Lesson 38: Digital Witness Exhibit, Selecting Images and Testimony

Display the Essential Question: How can readers evaluate words and images for accuracy, perspective, and ethical use? Students will use a turn-and-talk routine to brainstorm potential stories and images they want to highlight in their presentations. Direct them to focus on material found in Seen and Unseen, noting that they will continue working with external sources in the next lesson. Invite volunteers to share their observations with the whole class as time permits.

Turn and Talk

Say these Directions: Take a moment to review the questions. Then use the Turn-and-Talk routine to share your ideas with a partner.

• Ask: What aspects of life in the camps do these sources help me understand?

  • Both the photo on p. 59 and the survivor story on p. 25 help me understand that the prisoners were closely watched from the time they were “evacuated” until at least the end of their time in the camps. The survivor story tells of people feeling like they were “only a number,” and the photo depicts one of the guard towers used to observe the prisoners at Manzanar.

• Ask: What are some patterns or differences I can notice between these sources?

  • Although both the survivor’s statement and the guard tower photo were made by people who were imprisoned, they show different aspects of being watched and counted. The photo shows what it physically looked like and makes the guards seem distant and impersonal. The quote from the survivor describes the psychological effect.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: In the Performance Task, you will make connections across different types of evidence, such as photos and survivor statements, to help answer your research question. Next, we will discuss a specific strategy for finding those connections.

Model the process of how to connect images and text. Students then briefly practice on their own.

Connecting Images to Text

Remind students that in their upcoming Performance Task, the images are not mere “decorations” for their written or spoken presentation; rather, details from the images should be interpreted alongside details from texts such as letters or interviews. Explain that one way to start this interpretive process is to think about the details of the images and texts separately and then look for connections among them.

Select an image and text from Seen and Unseen with a clear perspectival, tonal, or other connection. For example, use the testimony of Sadae Takizawa on p. 35 and one of the smiling Ansel Adams portraits on pp. 96–97.

• At each end of the board, write a brief description of one of the items: “Sadae Takizawa quote, p. 35”; “Portrait of Louise Tami Nakamura, p. 97.”

• Then, moving toward the middle, write a detail that represents the perspective (or tone, etc.) of that item: “adult prisoner’s view: we are all ‘melancholy”; “Ansel Adams’s view: posed, smiling portrait of child.”

• Finally, in the middle of the board, describe the connection between the two sources’ perspective (or tone, etc.) in a short sentence: “Adams’s pictures show people smiling, but off-camera they were often melancholy and angry.”

Overall, the process will follow this pattern:

Discuss with students how the details in the sources reflect their perspective (tone, etc.) and how the perspectives (tones, etc.) of the sources corroborate or conflict with each other.

Say these Directions: Work with a partner to complete an image and text comparison. Choose texts/images that seem connected in some way and work together to answer the questions. Use the pattern to organize your findings.

• Ask: What connects the image and text? (e.g., perspective or tone)

• Ask: What details show their connection?

In a whole group, review the connections that students have identified. Aim to discuss a variety of examples, including ones where the sources agree with each other and ones where they provide divergent or conflicting information.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: As we work to integrate text and images in our presentations, we may sometimes feel we are making an “apples-to-oranges” comparison. Finding similarities among dissimilar media can be a challenge. Slowing down to identify specific details can help us figure out how our sources are connected and how we can best describe those connections.

Project an example of an image–text pair from Seen and Unseen. Students will watch and listen as you model an annotation of a connecting text and image. Then, students will practice on their own using a graphic organizer.

Part A: Model Image–Text Annotation (RI.7.7, W.7.2) (10 minutes)

Using a Think-Aloud routine, model the process of how to annotate an image and text pairing. Use the T-Chart graphic organizer to record your ideas:

Consider the following when annotating:

• Perspective, including the visual or rhetorical framing of the text/image

• Tone, including key visual details or words/phrases that convey emotion

• Content, including what is emphasized and what is omitted or what questions you have

At the bottom of the chart, write two to three sentences that explain at least one similarity and one difference in the portrayal of an element of incarceration, based on what you wrote in the chart. Consider calling back to the “Connection Between Sources” part of today’s Literacy Lab activity.

SAMPLE RESPONSE

Summarize your thinking on how you might include these sources in a presentation; for example:

• Say: If I were to use these in my presentation, I might focus on how Takizawa’s story clashes with the impression given by Adams’s portrait photos. I would want to keep in mind that neither the text nor the image tells the whole truth about life under the incarceration policy.

Part B: Annotate Image–Text Pair (RI.7.7, SL.7.1, W.7.2) (20 minutes)

Before students begin selecting their pairing, distribute or display the Digital Witness Exhibit Performance Task Handout so students can reference the task requirements — particularly the criteria for image selection, testimony pairing, and narration script — as they make their choices.

Say these Directions: Here is the Digital Witness Exhibit Performance Task Handout that you will reference throughout this Performance Task phase of the unit. Keep an overview of the task in mind while you analyze the relationships among sources in today’s lessons.

Provide students with their own copies of the T-Chart graphic organizer. Have them select their own image and text pairing from Seen and Unseen that reflects their research question. This can include one or both of their choices from the Launch activity.

Say these Directions: Use the quotation and image you selected to complete the graphic organizer, with one column for the text excerpt and one for the image. Remember to include:

• Perspective

• Tone

• Content (emphasis & omissions)

Then write two to four sentences where you state at least one similarity and one difference in how the quotation and image portray an element of incarceration. Later, you can revise these sentences and include them in your narration script.

Say these Directions: Now that you have completed the annotation exercise, discuss the following questions with a partner:

• Ask: What image-text pairing did you choose?

  • I chose to pair Toyo Miyatake’s photo of the guard tower on p. 59 with his friend’s statement about being locked up on p. 78.

• Ask: How do the text and image relate to your research question?

  • My question is how survivors saw the security features at the camps—towers and fences and so forth. Together, the image and statement show what the camp’s security was physically like because the image is of a guard tower. But the photo was also a way of showing that the guards didn’t have total control. That’s what his friend is saying, too, about the fishing trips. So in my project, I could do a section about people who resented being watched constantly and found ways to rebel.

• Ask: What was the most important, interesting, or surprising connection between your chosen text and image?

  • I was interested to notice that Toyo Miyatake’s friend eventually saw being locked up as a challenge. That reminded me of Miyatake’s way of challenging camp security by secretly photographing it.

Reconvene the class and have volunteers share their observations with the larger group as time permits.

Students take a few minutes to review their T-Charts and write a short response to the prompt. If time allows, discuss student responses as a class. Collect responses and use them to identify skills and expectations that need clarification.

Quick Write

Say these Directions: Review your T-Chart and check for the following.

• Did you include specific details that illustrate the perspective of the text and image?

• Did you cite specific words or details to support an interpretation of the tone?

• Did you include what is emphasized and what is omitted for both the text and the image?

• Do the sentences express at least one similarity and one difference you found?

Then have students write a brief response to the prompt:

• Ask: What question do you still have about using images and text together?

  • How do I describe a photograph in my presentation if it doesn’t have a label saying who or what it is?