Throughout the summer months, Teaching Tolerance will present a series of lessons using photographs [2] to teach about social justice. Each lesson will focus on a contemporary social justice issue. The lessons are multidisciplinary and geared toward middle and high school students. A new lesson will be posted online each week from June 6 through Aug. 22.
Students like photographs. They’re visual and engaging. And they make great learning tools. In addition, many students initially feel more comfortable “reading” photos than reading words. Students see photos all the time—so often that they take them for granted. Even though they know how easy it is to alter photos (no doubt some have used Photoshop) they often assume that what they see is an objective recording of reality. Photographs are often more complicated than they seem at first glance. These lessons will help students learn to think about photos more deeply.
At the same time, the lessons will expand students’ knowledge of social justice issues. The topics covered will include transgender identity, immigration, marriage equality, rights for people with disabilities and collective bargaining—as well as the civil rights movement. These lessons can supplement other activities or readings, or they can stand alone. We hope you find them useful.
Ronk is the curriculum design manager at Teaching Tolerance.
Links:
[1] http://www.tolerance.org/author/thom-ronk
[2] http://www.tolerance.org/activity/using-photographs-teach-social-justice