Make a selection Health Math Science Social Studies Literacy Tips - Colleagues Tips - Activities Tips - Training Click here for a printer-friendly version of this activity. Go! Requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader Looking Into the Past and Present Through Photography Preparation Steps Credits Preparation Grade Levels:: 6-8 This activity is most effective if delivered in three separate 45-60 minute sessions with groups of 10-12 participants. Allow extra time for participants to go out into the community to take pictures. Prerequisite: Before beginning this activity, download photos from the Library of Congress', American Memory Web site. This site provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history. You will need five photographs that depict the idea of "community" -- pictures of people in the places they live and work. Use the links below to select and print out the photographs you would like to use with your group; be sure to record all available information about the photos you download: date, subject, location. Touring Turn of the Century America Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese Internment at Manzanar Photographs from the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS History of the American West 1860-1920 America From the Depression to World War II North Great Plains, 1880-1920 Materials: Students will need: Cameras (digital, 35mm, or disposable) Poster board, photo album, display board or some other way to display photos Markers Group Leader will need: Computer with Internet access Photos (downloaded from the Library of Congress website; www.loc.gov) A copy of the handout, Analyze This! Chart paper and markers Academic Goals: Students will: understand the difference between a primary source and a secondary source. analyze photographs to discover clues about the past. identify and photograph people and places in their community. create a primary source to document life in their community. Social Goals: Students will: develop active listening skills, allowing peers to speak and share their opinions and experiences. develop group speaking skills as they provide suggestions for a group project. work in small groups and present to an audience of their peers. Steps Introduction (15 minutes) Ask the participants how we can learn about what happened in the past. Accept all answers, and write them on the board or on chart paper in two separate columns. Do not label the columns. In the first column, list history books, encyclopedias and movies; in the second column, list interviews, diaries, autobiographies, photographs, letters, etc. (These are primary sources, or actual records that have survived from the past. History books, encyclopedias and most movies are secondary sources, created after the events occurred. If participants suggest "books," which can be either primary or secondary sources, clarify the response by asking them to specify the type of book. A history book is a secondary source, while a first-person account or autobiography is a primary source.) Ask the group why they think you organized their responses in two separate columns. How should they label each column? Answers will vary. Explain that one column lists actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters, photographs, articles of clothing. These are known as primary resources. The other column includes accounts of the past created by people writing about events sometime after they happened, like the history book you use in school or the movie, THE PATRIOT. These are called secondary sources. Explain that historians use both primary and secondary sources in their research, but that for this project they are going to focus on primary sources. Tell the group that they are going to create a photo journal of their community -- a primary source that will document present-day life in their community. Explain that before they start, they're going to learn more about primary sources by examining some photographs from the past. Activity 1: (30 minutes) Tell the group that you have some primary source photographs you would like them to examine. They are to study the photographs carefully and see what they can conclude about the photographs. Distribute the handout, Analyze This!. Divide the participants into five groups. Give each group one of the photographs you prepared for this activity. Ask the participants to examine the photographs and complete the questions on the handout. Give them about 15 minutes to complete this task. After the participants have examined the photographs, ask each group to show their photograph to the rest of the participants, and to share their predictions about the photograph. After each group has shared their predictions, share the information you know about the picture with the group. Ask your students if they were able to obtain historical information from these primary sources. How? (Student answers will vary.) If you have access to the Internet, have the participants do the "Analyzing the Evidence" interactivity on the AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES Web site. This online quiz walks users through the process of analyzing primary source documents by asking a series of questions about the document. Each question has a hint that will help users select the correct answer. Ask the students to select "A Gathering of Men" and "Collared Men," the two photographs highlighted in the interactivity. Inform participants that before they create their own primary sources (photos), they must have a clear idea of what they want to document. Activity 2: (45 minutes) Seat participants around a large table with the facilitator standing in a visible location with a flip chart or other writing surface. Ask participants to describe their neighborhood. Ask them to consider the various establishments in their community. Where do people in their community gather? Where do they shop? Where do they eat? Where do they socialize? Responses may include churches, schools, restaurants, laundromats, delis, or other shops. Record all answers on the chart paper or board. Next, ask the group to think about the people they would like to include in their photographs. Do they want to photograph each other? Staff members from their afterschool program or community organization? Local politicians, shopkeepers, or other figures in the community? Where should these individuals be photographed? Work with the group to finalize a list of subjects to photograph. You should have from 10-20 subjects -- the more the better. Have the participants pair up, and assign each pair two or three subjects to photograph. If participants are going to take pictures of individuals or inside private establishments, make sure the appropriate people are contacted and permission is granted beforehand. When the participants go out to take their photos, make sure that they document the subject(s) of the photo, the location and the date. Activity 3: (45-60 minutes) Once the photos are developed or printed, have the participants label each one with the name of the subject(s), date and location. Instruct them to write on photographs with a No. 2 (or softer) pencil; pen ink will deteriorate the photograph over time. Next, participants should determine what would be the most important details about each photograph to leave behind. Students may opt to write letters or stories to accompany the photographs, to provide biographical information, to create a "key" or footnotes for each photo, to digitally record a message for future generations, etc. The possibilities are endless and flexible but the primary challenge for participants will be to leave enough information behind to provide a useful tool for researchers in the future. When all the photos are in place, gather participants to discuss the results. Ask them if they feel they have created primary sources that may be of value to historians in the future. Display the photos for other members of the organization and community to observe. This may be done on poster board, in an album, on a bulletin board or otherwise. If the photos were taken with a digital camera, consider sharing them on flickr.com, a free online photo management and sharing application. Extensions: There are numerous extension activities that could be done to enhance the learning of these activities, depending on the resources of the organization and the interests of the participants. Watch AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES Episode 1: "Listening to Our Past" to learn about how primary source documents can reveal clues about the past. Learn more about the places in your community that you photographed. Visit your local historical society for information, and ask people in the community to share stories and memories about these places. Long-time residents, community leaders, and local historians are all good sources. When you've got all your information together, record your photos and the stories that go with them in a Web site or PowerPoint presentation for all to see. Credits This AFTERSCHOOL EXCHANGE activity was written by Thomas Bromage, Director of Education Services, Madison Square Boys and Girls Club, in connection with the PBS series AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES. < Back to Afterschool Exchange Activities & Tips main © 2003-2006 Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved.