Portfolio Post #5 -A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

In this post you will find a Grade 10 lesson plan which outlines how a teacher can use photographs to engage students. I have since done some reading on the use of primary documents in the classroom, and I think that photographs are a fabulous resource! Students can explore what society, people, and different events actually looked like, make inferences about the situations presented in the photographs, and complete a number of activities regarding who/what is in the photograph, why are they/is it in the photo, and what are the events surrounding it/why is it significant? Some of my peers posed a few questions to me about revisions that I would make to this which I will include at the end of the post.

Grade 10 - Photograph Lesson

Expectations: analyse the changing relationship between English Canada and Quebec, with a focus on the evolution of language policy and constitutional issues, describe the major events that have contributed to the growth of Quebec nationalism and the separatist movement in Quebec

Think Literacy strategy: Find & Support the Main Idea

Introduction/Warm-up: Think, Pair, Share activation of prior knowledge. Students write in point form what they already know about Quebec separatism, share what this with a partner, then share their APKs with the class.

Activity Option 1: The picture below will be placed on a projector screen for the whole class to see. Each student will identify their interpretation of the main idea of the photograph and write key points to support this idea. Students will swap their key points with a partner who will rearrange the ideas into a full paragraph, then compare ideas with their partner.

Activity Option 2: The picture below will be placed on a projector screen for the whole class to see. Each student will choose a person in the photograph and write a journal entry about their personal reasoning behind their appearance in this photograph at this place in time. Students will choose a main reason and support that using historically plausible points. Students will then gather in groups of 4 or 5 in a mock rally meeting to explain their reasons for being there.

Wrap-up: Each group/set of partners will present their key points to the class as a whole and the class will discuss who was involved in the Quebec separatist movement and what their motivations were.

This is a photo from the 1980 Quebec Referendum which I found here.

Revisions:

One of my peers asked how much prior knowledge students would need to complete this assignment; after giving it some thought, I decided that this assignment would probably be placed mid-unit so as to consolidate the learning that has happened, but also to whet the educational appetite for the rest of the unit, which could cover issues closer to the present.

Another of my peers suggested that this lesson could be extended so that, in the next lesson, students could pick their own photograph (perhaps from a focused relevant selection) of a historical figure or event and write about them/it. I like this idea and I think that I will keep it as a back-pocket idea, perhaps not as an extension to this lesson, but the beginning of another? These photograph activities could be a great way to have students learn about working with historical documents and develop their historical inquiry skills. 

Other modifications included the use of video and the interpretation of the photograph from the perspective of the photographer.