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:
- observe different pictures and describe what they see both verbally and in writing.
- create stories based upon these observations.
National Mathematics Education Standards
Materials and Technology
Scientific Background
Activity 1: Students will view the Rabbit - Duck picture and write down their findings.
Activity 2: A story will be created by the students based upon the Rabbit - Duck 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 Rabbit - Duck picture by showing them the student worksheet. (student worksheet)
Without telling them what they should
see, conduct a class discussion. Questions you might ask are:
- What do you see?
- Where do you see it?
- What do you know about the picture(s) you see?
- (if necessary) Do you see anything else? What do you see?
| 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? |
| . | . | . |
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, asking questions such as:
- 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?
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- What do you see in each image?
- Where do you see it?
- How are the two images the same?
- How are the two images different?
- What if you could:
- zoom in (make an image appear closer)
- zoom out (make an image appear farther away)
- rotate (spin) the images
- Do you think there would be more things the same on the images? Where?
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, asking questions such as:
- 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 story will be presented as the summative assessment and the individual should be able to justify his or her story and talk about how his/her 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 a story the teacher will state what he or she "saw" focusing on possibilities not mentioned by the students.
If the students "saw" all the possibilities the teacher should lead a discussion on the many different stories were shared. Questions might include:
- How do we KNOW what to look for?
- Is there any ONE" right answer" ?
- What shapes what we look for when looking at a picture?