Image Analysis Archives - Social Studies Success

The Importance of Global Citizenship

Fri, 06 May 2016 22:16:00 +0000

“Not here – not me.” In our fast-paced and connected world, the actions and events thousands of miles away impact you. And in reverse, your actions can impact them. Why is Social Studies important in today’s world? Why is Global Citizenship important?

The Importance of Global Citizenship

As global events impact local life, students need to not only be aware of these events, but also how their actions can impact others. Global Citizenship encourages children and young people to care about the planet and people locally and globally. Students are challenged to explore, develop and express their own values and opinions, while listening to and respecting other people’s points of view.

According to Oxfam Developmental Education,

Global Citizenship is …

· asking questions and developing critical thinking skills

· equipping young people with knowledge, skills and values to participate as active citizens

· acknowledging the complexity of global issues

· revealing the global as part of everyday local life, whether in a small village or a large city

· understanding how we relate to the environment and to each other as human beings.

Teachers are in the unique position of being social change agents and creating students able to function in an interconnected world. According to Audrey Osler, the director of the Center for Citizenship and Human Rights Education, “Education for living together in an interdependent world is not an optional extra, but an essential foundation.”

But how do you teach Global Citizenship?

Global Citizenship focuses on the decision making abilities of the students we teach. You can include discussion and debate, role-play, and ranking exercises. Using these type of activities will encourage children to learn about how people in other parts of the world affect our lives, just as our decisions affect the lives of others.

Teachers can use different strategies when focusing on Global Citizenship. The use of photographs is essential allowing students to connect to those in different parts of the world. You can use these strategies with photographs:

Changing Situations

Looking carefully at a photograph, discuss with the children what they think is happening. Then, encouraging think about what might have happened before the photograph was taken and what might happen afterwards. Encourage them to justify what they say.

Use photographs and writing activities to teach Global Citizenship.

Beyond the Frame

Stick a photograph in the middle of a very large sheet of paper. Look carefully at the image and discuss what is in it. What might lie beyond its borders? After discussion, each child in the group can help to write or draw on the paper, around the image, what the group has agreed lies beyond the frame.

Photographs can be used to teach empathy.

Links and Commonalities

Show the children a picture of someone in another country. Ask them to think of all the commonalities and links between their lives and the life of the person in the picture.

I hope you enjoy using a few of these strategies!

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Using Act-It-Outs to Make History Come Alive!

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 14:21:00 +0000

One of my favorite teaching strategies is a Visual Discovery – part of which is due to the excitement students find in conducting an act-it-out! I am fortunate enough to have Heidi Boles guest post for me with a photo, video and a description of conducting an act-it-out in her 8th grade US History class.

Social Studies can be fun with these teaching strategies!

“As a part of our study of European Exploration and Settlements, my class participated in an act-it-out.

We began by dissecting an image of Christopher Columbus claiming San Salvador. Students pointed out details in the image and made predictions about the history of the event based on the clues found in those details.

After dissecting the image, we wanted to learn more, so we turned to our textbooks and read about Columbus and his adventures. We found out that he wasn’t looking for North America at all! He was really searching for a faster route to Asia…but stumbled upon the New World by accident. Columbus never knew about his amazing discovery. Until the day he died, he believed what he had found was eastern Asia. Wow!

Check out the video and pictures of us! Learning history can be fun when you make it come alive!”

In addition to the “Roving Reporter” method of act-it-outs, try these other styles from History Alive!

Scripted Act-It-Outs

· Scripted act-it-outs work well at the beginning of the year as you introduce the activity to your students. The first few times you may want to hand pick the actors.

· Prepare a simple script that each actor can read to bring the image to life. You may want to include blank space or lines in the scripts where actors must insert appropriate information from the reading and their notes.

Act-It-Outs with Role Cards

· As you students have experienced success with scripted act-it-outs, you may move on to role cards for the actors. You may want to continue hand picking actors then start taking volunteers.

· The role card tells the actor a name and a brief explanation of who the character is. The card should provide some cues to help the actors prepare for their roles and accurately represent their characters. Provide the actors with the role cards when you begin the visual discovery and before the related reading so students can be thinking in terms of their characters.

Talking Statues Act-It-Outs

· Talking statues works well for images with a large number of characters or especially poignant moments in time. Images with non-talking characters lend themselves to talking statues.

· Tell the students to imagine what their character is thinking or feeling at that moment and “freeze” into position. One by one, touch each actor on the shoulder to bring them to life. The statue can say its part then freeze back into position.

Group Presentation Act-It-Outs

· Work well when you have multiple images for a lesson and you want every student to have the opportunity to be in an act-it-out.

· Put the students in small groups and assign each group a character in the image. The number of students in each group is dictated by the number of images. Provide them with a set of questions everyone should be able to answer from the perspective of their character. Allow the groups time to prepare, then chose an actor or take a volunteer from each group. You assume the role of an on-scene reporter and interview the characters.

Impromptu Act-It-Outs

· As you students become “old hands” and confident with act-it-outs, the impromptu style allows the students to spontaneously interact with the image in a less structured format.

· After the class has analyzed a dramatic image, allow volunteers to step into the image with their notes, if necessary. You or a student will assume the role of on-scene reporter and interview the characters.

· If the scene can be “read” easily, have volunteers step into the image before the related reading to further pique student interest.

I have many different lessons using act-it-outs. You can find them in my Conquistador activity, or easily add them to my lesson on the French Revolution or the Mexican American War.

Enjoy!

The post Using Act-It-Outs to Make History Come Alive! appeared first on Social Studies Success.

Artifact Introduction

Sun, 21 Jun 2015 17:51:00 +0000

The first day of school can be overwhelming and exhausting – you are getting to know your kids, and your kids are getting to know you. Try this fun idea for an introduction with primary sources – your primary sources. This is called an Artifact Introduction. I use this with both my students and the adults I teach in workshops, and everybody loves it. What is even more fun is listening to the conversations as they try to figure out the details of your life.

I start out putting the kids into groups of 3 or 4. I give each group an large brown envelope and just tell them that their job is to find out as many details as they can about the individual in the envelope. (I don’t tell them that it is me.)

Inside of the envelope I have artifacts that make up the story of my life. I have put copies of my old certificates, letters of acceptance to my colleges, souvenirs from a few of my trips and even a picture of painting I made in 7th grade! When they open up the envelope it looks a little like this –

They begin to sort out the artifacts. I guide them by giving them a timeline and asking to put the artifacts in chronological order (as best they can) and to see what they can learn from each artifact.

As they sort the artifacts, they start to get a picture of my life – where I have been, what I have done, what my personality is like…

The next step is to have my students make inferences about the artifacts. What does each one show? What can they learn? It is neat to listen to them say statements like “Well I know she is artistic, because she likes to draw…” or “She is smart in math because I see a math award…” (that one is not true by the way!!!

As they compete their inferences we have a brief discussion – What facts do you know about this individual? What inferences? What have you learned about this individual? What do you have in common? What is different? How did you learn these facts and inferences? After we have discussed what they have learned, I challenge them to either create a character collage on me – or even better – make their own artifact envelope to bring to school to share.

With just a little bit of prep, you have an amazing lesson to start off the school year – student focused, engaging and full of higher level thinking skills! The added bonus – you have just introduced primary sources in a manageable lesson

Have fun on your first day of school!

Like the lesson? You can find it here:

Artifact Introduction

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Beyond the Frame

Tue, 12 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How do you get your students to see beyond the surface level of a topic? Do you ever just give a picture to your students and have them talk about it? Analyze it? Beyond the Frame is a super quick strategy to start off discussion in your class.

Take a provocative picture and glue it in the center of a sheet of chart paper. Place your students into small groups of 3 or 4. Give each student a sheet of chart paper with the image in the center. Challenge students to brainstorm what they would see “beyond the frame” – what is happening just outside of the image?

Your students can then respond to your question by either drawing the rest of the picture, or writing down sentences or phrases to describe what they would of seen.

You could ask them simple spiral questions like: What do you see? Where do you think this image takes place? What is happening before the image? After?

The post Beyond the Frame appeared first on Social Studies Success.

Reconstruction: How Free Are We?

Tue, 05 May 2015 23:00:00 +0000

“[A]s you grow a little older, you begin to feel that you are under siege.”

What do your student’s know about Reconstruction? Have they had a chance to discuss in detail the differences between life during Reconstruction and life during slavery – was there much of a difference?

Your students can learn about the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments in this activity as they examine the essential question “What impact did these amendments have on the African American community during Reconstruction?” How free did slaves become after the Civil War? Were they granted instant equality, or did systems like sharecropping exist that kept this community from full equality?

Your students will examine primary source photos, read sharecropping contracts and analyze how Reconstruction failed and succeeded in the United States. A presentation, lesson plan and readings will guide you through the lesson.

Check it out in my TPT store
Reconstruction – How free are we?

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Analyzing Primary Sources in Social Studies

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 02:00:00 +0000

Analyzing primary sources is one of the key skills in Social Studies instruction. Do you have the tools it takes to actually teach it? There are many different graphic organizers and strategies to analyze primary sources – but my favorite has to be those that are used on images. I have created a list of questions to ask when students are analyzing an image. These questions can be used on any image – try them out for yourself with the pictures below!

Image Analysis Guiding Questions

OBSERVE: Identify and note details

• What type of image is this (photo, painting, illustration, poster, etc.)?
• What do you notice first? Describe what else you see.
• What’s happening in the image?
• What people and objects are shown? How are they arranged? How do they relate to each other?
• What is the physical setting? Is place important?
• What, if any, words do you see?
• Are there details that suggest the time period this image relates to?
• What other details can you see?

REFLECT: Generate and test hypotheses

• Why do you think this image was made? What might have been the creator’s purpose? What evidence supports your theory?
• Why do you think the creator chose to include these particular details? What might have been left out of the frame?
• Who do you think was the audience for this image?
• What do you think the creator might have wanted the audience to think or feel?
• What do you feel when looking at this image?
• Does this image show clear bias? If so, towards what or whom? What evidence supports your conclusion?
• What was happening during the time period this image represents? If someone made this image today, what would be different/the same?
• What did you learn from examining this image? Does any new information you learned contradict or support your prior knowledge about the topic or theme of this image?

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