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These activities are designed to create
a sense of disequilibrium in the visual perception of students to make
them aware of different ways to to view a picture. The students will
view the images, decide what they see in each, record
their ideas, and write a story based upon these findings.
The learners will:
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observe different pictures and describe what
they see both verbally and in written form.
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create stories based upon these observations.
National
Science Education Standards
National
Mathematics Education Standards
Materials and Technology
Scientific
Background
Activity
1: Students will view the Old Man picture and write down
their findings.
Activity
2: A story will be created by the students based upon the
Old Man picture and their findings.
Activity
3: Two more images are viewed, studied, and discussed.
Activity
4: Stories are created based upon the two images.
Activity
5: A wrap-up discussion exercise.
1. Begin by showing
the students the Old Man picture located on the following student worksheet.
(student
worksheet)
Without telling them what they should see,
conduct a class discussion. Questions you might ask are:
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What do you see?
-
Where do you see it?
-
Why do you think the image looks this way
(i.e. leaves in hair, etc.)?
-
(if necessary) Do you see anything else?
What do you see? Where?
Use this table on chart paper, the board or
an overhead projector to model the use of this organizer for further student
investigation.
Observation |
Knowledge |
Deduction |
Note what you
see. |
What do you know about this
picture from looking at it carefully ? |
After looking at this picture
carefully and thinking about what you know what do you think this picture
means ? |
. |
. |
. |
2. Divide the class
into teams. Their job is to observe the picture, decide what it is, then
tell its "story". Each team should make notes (either in writing
or by drawing their own pictures) on the table provided. Each team
will share its story with the class when it is completed.
During this time, the teacher should go
to each group and ask questions about the formation of the group's deductions
in developing the story. Some of the questions the teacher should
find the answers to are:
-
What were their observations?
-
What did they already know that influenced
their observations?
-
Did they use resources (books, the dictionary,
the Internet, etc.) to justify their deduction of what the picture
is?
-
Was the deduction something that all of the
members of the group could understand and "live" with?
3. Show the students
the following two pictures, found on the following student worksheet.
(student
worksheet)
The students can be asked questions such as:
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What do you see in each image?
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Where do you see it?
-
How are the two images similar?
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How are the two images different?
-
What if you could
-
zoom in
-
zoom out
-
rotate the images
-
Do you think you would find more similarities
between the two images? Where?
4. Divide
the class into teams. Their job is to observe the pictures, decide
what they are, then tell their "stories". Each team should
observe, make deductions and take notes on the table provided. Each
team will share its story with the class when it is completed.
During this time, the teacher should go
to each group and ask questions about the formation of the group's deductions
in developing the story. Some of the questions the teacher should
find the answers to are:
-
What were the observations?
-
What did they already know that influenced
their observations?
-
Did they use resources (books, the dictionary,
the Internet, etc.) to justify their deduction of what the picture
is?
Was the deduction something that all of
the members of the group could understand and "live" with?
The teacher may want all students to include
some aspects of the picture that has not been presented. If students
do not include these elements, it will be the teacher's responsibility
to ask questions and to encourage students to locate more resources to
justify "why" this would not be an appropriate deduction.
The story will be presented as the
summative assessment and the individual should be able to justify their
story and talk about how their perspective changed as a result of formulating
the deduction that led to the story.
5. The beginning
focus on observation, knowledge and deduction needs to be repeated at the
end of the lesson.
After each student has shared their story
the teacher will state what she "saw", focusing on possibilities not mentioned
by the students.
If the students "saw" all the possibilities,
the teacher should lead a discussion of how many different stories were
shared. Questions might include:
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How do we KNOW what to look for?
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Is there any ONE " right answer" ?
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What shapes what we look for when looking
at a picture?
Key
to the Pictures: |