Iconic Images: Visual Literacy and Historic Context

Photographers have been documenting real-time events and cultural history for over a century. These photographs are part of our shared legacy, but students may not be familiar with either these iconic images or the historical context behind them. In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to delve deeply into both visual literacy and the act of historical research, while also practicing the skills of creating a formal research paper.

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURE

Day 1: Exploring Iconic Images

Introduce the concept of the iconic image and present a selection of images with description of the event represented in the image.

1. Ask students what the term "iconic" means to them. Discuss in small groups or with the whole group. It is worth pointing out the concept that these images have withstood the test of time, and that it is more difficult to argue a photographic image is iconic if it is a very recent event.

2. Begin exploring resources with the Time Magazine site "The Most Influential Images of All Time" (https://100photos.time.com/). Students choose four or five photos beforehand that speak to them and describe their reaction to each.

It is worth emphasizing, as a trigger warning, that some photos will depict blood, death, and violence, but those are not requirements for their choice of photograph.

For example, I often begin with "Tank Man," from the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing. I ask how the students think the man feels standing in front of the tanks. We might then look at "Falling Man," the photo of the person who leapt from the World Trade Center after the planes hit on 9/11. We have a discussion about how, of the millions of photos that were taken, only a few have been added to our collective image bank of that day.

Additional images could include the photograph of the Beatles ("The Pillow Fight") or of Michael Jordan. Discuss how these are iconic in a different way from "Tank Man" and "Falling Man."

Look at some of the other sites on the Pathfinder linked above to show that students have many types of images to choose from. These can match their interests (sports, music, film, television, technology) or they can spark curiosity. I often tell students to choose something that makes their brains go ping!

Allow the class time to begin looking at the sites and thinking about which image(s) they might choose right off the bat. Circulate and see what images they are focusing on.

Exit Ticket: Students will find three images that interest them. They will copy and paste the images into a document (or use the snipping tool). They will then write a 50-word (or less, depending on differentiation or grade level) description of the photo and their emotional reaction to the photo, without having done any research on the subject

Day 2: Beginning the Research

Students choose an image which intrigues them; this can be one of the three from the previous lesson or a new one they have found. Then they research three aspects of the image:

1. Who took the photo?
2. What is the event taking place in the photo?
3. Why is this photo considered iconic? (this is the crux of the project that reflects higher order thinking skills and visual literacy)

Begin by walking through the databases or sources recommended for students to select the best vetted resources for research. Demonstrate how to narrow search terms with targeted search techniques, including Boolean operators and using quotation marks to search for phrases. Model the process of narrowing down dates and using the text from the original sites on the Pathfinder to guide the search process.

Exit Ticket: Students will submit a document which includes their chosen photograph, the URL to the original site, and a 50-word explanation of why they have chosen that photograph and their initial research findings.

Day 3: Gathering Sources

Students will spend much of this day independently researching their photograph. Begin by introducing and discussing the SIFT method for evaluating digital information (https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/c.php?g=612324&p=7297194). Post and display the infographic available from Mike Caulfield (https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/), which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Emphasize that Wikipedia may be a great starting point, especially when the references at the bottom of the Wikipedia article are utilized.

Remind students to save all of their sources, even if they are not sure they will actually use that source in their written work.

Exit Ticket: Students will submit a document that lists their saved sources.

Day 4: Citation and Note-taking

Students will be reminded to include each of their sources in their Works Cited page.

Provide direct instruction or refresh on how to use your school or the teacher's preferred citation tool.

Students continue to work with their ELA teacher on using their research to compose their final paper.

Exit Ticket: Circulate to confirm that each student has at least one citation formatted correctly on their Works Cited page.

The final product is a research paper that they complete with their English teacher that is about the photo and why it is considered iconic. We do often add an extension to the project where the students create a slide in a Google Slide Deck where they post their picture and then include four short pieces of text: the context, the photographer, the description of the photo, and the "Why iconic?" piece. Because the Slide Deck is shared with the whole class, students can then examine each other's photo and make comments about the photo and the interpretation.

ASSESSMENT

• Observed engagement in discussion, active participation
• Accuracy of Works Cited page which accompanies written text
• Validity of the sources used on the Works Cited page
• Independent use of website evaluation tool (SIFT test) during subsequent research projects

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Get more ideas about engaging students critically with images in Courtney Pentland's editorial, "Activating Inquiry through Historic Images" and in her elementary lesson, "Local Images: Visual Literacy and Historic Context."