Images, photos, and pictures stimulate the mind. For the viewer, they offer a chance to connect and question. They also offer potential for play and imagination, and pulling the observer into purposeful messages.
Most often, newspaper and magazine readers take a quick glance at photos and their captions. With this 猫咪社区! lesson plan, you and your students can luxuriate鈥攁nd pause鈥攖o truly understand an image, its message, and why it鈥檚 interesting (or not).
Step 1: What do you notice?
Ask your students to make sense of the photograph by trusting their instincts of observation and inference. In doing so, the image offers possibilities and interpretations beyond a typical reading where the reader glances at a photograph to reinforce its title or caption. Do not introduce any facts, captions, or other written words.
In response to the question, 鈥淲hat do you notice?鈥� you may hear: silhouette, white puffy scarecrow, nighttime, field
Step 2: What are you wondering?
After you鈥檝e heard your students鈥� first observations, you may hear a peppering of questions: What is that ball coming out of the right hand? What is the scarecrow stuffed with? What are the flickers of light in the background? Was this photo taken at Halloween?
This is a good time to reveal the photo鈥檚 caption and other information about the photo. Watch how the conversation shifts from what they believe to be true to discerning the facts about the photo.
Photo caption:
鈥淪anta Maria, CA. Strawberry field scarecrow. 鈥榃hen I first arrived, I had no shoes when I worked in the fields. I used to sleep by a tree because I didn鈥檛 have money for rent. I barely made money for food. But everybody goes through this, there is a lot of suffering and that鈥檚 it. Irene Lopez, 51, field worker.鈥�
Photo by Matt Black for his project, Photo courtesy of
Photo facts:
- California harvests enough strawberries that, if laid berry by berry, would wrap around the earth 15 times. It provides America with 88 percent of the nation鈥檚 fresh and frozen strawberries.
- Strawberries are hand-picked and packaged directly into clamshell containers by fieldworkers before being shipped straight to the supermarket.
- Roughly 10,000 people work in Santa Maria鈥檚 surrounding strawberry fields, earning $1.25 per box picked. The average annual income for a farmworker is $11,000, which is the second lowest paid job in the country (after domestic labor).
- Strawberry farms in California use 90 percent of the developed world鈥檚 methyl bromide, a pesticide that鈥檚 been linked to cancer, developmental problems, and the hole in the ozone layer.
- In 1975 under civil rights leader and activist Cesar Chavez, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act was passed, granting farmworkers in California the right to unionize. 92 percent of California farmworkers are Latino, and 77 percent of these farmworkers are not U.S. citizens. Today, only two percent of farmworkers nationwide unionize.
Additional resources:
WATCH:
LISTEN:
EXPLORE:
INVESTIGATE: (鈥淭he Geography of Poverty,鈥� Global Oneness Project)
Step 3: What鈥檚 next?
1. Put yourself in Irene鈥檚 shoes鈥攐r her children鈥檚. What would be the toughest thing about this kind of life for you?
2. After learning that strawberries鈥攁nd most fruit and vegetables you eat鈥攁re picked by somebody exposed to pesticides and in poverty, does this impact your views (and actions) on what produce you buy? Where in your community can you buy produce that is 鈥渆thically鈥� grown and affordable?
3. California provides most of the fruits and vegetables in the U.S. Its water drought has forced strict conservation measures for residents and businesses. Imagine a dry California and a sharp decline in crops. Where will Americans get their food? Will other states pick up the slack? WIll you grow your own food?
4. The use of pesticide methyl bromide鈥攄ubbed the 鈥減hantom gas鈥濃�� has two conflicting interests: economic survival of agribusiness and protection of human health. Big Ag warns that without pesticides like methyl bromide farmers will go out of business, farm workers will lose jobs, and cost of produce will go up at the grocery store. What are alternatives to using methyl bromide? Would you be willing to pay more for strawberries if the cost was passed to the consumer?
5. The majority of California鈥檚 farmworkers are undocumented immigrants. What is the difference between undocumented immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers? How are these groups of people viewed and treated differently?
