Literacy through Analyzing Photographs

5 photo story

One of my initial ideas for the final presentation for this class was to look at photographs depicting life during the Stockyard Era of Chicago with my nephew, who knows nothing of the living conditions during that time, and see how much information he could gather about the era. I wanted to do this project with him in order to show the huge role that photographs can play in learning about a concept, a language, etc. This project would have also allowed him to develop a new literacy. One which is comprised of enhanced analytical skills, a specific time in history, and the ability to ability to learn via the images naturally, and photographically, depicted in the world.

After formulating an understanding of life during the Stockyard Era of Chicago based on photographs, I wanted to allow my nephew to read an article discussing the conditions that people lived in during that time. I think that it would have been really cool to ask him to point out when he knew something written in the article because of his analysis of photographs from that time.

I had to abandon this idea because my nephew was not nearly as excited about the project as I was. He said that he’d much rather watch Roots since he is currently on a quest to learn about slavery. Because he has already learned a lot about slavery, the project, as I planned it would not work.

One Comment

  • Lindsay E says:

    That’s a really cool idea! Too bad that it didn’t work out. If my research is any indicator, I bet that he would have gathered a lot of information from the photographs before the text told him.

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