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Summary and Objective
By closely examining four photographs in the Digital Collection of the PVMA American Centuries web site, depicting daily life at the turn of the 19th century, students will understand that photographs provide documentation of historical periods. Students will formulate as many questions about each photograph as possible. They will then discriminate whether a question CAN be answered, based on the photograph's accompanying text. For those questions that can be answered, the students will record answers. This provides practice with expressive language skills, critical thinking, reading and writing within the context of an exploration of a historical period.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Hand out copies of the photograph, "Boy in a Skeleton Suit", with no text or information. On the blackboard, label one section "Questions" and one "Answers".
Step 2.
List questions that students pose. Examples include: What is the boy's name? How long ago was this photograph taken? Does that hoop belong to him? Is the boy alive today? Did his mother make him wear that suit? What is the hoop made of? What time of year is it?
Step 3.
Model asking questions that have factual, literal answers versus inferential questions with surmised answers, to help students distinguish between the two types.
Step 4.
Provide accompanying text and ask the students to generate additional questions from that information.
Step 5.
Have the students identify which questions CAN be answered; mark those with a star. Have students answer the questions; record the answers on the board.
Step 6.
Provide copies of the remaining three photographs: "On the way to School", "Mary, Mabel and Frank Colcord", "Hockanum Ferry".
Step 7.
Have students select one photograph and record their questions on a teacher-made form. After 10-15 minutes, provide the accompanying text and have students formulate more questions. Students will star those questions that they think can be answered.
Step 8.
Optional post-activity: Have students exchange papers and attempt to answer each other's questions using the web site text accompanying the photograph. Conduct a whole group discussion about what they learned about daily life at the turn of the 19th century.
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