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¡Mira, mira!

Darlene Roker
Vermont Avenue School, Los Angeles, California

Subject: Language Arts
Grade: 4

"The most important evaluation came from the students. They repeatedly showed more interest in completing their project components than in leaving the classroom for recess!"

Purpose and Description of Project

Darlene Roker used the magic of the camera to reach out to a class of inner-city youngsters who were about 95 percent minority and 25 percent limited or non-English speaking. Her goals were "to improve cultural awareness among classmates, increase language skills and English proficiency, and heighten the self-esteem" of these children, who frequently suffer academic difficulties and social isolation.

Roker had her students photograph their families and aspects of their homelife, write about their photographs, and create "family albums" to share with the class, and even she was startled by the results. The youngsters did indeed learn to write grammatically correct sentences and paragraphs as well as to recognize and take quality photographs. They also gained measurably in self-confidence and positive perceptions of others.

"What I did not expect," remarks the teacher, "was their ongoing enthusiasm for all parts of the program- not just the photography." As an example, she cites the child who was a two-year-below-grade-level reader and who rarely finished an assignment "but who held up the class one day at recess when he insisted on completing just this one sentence."

Activities

Roker began ¡Mira, mira! (which means "Look, look!") by teaching the students some basics of photography with her 35 mm camera and one of the simple cameras she had purchased for the class.

Among the charts she put on display was one of compositional factors, along with illustrative photos of her own and from magazines; one showing some of her photographic goofs and asking "What's Wrong with This Picture?" and one comparing two shots of the same scenes (also personal photos) so that the children could choose the better photo in each case.

Actual camera experience began with the children pairing off to photograph each other, and these pictures were also made into a wall chart for class analysis. At this point, Roker began sending cameras home with the youngsters on a rotating overnight basis so that they could take the family pictures that would make up their albums.

During their study of syntax and grammar, the students wrote about photos provided by Roker from her files. They progressed from writing sentences describing photos of active children to constructing paragraphs drawn from their questions and answers about the photos based on the journalistic "who, what, where, when, why, and how." These exercises were done both singly and in groups.

The children laid out their photos and glued down the captions below the corresponding photos. They used picture corners and a folded piece of 12" x 18" construction paper to make the albums. When the albums were completed, each child sat before the group, showed each picture, and then selected one favorite photo to discuss at length. "By not requiring them to share too much," reports the teacher, "I lessened their fears and was able to get all 27 children to report, no little feat in itself."

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

A young freelance photographer talked to the children about the excitement of photographing celebrities and took a picture of each child for him or her to keep.

Outcomes and Adaptability

Roker says that by the time her students finished their albums, "each child had a working knowledge of syntax and the basic idea of paragraph construction." She also found that all the children could not only understand the photographic concepts she was trying to teach "but also apply those concepts to other pictures and, ultimately, to the photos they took at home. At least 75 percent of the prints showed they had remembered the lessons I had taught."

Further, pre- and post-tests showed measurable growth in both self-confidence and perception of others. "Since one of my main aims was to encourage better relations between classmates, the growth in the area of perception was most welcome," Roker comments.

The teacher also believes that either her project or a modification "could be used in almost any school situation." For example, if children are too young to carry cameras home and back, the focus of the project could be changed to "friends at school." And for upper grades, the writing aspects of the program could be more sophisticated.

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