[Mentor Text Monday] Using Photos

When I'm looking for mentor texts, I often forget to consider photos. "Reading" a photo uses some of the same skills as reading a text with words. 

One of my favorite sources for online photography is www.wprasek.com. There are a variety of categories and the photos are vibrant and rich. When I look for photos to use as mentor texts I am looking for photos that encourage questioning--that aren't static or purely a still object.

For example,

I  will share how  I "read" the photo above using some of the same guiding questions I would use with a written text.

What do you notice?

water

blue skies

bathing suits

4 young-ish people

a shadow of the closest object/surface in the upper right corner

no boats or other swimmers nearby

hills or mountains at the edge of the water

What does that tell you about the photo and why?

Setting

• The setting looks like a lake because the water is very still and the hills in the background remind me of what I've seen next to a lake before.
• The weather is probably warm because the jumpers are wearing shorts and bathing suits and the sky is blue.
• The color of the sky looks like the sky in the Spring in the places I've lived, which makes me think it isn't Summer or very hot. I would have to look up more information about the color of skies and the season to be sure.
• The kind of vegetation showing on the hills is different from the kind I see in the places I've lived (west coast), so I think it is further east.

Point of View

• The photographer is below where they jumpers jumped, and next to surface the jumpers jumped from because the shadowed area at the top right was in the view of the camera.
• I don't think the photographer is friends with the people jumping because they aren't waving or acknowledging the camera in any way.

Plot

• Right before this, I imagine the jumpers were laughing and talking loudly like people do when they are excited or nervous.
• Right after this, after the jumpers have landed in the water, I think they will come to the surface smiling and yelling.  I think they will swim towards the shore, but they might play in the water for awhile before they jump again because it probably takes a lot of energy to climb that high.

Characterization

• At first I thought these four jumpers must be very courageous, but then I realized that not all of them have to be. Sometimes there only needs to be one courageous person in a group in order for other people to try it.

Wonderings

• Where are their shoes?  Did they leave them up there? Did they climb barefoot?  Did they throw them down?
• Is the photographer a friend of theirs?
• Are they jumping more than once?

Simply "reading" the photo is a worthy task. Using the photo as a writing prompt is equally worthy. We can take it further though:

Geography/Setting/Expository Writing:

• In what part of the world does this photo take place? What can you use to make your determination?  How specific can you get? What is your evidence?

Narrative Writing:

• You are the photographer.  What's your story?
• You are with this group. What are you thinking?
• You are with this group and you didn't jump. Why?  What are you thinking?

Opinion/Argument Writing:

• You are one of the jumpers. Convince the other jumpers to jump again--even if they don't want to. 
• Make a true statement about this photo and prove it is true using online resources (example: prove jumping into lakes is dangerous using news articles that show injuries).

Fun, huh?

Herea re a couple more photos I love to use.

Try it out!

[Mentor Text Monday] Creative Collections--more from UPPERCASE Magazine

Last week I talked about using UPPERCASE Magazine and their focus on "sticky things" as mentor texts. I also alluded to the fact that I would use more from this magazine.

While the theme of this issue is collage, there is a "Creative Challenge" on page 75 that suggests collecting artifacts. There is a great page on which you can cut and paste images physically or digitally.

From UPPERCASE: In our current issue, we provided a page with an image of an empty typecase. Since this is our collage and assemblage-themed issue, we encourage you to glue and modify this page, take a picture or scan of it and send it to us!

The process of collecting items, like in the abecedary in the previous post, has many possibilities in the classroom.

The UPPERCASE blog is showcasing reader collections.  Here are some of my favorite--with an eye to teaching possibilities:

Another creative challenge submission! This box of treasured things is by Lisa Fitzhugh of Wideyed.

Read Vanda Vilela submitted her response to our earlier creative challenge.  Thank you to all who submitted over the past couple of months. I guess it is time I issued a new challenge! I will be posting all the open calls for participation very soon.

Kathryn Cole submitted this one: "Inspired by your call for creating a shadow box, I created one with my favourite shells that I collected at the my favourite beach in Florida and some fresh roses from my yard."

UPPERCASE subscriber Cornelis vanSpronsen writes: 

"I received my copy of UPPERCASE today and was immediately inspired to respond to the creative challenge on page 75. For many years my wife and I have collected special mementos that were both of great importance as well as those that were memorable for just a small moment in time. This is some of that collection. Going through these is like leafing through a photo album but only better because there are memories attached to these things that photos could never capture."

As springboards for writing, illustrations for published pieces, or even the act of collecting and labeling as a writing task. I am tickled by the idea of this simple wooden type case and the fun of filling it up.

Some of us are participating in a photographic collection--SDAWP Photo Voices. On a weekly or monthly basis, we curate our images from a designated time period and display them in a collection (of one or many). Previously I've collected images on symmetry,  the color green, and the color yellow (I did well with colors).

For the month of October, we have the theme "writing." Oddly, I've struggled. Combining my SDAWP Photo Voices theme and this idea of collections, here is my "writing" collection so far:

Where do you think you take this in your classroom? What collections do you have or would you have? How would you fill in this amazing wooden typecase? 

[#augustbreak13] No Reason. Just Pretty.

[SDAWP Photo Voices] "Green" Link Up

Hubris.  That's how I entered the "green" week with SDAWP Photo Voices--with hubris. Green? What a breeze! It's summer in San Diego! The place is positively brimming with green! Early into Day 1 I spied this leaf outside the SDAWP offices:

I didn't even the see  awesome bug on the bottom right hand side of the photo until later.  And veins on the leaf itself--who knew an iphone could do that? (Lot's of people, I think, but I'm new to it). 

The next day I had to look for green.  It turns out I wasn't accepting just any green, and it was limiting me.  Kim talked about this on her blog as well--I had set the bar too high with red. Green was stumping me and continued to do so.  I settled on my spray cleaner bottle, but felt like I was cheating:

A few days later I captured this bike outside Price Center and these books in Giesel Library though I never did post the books.

And here I am on Sunday evening with very little to show for it and a distinct feeling that I missed some gorgeous greens. In fact, let me tuck my hubris away for a moment, eat some humble pie, and go take a five-minute walk-about.  Let's see what I come up with...

About five minutes later...

Well then.  There it is.  A bumper crop of green.  I didn't even leave my front yard. My favorite is the one with the splash of red.  I'm a sucker for a pop of color. 

What did you find this week?  Link up at  the SDAWP Voices "Green" Link Up!

[Photo of the Week] Pickle Skins

I noticed J. nibbling at his pickles.  Here is the conversation that followed (he speaks very precisely.):

Me: J.  Whatcha doin'?

J: I am peeling my pickles.

Me: How come?

J:  I do not like the skin.

Me:  That's awesome.  May I take a picture?

J:  Oh.  Yes.  Do you like it?

Me:  Yes.  I like it very much.  It makes me happy.

J:  I can make them into the shape of an octopus if you would like it better?

Me: No thanks.  I like them just the way they are.

Hope is the thing...

We started our photography unit last week.  Today we took some photos, and this one made my heart smile.

Thank you to fellow caped blogger, TM, for reminding me that I come to school for the pumpkin-heads.  I needed the reminder today.