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Writing Between the Lens

Joyce Gralewicz
Carl Sandburg Middle School, Old Bridge, New Jersey

Subject: Language Arts
Grade: 7

"If you give students something of their own to write and reflect on, their writing will take on a sense of purposefulness and meaning."

Purpose and Description of Project

Joyce Gralewicz's main goal was to improve her students' writing skills and she used photographs not only to motivate them to write but to help them learn to see different points of view, become better observers, and focus on details. Students took many photos themselves and also studied pictures from other sources.

Gralewicz's central message to her students was that both photographs and writing have "shape, pattern, texture and form," so that their writing should be the "positive print" of what was found in their photographic "negatives." "Due to the fact that their series of photos was saying something," she explains, "they were obliged to tell the story correctly as they saw it."

"My students learned to take a closer look at things," says the teacher. "In addition to writing about things that we actually saw, we stressed 'writing between the lens'-inference skills, drawing conclusions and judgments." In the process, the students became accustomed to writing, rewriting, editing, proofreading, and using such reference works as dictionaries, the thesaurus, and grammar books. They wanted "to write it right," explains Gralewicz, in order to do justice to their photographs. "All of my students' attitudes became more positive and energetic," she adds, and "I watched students that barely spoke, blossom into leaders."

Activities

Gralewicz introduced the unit with a series of short activities dealing with powers of observation, and building toward fully developed paragraphs. In the course of teaching the youngsters to "see, not just look," the teacher asked them impromptu questions about what their bus driver had been wearing or what color eyes a rock star has; had them solve mysteries by studying transparencies of "the scene of the crime;" and had them pick details out of filmstrips and magazine photos.

The students also started writing details from the visuals, moving on to single sentences and full paragraphs about what they saw. From these writings, the youngsters found that different people form different impressions even when they see the same things. They went on to explore this question through discussions, role-playing, and simulations. At this point, the "camera safaris" were formed, and the teacher stressed the steps that should characterize both the students' photos and their writing-focus (decide on a subject); shoot (get it on paper); develop (say what you mean); enlarge (stress important aspects, delete the unnecessary); and picture perfect (the finished copy).

Once the prints were returned, students first settled on an arrangement and then set out to write an essay, fiction, or "faction." The final step was to incorporate their photos with their compositions in individual, mounted displays.

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

Both school and outside sources shared their own photos and photo collections with the class as the students were learning to really look at and draw inferences about photos.

Students brought in their own cameras and used a similar variety of film types. Also used was the teacher's Canon T-50, with macro-zoom lens and several Cokin filter systems, along with 35 mm black-and-white, color, and slide film of differing speeds. Other equipment required included an opaque projector, overhead projector, and filmstrip and slide projectors. To put together the displays, the youngsters used paper, glue, scissors, buttons, hammers, screwdrivers, plastic, pens, markers, etc.

Outcomes and Adaptability

"This unit seemed to have a rejuvenating effect on all those involved," declares Gralewicz. The students improved in such areas as grammar, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, parts of speech, and paragraphing, she reports. But, even more important, they gained confidence in their writing ability, became sharper observers, and began trying to see other people's points of view. And, she adds, "I noticed a sharp rise in their interest in reading. They became interested in newspapers and magazines because of pictures they saw. They then wanted to know what the pictures were about."

In short, says Gralewicz, "Now, when I assign writing, there are no more moans. I cannot imagine generating so much interest, energy, enthusiasm, and learning with any other vehicle than photography."

She also believes that this type of project could lend itself to strengthening skills in such areas as science (preserving lab work); history (sequencing events); reading (acting out a story for the camera); and career education (envisioning students on the job).

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