Photo Essays for Change

Purpose: Recently our local government has made great efforts to redevelop and re-energize our inner-city community with excellent results. As our school is part of this re-development effort (located downtown and serving an inner-city population), it is important that our students understand the issues.

Our class chooses an area of our local community to document each year. Students explore the history of the community and create ties to things they might otherwise not understand fully.

Objectives:
1. students will have a basic understanding of the social,economic, and environmental issues the proposed development addresses.

2. students will learn basic photography techiniques.

3. students will learn basic photo-editing techniques.

4. students will learn the writing elements of introduction, conclusion, and transition in a visual sense and be able to apply that in written papers at a later date.

5. students will work together as a class team to create one cohesive photo essay, with a unified theme and pattern of organization.

Procedure:

Day One--
8-9am project orientation; anticipation guides, and note organizers passed out; "Basics of Photo-Essay" lesson.
9-10am "Understanding the Issues" lesson, a study of local newspaper articles to examine the local perspecitve and a study of credible magazine articles and websites to examine the global issues at hand.
10am-12pm Guest speaker-- local photography teacher presenting basic photography skills.
1-5pm Exploring the area to be documented on foot. This involves volunteer chaperones.

Day Two--
8-10 am photo-editing workshop with guest instructor
11am-12pm "Understanding Writning Elements" lesson-- what is necessary in an introduction? conclusion? transition? and why does organization matter?
1-3pm students work as a class team to organize chosen photos into a one-photo-per-student photo essay. Students will assign a title to their contributed photo and choose a title for the entire essay. Students will also offer captions and written transitions.

Over the weekend:
Photos will be printed, framed, and mounted in the school for display
Photos will be labeled with students' names and titles
Written transitions will be printed, mounted and hung in between photos as students have decided.

The following week is an art fair for our school and this essay will be on display. After a period of time on display at the shcool, the display will be lent to a local organization for public display.