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Interpreting pictures is an essential technique in the social sciences. Pictures can be either photographs, paintings, drawings, caricatures, etc. Documents like pictures reflect the societies that produce them.
Interpreting pictures is an essential technique in the social sciences. Pictures can be either photographs, paintings, drawings, caricatures, etc. Documents like pictures reflect the societies that produce them.
www.learnquebec.ca
Thinking Strategies - Activate - Interpreting Pictures.pdfInterpreting Pictures
Interpreting Pictures
1. Build Background Knowledge
1. Build Background Knowledge
Do students know what a wetland looks like before we launch into that unit? Post a photo on the big screen and zoom in on the details. Have students list off what they see and write a list alongside the photo. Be sure to invite students to think about rich vocabulary that extends beyond nouns. What verbs, adjectives, mood, etc. could be used to describe a wetland?
2. Create Interest in a New Topic
2. Create Interest in a New Topic
How can we get students interested in the Aztecs - something they probably know very little about? Find an intriguing picture, e,g., an Aztec sacrifice! Start by posing your own questions and then invite students to ask questions. What are the Aztecs wearing? What are they doing? What can we infer about their beliefs, their climate, etc.? Extension idea: send students off to do a mini-inquiry about one question they had and then share back what they learned.
3. Look With a Critical Eye
3. Look With a Critical Eye
Show students how to look closely at details and interpret a photo. Where is it? When is it? Who is in it? What details stand out? Is there a mood or tone being conveyed? Is it posed, contrived or spontaneous?
4. Generate questions
4. Generate questions
Use images to spark thinking, ask questions and/or brainstorm about a topic. Their ideas could spin off into a mini-inquiry project, writing task or simply get them thinking more deeply about a concept.
TIP! Model viewing strategies for students. Share with students how you interpret images. Talk about what you noticed and are wondering about and have them practice in small groups before you expect them to be able to do it on their own.
TIP! Model viewing strategies for students. Share with students how you interpret images. Talk about what you noticed and are wondering about and have them practice in small groups before you expect them to be able to do it on their own.
Each day, our students are bombarded with the visual images of TV and video games. In contrast, most students view reading as a passive activity. But visualization can transform students of all ages from passive to active readers; visualization can help students cross the boundary to improved comprehension.
Each day, our students are bombarded with the visual images of TV and video games. In contrast, most students view reading as a passive activity. But visualization can transform students of all ages from passive to active readers; visualization can help students cross the boundary to improved comprehension.
Post: Cathy Puett Miller, Education World
Visualizing
Visualizing
Blog Post: Opening the Door: Teaching Students to Use Visualization to Improve Comprehension - This blog offers tips on how to do a Shared Visualization, Drawing after reading and a few other extension ideas.
Guided Imagery - Step by Step description.
Visualizing makes it easier for students to understand the text because they are looking beyond the words and creating images that help them understand the text. This site provides tips on Teaching Visual Imagery and a few sample lessons.
The reader begins to imagine much more than what has been written on the page. All their schema and inference skills come together and they create a world in their mind for the characters to live and the story to take place. Good readers don't just read their stories, they live their stories.
The reader begins to imagine much more than what has been written on the page. All their schema and inference skills come together and they create a world in their mind for the characters to live and the story to take place. Good readers don't just read their stories, they live their stories.
Blog: The Teaching Thief
Within the Curriculum
Within the Curriculum
ELA:
- Visualize the setting for a story.
- Demonstrate understanding of plot by putting a series of images in order.
- Provide a series of story images and predict how it will end.
- Develop media awareness skills by looking at what is portrayed in images. What is real? What is manipulated? What effects, symbols and words are strategically used?
Social Studies:
- Analyze historical photos.
- Visualize setting of historical and current events. Look for changes across time.
- Interpret political cartoons.
- Use a critical lens when viewing images. Look for perspective, bias, source, intended message, etc.
Science:
- Use images to build background knowledge.
- Study cause and effect.
- Predict what happens next.
- Visualize scientific principles at work.
Math:
- Visualize word problems.
- Help students learn to picture different ways of representing shapes, amounts, equivalencies and numeric concepts.
CTS - Foods & Fashion:
- Visualize a step by step process.
- Study pictures to see what student in scene is doing right or wrong (review correct procedures).
Art:
- Analyze a series of images to identify style, artistic elements, media, artist technique, mood, etc.
PE:
- Use pictures to reinforce a step by step understanding of new skills to be developed.
- Coach students on how to visualize a successful performance. Use images to identify muscle groups and guide exercise.
Extension Ideas
Extension Ideas
- Link viewing to other language strands such as speaking, writing and representing.
- Have students spend time interpreting pictures. Tasks could include writing a caption, adding speech bubbles, comparing images, predicting what came before or after, creating a backstory for a person in the image, etc. More ideas can be found here.
- https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/bringing-history-life - This strategy guides students to study a set of photos and recreate a freeze frame live performance of the photos - students interpret how people in the photo were feeling, what was going on around them and they can add music to evoke an emotional response.
- Start to incorporate icons in lessons and notes to help improve students’ ability to scan, understand and remember what they have read - https://www.edutopia.org/blog/design-101-icons-jason-cranford-teague
- Teach students how to do sketchnoting to create a personal visual story as they are learning. Visit Kathy Schrock's Guide to Sketchnoting for more information.
Tech Links
Tech Links
MATH
- Blog sharing how creating visual representations can open up understanding in Math: https://www.edutopia.org/article/power-visualization-math
ELA
- Daily photo prompt with teaching ideas below each image - http://www.pobble365.com
- ELA Video (6 min) – ELA teacher modeling how to Visualize while reading through the use of a Double Entry Chart. On left side, students write what the author says. On the right side, they draw what they are visualizing. https://youtu.be/h5p3oTmQc50
SOCIAL STUDIES – Analyzing Historical Photos:
- http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/ssmt/html/docs/interpretingandreinterpretingimages.pdf
- https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/sscanic/html/index.html - SS Images Collection K- 8
- https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/wp-content/mcme-uploads/2014/07/4-a-3-all_e.pdf
- https://www.archives.gov/files/education/lessons/worksheets/photo_analysis_worksheet.pdf
- http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Photographs_and_Prints.pdf
- http://www.virginiahistory.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resources_mllworksheet.pdf
MEDIA LITERACY
- http://www.iste.org/docs/excerpts/medlit-excerpt.pdf - excerpt from 2012 ISTE Book, Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom. Ideas for questioning photos, interpreting magazine covers, looking at cartoons, etc.
- http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ccia-10-visual-literacy-strategies-todd-finley - This blog features practical strategies to develop visual literacy and getting students thinking beyond the literal sense of the image and start to consider the deeper meanings behind how and why the images were constructed.
- http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/lesson-plans/whats-going-on-in-this-picture/ - Every week, the New York Times posts an interesting photo and invites class responses about what they see. On Friday, they share actual details about the photo.
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