Every Picture Tells a Story:
"Read" photographs for clues about children's toys, dolls or games from long ago.

Related Curriculum Framework Benchmarks for Michigan Teachers

Objectives:

• "Read" photographs for clues about the past.
  
  
• Use these clues to find and construct their own meaning or ideas about children in the past.
  
  
• Compare and contrast their childhood with those of children from the past.
  
  

• Selected downloaded and printed images from the collections of The Henry Ford. For choices see our list of suggested images.

• Because students enjoy learning about their teacher's life outside of the classroom, start this lesson with a photograph of yourself as a child with a favorite toy, doll or game or invite another adult in your school building (principal, teacher, secretary, etc.) to do so. You may wish to make an enlarged photocopy of this photograph so that it can be easily viewed, handled and passed around.
  
  
• Ask students to generate a long list of who, what, where, when, why and how questions about this photograph. Record all their questions on a flip chart or black board. Questions might include:
  
  • Who is in this photograph?
    
  • Where was it taken?
    
  • When do you think this photograph was taken?
    
  • Why was this photograph taken? etc.
    
  
  
• Discuss with students:
  
  • How many of these questions can they answer just by looking at the photograph?
    
  • How many questions can only be answered by asking those pictured in the photograph?
    
  • How much guesswork or detective work is involved in "reading" photographs for clues about the past? etc.
  
  
• Use the questions students have generated to develop a "Reading" a Photograph Questionnaire for examining the online or downloaded and printed photos of children with toys, dolls or games from the collections of The Henry Ford (see list of suggested images).
  
  
• Share and review the results of their "reading." Ask students to identify what is the same and what is different between the children pictured in these photographs from long ago and their lives today.

• Recreate a diary about children from long ago using the online photographs. Incorporate what the students have learned or imagined about these children's lives based on what they have "read" in the photographs.

• Develop an exhibit of students' family photographs that show aspects of childhood in the 21st century.
  
  
• Use books to examine the photographs of children from a variety of countries and cultures. Some choices include:
  
  • Children Just Like Me, by Susan Elizabeth Copsey, Barnabus Kindersley and Anabel Kindersley.
    
  • Children Just Like Me: Celebrations, by Barnabus, Anabel and Dorling Kindersley.
    
  • Children from Australia to Zimbabwe: A Photographic Journey Around the World, by Maya Amerja, Anna Rheasa Versola and Marian Wright Edelman.