A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Context Rules All
Developed by April J. Malone
Wogaman Middle School
Integrated Language Arts
Grade Level: Middle School
Introduction
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Click here to view/download this lesson plan as a PDFInspiration
Seminar with Michelle V. Agins; the world premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ The Ever Fonky Lowdown; Othello at Shakespeare in the Park
Overview
Summary
This lesson evaluates the use of pictures and words to portray information and ideas. It does this by allowing students to create articles inspired by images and to evaluate whether those articles accurately capture the context or voice of the picture. The underlying academic skills used in this lesson are context, analyzing images and text, and utilizing appropriate word choice to convey ideas.
Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.7 Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2.D Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.7 Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
Objectives/Outcomes
I can decipher the proper context of a word, text, or visual representation of something based on evidence and research.
I can select, organize, and analyze important information to write a meaningful text.
I can write a meaningful text to examine a topic and relay ideas.
I can explain the advantages of using different mediums to present a particular topic or idea.
I can explain the disadvantages of using different mediums to present a particular topic or idea.
Teaching Approach
whole group, small group, individual conferences, gallery walk, gradual release model, collaborative discussion, peer editing
Assessment
- Bell work (written and oral)
- Building Context Practice (written and oral)
- Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words Challenge (written, rubric)
Lesson Preparation
Teacher Needs
The Best Way to Take Notes Explained
-8 large pictures that were taken throughout the school year of students participating in different events, of programs that occurred at the school, and/or of school associated extracurricular events. Make sure that a few of them could be understood differently if students did not participate or know of the event. Post these around the room to create 8 stations.
Helpful Hints
This lesson requires constant student discussion. You may want to intentionally organize students into groups that will push them to have engaging dialogue.
Student Needs
-Loose leaf paper and writing utensils
Building Context Practice worksheet
Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Challenge Rubric
Prior Knowledge
Students should already be well informed about context clues, word choice, reliable and unreliable sources, and citing sources.
Student Voice
You can allow students to pick their groups or submit pictures of school events for the gallery walk. You could also allow students to create or chose their own picture for the 1000-word challenge.
Vocabulary
context clues, word choice, text features, reliable source, unreliable source, resource citation
Evidence/Assessment of Outcomes
Students will show their knowledge of context by writing an informational text that captures the proper context of the picture they chose.
After students finish the writing challenge, they will write a brief argument defending or upholding the idiom, “A picture is worth 1000 words.” In this argument they must in some way, shape, or form, use the concept of context.
Enduring Understandings
Students are expected to learn that in life, all information has a context, and it is important to know and understand that context to know and understand a person, thing or occurrence. Pictures or messages stripped of context can be misconstrued or used incorrectly. Students will understand that they should think carefully before using or sharing images they find.
Learning Plan
Prompt
“A picture is worth 1000 words” Analyze and respond to this quote
Hooks
“A picture is worth 1000 words” gallery walk
Essential Questions
- Is a picture really worth a thousand words?
- Is it possible to capture a picture’s message with words?
- Is it possible to communicate without speaking or using sign language?
Focus Questions
- How can the lack of context confuse a reader or audience?
- Is seeing just one aspect of something enough to understand it?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums to present a particular topic or idea?
Resources
As described under Teacher Needs and Student Needs
Teacher and Student Performance Tasks
Day 1
Bell work: “A picture is worth 1000 words”
Analyze and respond to this quote.
(After students complete the bell work, do a whole group share to discuss the bell work.)
Class activity: Group students into teams of three to four students, depending on the size of the class. Each group should start at one of 8 photograph stations.
At each station, groups will look closely at the pictures, describe what is going on in them, and discuss the situation or event that was happening while the picture was taken. One recorder should write the group’s responses, thoughts, and comments on a loose-leaf sheet of paper (copy the paper and distribute to each group member for future reference).
After 3 to 5 minutes, groups rotate to the next station and repeat until all groups have visited each station. To involve all group members, groups switch recorders at each station.
Students meet with at least three other groups in 5-minute rotations to compare and contrast their observations and discussions of the pictures. Bring the class back together to discuss what they discovered and how those discoveries relate back to the bell work.
Tell students that when they discussed the events that took place during the time the photographs were taken; they were discussing context. Then have students write down the basic definition of context in their notes and relate that definition to what they did in class.
Day 2
Bell work:
word: context
part of speech: noun
definition 1. The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood.
example sentence
When reading historical fiction, it is important to study the context in which the story was told.
synonyms: circumstances, conditions, surroundings, factors, state of affairs, frame of reference, contextual relationship
in layman’s terms: context is the background or situation for something or surrounding something.
What other definition of context have you heard and how does it help you understand something?
Class activity: Give students Cornell notes on context (social, personal, historical, and cultural) and have guided discussions on the concept. Ultimately, make sure students understand that including context means providing someone with the surrounding situation or a background picture of where the piece of information came from and what or who is involved.
Homework: Students annotate Cornell notes taken in class
Day 3
Bell work:
phrase: out of context
meaning: Without the surrounding words or circumstances and so not fully understandable. If a statement, image, or event is given out of context, the circumstances surrounding them are not given correctly or understood, which may communicate something different from what was intended or what was actually occurring.
Think about the gallery walk that we took at the beginning of this lesson. Pick one picture that could be taken “out of context” if someone was shown it without a caption or background information and then explain how someone could take that particular picture “out of context.”
Class activity: Have students individually create context using the Building Context Practice sheet. Do the first one whole group as a “we do” and then give students fifteen minutes to complete the sheet. After students are finished, organize them in small groups to discuss and compare and contrast their answers.
Exit ticket: Based on the information about context you have learned and the work you did in class today, why do you think it is important to know the context of something?
Day 4
Bell work:
Now it is time to give speech to a photograph. We are all familiar with the common saying, “A picture is worth 1000 words.” Now we are going to put this saying literally to the test. Get a Chromebook. After you log in type in the following website: https://allthatsinteresting.com/civil-rights-movement-photos#1 From this website pick just one picture to “speak” 1000 words for.
Class activity: Choose a photograph that was not chosen by any of the students during Bell Work. With that photo, model how to plan out their research, and then allow students to do the same with the photos that they chose.
Assignment: “The challenge is to write a 1000-word text that best represents the picture. Make sure to include specific and accurate context so that readers fully understand the picture. Ultimately, you need to think about what message the picture was meant to portray and use your beautiful brain along with some research to write that message in no more or no less than 1000 words. Use the research skills booklet provided to guide you in your research.”
Homework: Students complete the rough draft
Day 5
Have students work on their texts. Simultaneously, do individual conferences, have them peer edit, and have them work to improve their rough draft.
Homework: Students complete the final draft
Day 6
Students share their text in small groups with each other and question each other about whether or not the picture needed the student created texts to “speak” for them.
Exit ticket: Write a brief argument defending or upholding the idiom, “A picture is worth 1000 words.” (In this argument they must in some way, shape, or form, use the concept of context.)
Final Review
If students put the pictures in proper context in their text for the Challenge, then that will serve as evidence of their understanding. Also, observations of their comprehensive conversations will aid in informing you of what they have learned.
Lesson Reflection
Have students share their text in small groups with each other and question each other about whether or not the picture needed the student created texts to “speak” for them. You can ask students if the picture would even need context if the person viewing it was from the same era that the picture was captured in.
You can ask students to discuss how the picture could be taken if others thought it was captured yesterday or if the person viewing the picture was from a different country, and so on and so forth.
These discussions will solidify how important context is.