In my unit I am going to help my students use pictures as the subjects of their writing of narrative and expository essays. Both of these essays will be from a personal standpoint, and the students can write about something they know well. They will be able to create a picture in their audience's mind by using an actual picture to help them draw out details that are important.
Through this unit students will become interested and reenergized about their writing for the year. These ideas are going to be the way to help the students elaborate in their writing, which is what I think is stopping many of these students from being great writers. Two of the writing units that we work on during the school year are narrative writing and expository writing. When the students write their narrative pieces, they are asked to pick a person, place, or object that is special to them and write a personal narrative about that subject. When they are doing expository writing, they are to choose a topic on which they are already an expert and write a piece sharing what they know about the topic. In these two units I feel that the students would benefit greatly from having photographs of their subject or topic to help them elaborate in their writing. If they are able to look at their topic and feel a connection from a photograph that they are familiar with, I think their writing would grow immensely.
In writing this unit I address the subject of elaboration as it pertains to photojournalism because I want to find out how using pictures as an aid will help the students better elaborate in their writing. I will encourage the students to dig more deeply and also enjoy the art of writing. They will feel the same excitement they do when they tell a story out loud for all to hear as they do when they write down on paper a story about something that is meaningful to them. Through this they will feel the power of their voices through their words.
