Lesson Plan: Worth a Thousand Words

Rationale: To demonstrate how selected images as well as documents can help students to connect people and events in the past to their own lives and experience.

Materials: Pencil, paper, online digital images (including the archives on this website) or photograph collections in your local historical society, museum or library.

Timeframe: Minimum two class periods

Method: Look at a series of photographs depicting immigrant life in the United States and Indiana - for example, in the digital archives. Select four (4) images for closer study. Imagine that YOU are the photographer, and consider the following:

1. Describe what you see: who or what is the subject of each photograph? Where and when was it taken? For example: If the photograph shows a store or street scene, describe as completely as possible the sights, sounds, and smells that surround the scene. If people are in the photograph, describe their clothing and hair styles, even how and where they are standing. Use evidence from the photograph itself and research from other sources about that time period to help answer these questions.

2. What story are you telling in these photographs - and whose story is left untold? What do the people in the photograph want to tell you? Write a caption for each image you select.

3. Predict what will happen one minute, one hour, or one day after these photographs were taken; cite reasons or evident to support your predictions.

4. It's your turn now: imagine that YOU are one of the people in the photograph. How does your perspective change? How would you want yourself represented and remembered by future generations?