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North Dakota: Through the Eyes of Her Writers
Margaret Johnson
Rolla High School, Rolla, North Dakota
Subject: English
Grade: Secondary
"I believe almost any group of students would enjoy photography,
but students who normally dislike school seemed unusually receptive
and responsive to the unit."
Purpose and Description of Project
Margaret Johnson set as her goals acquainting students with North
Dakota writers and helping them to improve their writing skills.
To accomplish this, she designed a project during which her class
would read books by North Dakota writers and prepare a slide presentation,
with script, that illustrated the authors' views of life in the state.
Activities
Johnson assigned her students the books to read, and as they read,
they were to select quotes that seemed to exemplify what the authors
were saying about life in North Dakota. She gave her students
some basic instruction in taking photographs and encouraged them
to read further about photography techniques in the written materials
she provided. They then walked around town taking preliminary
photographs, noting as they went the subject, shutter speed, distance,
and weather conditions for each slide. After these slides were
processed, students were able to determine the best techniques
and conditions for taking the final slides.
Once students had completed their reading, selected their quotes,
and satisfactorily explained to Johnson what the authors were
saying, they were allowed to go on the field trips and photograph
appropriate subjects. Every student was involved in the photographic
activities. The script, incorporating the quotes and relating
them to the slides, was written and the commercially developed
slides sequenced for the presentation. Because some of the slides
did not turn out and there was no time to retake them, the final
script had to be modified.
Materials, Resources, and Expenses
Two outside resource persons assisted Johnson: the local librarian
who located books on photography and provided slide presentations
as models for the students to follow; and Johnson's husband, a
freelance photographer, who suggested ways of taking appropriate
pictures with a limited area, critiqued the preliminary slides,
and answered students' questions throughout the project.
The students shared 35 mm cameras provided by Johnson and several
of the students. Occasional use was made of the flash attachment
and/or zoom lens.
Outcomes and Adaptability
Johnson described many of the 12 students in her class as in need
of motivation to complete assigned work. She found this activity
particularly motivating. Photography interested them because it
was something different, and some students who "hated"
fiction were quite willing to read about photography. These students
enjoyed getting out of school on field trips, and because the
related coursework had to be completed before they could go on
the trips, they began finishing their work. The slides had to
be taken only in the local areas, so students sometimes had to
improvise, to think of creative ways to represent objects that
were unavailable for realistic photography. Johnson summarized
by saying that the unit's goals were accomplished and that photography
proved to be a valuable classroom tool.
Johnson characterized the project as relatively simple to implement.
She recommended taking the slides earlier in the course to allow
time for any necessary reshooting before the final script is written.
The activity could easily be adapted to a continuing project with
monthly field trips throughout the school year. This would allow
students to depict different seasons and, thus, different feelings.
Johnson states, "I would recommend a similar project to other
teachers, especially if they have difficult classes to teach."
She suggests, however, a maximum group size of 20, although sometimes
she found it difficult to oversee simultaneously her 12 students'
activities on the field trips.