navexpress.com offers one such group. Another site, http://nymag.com/news/articles/wtc/gallery/2.htm, has a sequential photo gallery entitled Days of Terror: A Photo Gallery. In a perfect world, I should be able to just ask my students, "What do you see?" much as Linda Friedlaender, from the British Arts Museum at Yale University, does when she conducts tours for students. In my inner-city class, however, students pay much less attention, so guided questioning might initially be needed. As my students view the image I have chosen, I will ask them to consider the first two questions below. These introductory questions will encourage them to observe only what they actually see in the picture. I will explain that no interpretation, conjecture, or analysis will be accepted. These questions will be a direct attempt to get them to name objects and people in the photo. If necessary, the remaining questions listed below will be used:
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What items do you see in the photo?
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Who are the people in the photo?
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Where are they?
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How are they dressed?
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Why are they dressed the way they are?
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Why are they in the photo?
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What emotions are expressed in their faces?
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What has happened to them?
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Initially this exercise will be a whole-group, oral discussion. Then, after recording their answers to these questions in a journal, my students will be able to discuss their thoughts about the story within the photo. Because this image will portray a story with such raw human emotion and since my students love drama, I know they will connect with the subjects and then be able to write about the heartbreaking scenes that they see. Through the step-by-step process of observing, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating the image as a group, my students will begin to see how to construct concrete meaning and extend their understanding of the image and the event. Teaming with a partner will encourage discussion and editing of their attempts at describing what they see. These skills are in keeping with both New Haven Goals and Objectives and the Connecticut State Standards.
Extended Activities: Optional
A secondary exercise that I might consider is having my students walk in the shoes of someone in the first photograph. Taking this first-person look might really strike home for some of my students. Here, I would ask my students to choose one of the people in the photo and imagine what his life was like before and after 9/11. Partnering can again be used. Connecting to a real-life situation in this way may help with the higher-order thinking questions on the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) that ask students to make personal connections and reflect on a story. There are many personal memoirs of survivors and people who helped during this tragedy. The following websites contain a few of these stories, and they are well worth having my students read as they begin editing their own stories:
http://invisiblog.wordpress.com/2006/09/11/a-short-memoir-of-911/
http://www.memoryarchive.org/en/Category:9/11 These personal stories might provide insight into the thoughts and actions of the victims and their families, also giving students a broader use of descriptive words and phrases as they search for ways to express tragedy and grief.
A third option would be to discuss the differences brought to bear on the various ways in which the picture can be presented. What are the benefits or drawbacks to viewing the photo on line or on the overhead? Does having an individual copy of the photo have any impact on the interpretation of the image? Does the image capture the real story of the day? Are there differences in the quality of the shot? Would this have any influence in the discussion of its meaning?
Image Two
The next image I will present will be of a plane as it struck one of the Twin Towers. This activity should span a day or two. Using the organizer below, I will ask my students to list as many actions as they imagine the photo suggests. My belief is that they will choose strong action words because of the content of the image. Next, I will ask them to describe the action. The intention is to generate a list of adverbs to accompany the verbs listed. A third column will ask that students now put the two words into a meaningful sentence. After completion of the sentence, I will try to get my students to focus on verb tense. Because our world language teacher spends time on exercises of verb tenses and agreement, my students will understand the concept and recognize it as reinforcement of the correct syntactical placement of two parts of speech: verb/adverb.
Extended Activity: Optional
An extended and stimulating activity would be to ask my students to act as reporters and eyewitnesses to the event, describing the sounds, sights, and actions they heard that day. This might actually be a very powerful experience for the class. They might even do a local evening-news broadcast, reporting on the horrors of the day. The exercises using this second image have my students seeing, speaking, writing, reading, and editing, all skills necessary for employing English by using appropriate syntax.
Image Three
A third photo will be one chosen for the complexity of its composition. The exercise I envision will require that my students list as many items (nouns) as they can find in the picture. Once they are finished with the list, I will ask them to then place descriptors (adjectives) beside each item listed. A simple graphic organizer similar to the one above would help in doing this exercise because, again, it will highlight the difference between the placement of adjective and noun in Spanish and English. It must be noted that the nouns appear in the middle column, the adjectives in column one. Hopefully, students will "see" and then understand the difference in adjective placement.
This photo will also afford my students the opportunity to complete the following prompts:
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It is crucial that … why?
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It is important to remember that… why?
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It is recommended that… why?
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It would be a good idea that… why?
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It is my hope that these prompts will lead them to generate a series of reflections and questions on their own. The question why following each of the prompts above, is crucial. The why must be answered with evidence from the photograph. It will be my hope that some of the students may actually do some independent research and report back on their findings.
The final use of this image will be to provide impetus for creating a makeshift bulletin board of random items that were so often seen in the hours and days after the attacks as family members looked for any sign of their loved ones and pictures of those missing were pinned up in hopes of finding them. These bulletin boards arose on every corner in New York. This activity encourages an authentic learning experience. Perhaps I will bring back our "reporters" from the previous exercise to continue our journalistic experience. The time frame for this exercise will be two days.
Final Images
The final images in this section will be a series of photos showing the sequencing of the events of 9/11. These lessons will span approximately six days and will act as a way of introducing the elements and principles of art and design as well as parts of speech and syntactical usage. The elements of art -- shape, line, direction, size, texture, color, and value--are easily observed in these photos. The first photos I will use will be of the skyline of New York including the World Trade Center before the attack. It will be necessary to conduct a teacher-guided lesson as students complete this assignment because these terms will either need to be introduced or information about them reinforced. Developing a word wall with removable Velcro-backed strips will greatly assist in this process. My students will be asked to describe the shapes they observe in the photos, shapes such as squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles. It should be noted that these shapes are two dimensional in the photos. They are flat. In real life, these shapes become three-dimensional figures such as cubes, spheres, cuboids, cylinders, and cones. Having two-dimensional shapes drawn on paper as well as three-dimensional shapes available for the students to observe would facilitate understanding.
In an effort to understand line, I will direct my students' eyes to areas where line can be observed. Lines can define a space, create an outline or pattern, imply movement or texture and suggest mass or volume. I will present both color and black-and-white versions of the same picture so as to help students understand value or luminance, a term used by Dr. Margaret Livingstone, noted Harvard neurophysiologist,a4a
to describe this element. Again, consideration will have to given to the presentation of these photos. In this case, I will show these shots on an overhead projector so that a pointer can be used to guide the students' eye to the specifics of line, shape, and direction.
When introducing texture, it would be very helpful to have different cloth and building materials of different textures available for my students to feel. Local fabric stores freely give out swatches of material, and home improvement stores will supply scraps of building materials for this purpose. Listing the names for the different textures would expand students' vocabulary. We can then point out the different surfaces present in the buildings. Again it would be worth noting that in my school these elements are discussed in our art classes. If they are not taught in other school systems, more attention and time can be spent on this activity.
Next, the principles of design will be presented. Balance, gradation, repetition, contrast, harmony, dominance, and unity can be easily understood if my students are asked to do a city rendering using the photo and the definition page as a guide. A simple and effective reference sheet with definitions can be found at http://www.johnlovett.com/test.htm. Graphite, charcoal, or pastel can be used as the medium to complete this exercise. The "artists" in the group can complete these series of city renderings. After the completion of this exercise, I will ask my students to label their drawings using the "vocabulary of art terms," then ask for volunteers to explain what they have done, encouraging them to use the new vocabulary they have just learned. In this way, students have not only been introduced to these principles, but they have used them in a drawing and commented on them in their description of their picture. Because the focus will be on describing their drawings and not correct syntax, it should be a safe, low-stress activity. Again, these exercises are directly correlated to one of New Haven's CMT (Connecticut Mastery Test) Goals and Objectives: "Forming a general understanding; understanding the text's general content." It is important to note that the understanding here comes, not from written text, but rather from the image. It is my belief that if my students can "read" the images, ones which make impressions on them, they will be more likely to want to write about them. An added assignment might be to choose a favorite photo and write a reflective piece defending their thoughts about the image.