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Overview
The first lesson focused on setting up a safe and supportive classroom space for the program and included activities that led students to examine their personal use of photography. It also included activities and questions that support students to think more critically about how we read and respond to photographs. Building upon this new knowledge, this lesson will introduce students to the history of photography through the History of Photography StoryMap.
Essential Questions
● How has the ability to photograph informed how we record history over time?
● How do photographs communicate information?
● How can a photograph be powerful and while simultaneously limited as a tool of communication?
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
● Identify camera and photography technologies that have changed over time
● Articulate how these changes have shaped the images we see, for instance, by describing how the look of photographs has evolved over time
● Describe one new thing they learned about the history of photography
● Discuss one detail about contemporary photography with a partner
● Demonstrate their understanding of the glossary words by incorporating them into the group and class discussions
● Synthesize their new knowledge in order to make one projection about how photography will change or influence us in the next 100 years
Common Core State Standards
Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words
Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts
LRA Ed Glossary Board
● Archive: A collection of documents or records that, taken together, provide information about a people, place, institution, or other entity. Often, archives are used to understand a history or culture or aspects of a history or culture.
● Archivist: One who assembles and/or maintains the collection of documents or records.
● Photograph: An image made using a camera by recording light and rendering that into a visible and permanent record. Traditionally, cameras recorded onto light-sensitive material, such as chemically-treated analog film. Today, it is common to record digitally with digital cameras and smartphones.
● Photography: The practice of taking photographs.
● Photographer: A person who takes photographs. This term can imply that one does this as his/her/their professional job. But students can be photographers, too!
● Photojournalist: A journalist who documents and communicates news through photographs.
● Digital Photography: Images rendered through a process of using electronic/computing appliances to capture/create, and in some cases edit, still pictures.
Materials for Instructor
● LRA Ed History of Photography storymap
Materials for Students
● LRA Ed Journals
I. Introduction (10 min.)
Lead a short discussion with students about photography. Entry-point questions can include:
● How do you think people created images before the camera was invented?
● When do you think the camera was invented?
● Who do you think took the first photograph?
● What are some common uses of photography? (fashion, news, weddings, advertising, driver’s license/ID card)
● Can you imagine a world without photographs?
II. Lead students through the History of Photography storymap (12 min.)
The story map is subdivided in 6 sections:
1. Introduction
2. What is Photography?
3. Development of Photography
4. History of Photography Timeline
5. Vocabulary Box
For each section, ask students to write down one observation made or detail learned. Students can write their observations in their LRA Ed Journals.
III. Quick LRA Ed Journal Writing Activity (5 min.)
Invite students to share their journal entries or any thoughts they have about the storymap with the class. Lead the discussion using the popcorn method, jumping from student to student but not leading conversations.
Extension Activity: Pinhole Camera
Goals: Give students a glimpse into one aspect of the history of photography in a very hands-on way. This exercise allows students to understand how light bends/moves and how images can be created/recreated through optics.
Tell students: Many of you use digital cameras or have smartphone cameras, and you probably think of these as complex digital machines, which they are. But cameras don’t have to be complicated. In fact, you can make your own! This is called a pinhole camera. It might seem rudimentary compared to digital cameras. But this will show you how the principle of a camera works as you build your very own camera!
Possible websites with pinhole camera instructions:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-to-make-a-pinhole-camera
This one requires photo paper: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-A-Pinhole-Camera