LTP Arusha Workshops
June 19, 2009
Arriving in Arusha, a post by Nick Wiesner
June 18, 2009
This week has brought new “firsts” for many here, myself included. Before ever coming to Africa, I’m not going to lie, I tried to rid myself of expectations. I came in with an open mind. I have noticed how friendly and welcoming the residents are, although some do latch on at the sight of a large foreign touristy group. At first, these “batik sellers” were impossible to brush off, but now after only a few days of Swahili lessons, we’ve been able to move on.
It is this language barrier that has thrown me off the most. Having lived and traveled in similar settings to where I find myself now, I have always managed to get by with English, Spanish, or a mix of Romance languages. The first days were stressing, trying to get around the city or read a menu. Locals would see us as rude and wouldn’t let us be. I’m proud to say that now we can buy the tasty roasted corn off street vendors without relying on a single English word. It is then that the locals respond warmly towards you and notice you have a deeper interest than just taking safaris.
Oh, speaking of safari, it is amazing how much that word comes up here. In reality meaning “trip/voyage” in Swahili, it has become a tourist magnet to everything from hotels to beer.
If this trip will teach us anything, its to break out from comfort zones. When some of us have to hand wash our own clothes in a sink, boil every drop of water we drink, or go days with out internet or our cell phones, it makes us see things around us just a bit differently. We see other ways people do things, other ways people eat. Even if we don’t like it, it’s always worth giving it a try. And as the craft peddlers say to us tourists, Hakuna Matata, no worries. (No, they aren’t quoting the Lion King)
LTP Exhibit 2009
May 7, 2009
LTP Class Spring 2009 Exhibition
April 23, 2009
EXHIBITION OPENING!!!
Literacy Through Photography: An Exhibit of Pictures and Writing
Tuesday, April 28, 5 – 8 p.m.
Through This Lens Gallery
303 E. Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC
On display through May 2, 2009
Presented by the Literacy Through Photography program at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in partnership with Club Boulevard Elementary School, Durham, North Carolina.
During the spring of 2009 LTP staff members Katie Hyde and Elena Rue taught a multidisciplinary undergraduate course, which includeed a semester-long internship in the Durham Public Schools. Fourteen Duke students, along with nine teachers at Club Boulevard Elementary School, carried out classroom-based LTP projects. Almost two hundred third- through fifth-graders participated. On display in this exhibition are their self-portraits, dreams, family, and community photographs, and their writings.
I have worked with kids in a local Urban 4H program for the past two years. Last year, I had the fortune to meet and teach 10 recent Burmese middle-schoolers who had recently arrived in the United States. We explored photography together for about 6 months. At the end of the program, I led them through a “Best Part of Me” lesson. The lessons involved: setting our digital camera settings to the B/W option, examining a variety of self-portraits from books and magazines, playing with lighting, discussing setting, choosing “best parts,” creating lists of descriptive words and writing final narratives. This is the work they created.
The biggest challenge with these kids was the language barrier. Two of the kids had a confident command of English, but the others did not. I encouraged them to express their thoughts in Karen, their native language, but they insisted on muddling through with English. We spent a lot of time on the narratives that accompany these pictures. A challenge for me was the fact that most of the girls wanted to write about their hair! It was such a source of pride for them (no matter how much I would say, “But you have such beautiful eyes…expressive hands…strong arms…etc.)-Lauren Comly, a self-directed LTP enthusiast
(click on each image for full size view)
Lauren Comly’s contact information: lcomly@mac.com
Gold Rush Elementary School self-portraits
January 25, 2009
Featured here are self-portraits made by students in Kristen Hyde’s second grade class at Gold Rush Elementary School in Parker, Colorado. As an illustration of the process, the post also includes examples of drawings and notes students made in preparation for shooting their photographs. This project is described in detail in the post that follows this one.
Running is fun.
I love running. I do it a lot. In running you can do races. And you can do it in sports. I fun fast. I usually win the races. It’s fun because you do it a lot if you play sports or even if you don’t play sports, you still run a lot!!! When you run you kind of lose your breath a little. Running is an exercise. And it is good exercise. Did you know that I have been running since I was 2 or 3 years old? Running is one of my favorite things to do.
“Running is Fun” portrait planning:
Loving Art
I am so good at art. It is so fun!!! Is is very, very fun!!! I love the color blue. I love all the colors except black and brown. I love when a rainbow comes because it has all the colors in it. I draw flowers. I love art!!!
“Loving Art” portrait planning:
My Eyes
My eyes help me see things. They help me see the beautiful butterflies and the flowers. They help me see where I’m going. Also I can see my family. If I didn’t have my eyes I wouldn’t be able to see those things.
“My Eyes” portrait planning:
My Thinking Brain
I think everywhere. I think outside. I think in the car. My brain helps me think. Thinking is what I do all the time. Thinking is what helps me.
“My Thinking Brain” portrait planning:
Doing a Magic Trick
I woke up one morning and went to school. I did a magic trick at school at choice time. I packed up and I went home. When I came home I did a magic trick at home.
The Walking Man
I walk to school. I walk home and I walk to Amazing Jakes. I walk with my bike and I walk at the school with my friends.
Jumping Bean
I love to jump rope. Did you know I can jump with my eyes closed? I love to jump and I hope you will love it too!!!
Reading Maniac.
I am an expert at reading. I read mostly all the time. I love to read in the library. My favorite books are Betsy, Tacy, Frindle and No Talking. My favorite author is Andrew Clements. I read before bed, for fun, and for homework. I feel fabulous about being an expert at reading!
Playing outside
I am playing outside in the Park and I’m going to slide. I’m going to slide down on it. This slide is awesome because it’s long and big. That’s why I chose to sit on the slide to show my face. My focus was my face.
Praying
In my picture I’m praying. I pray in a unique way. I am not Jewish or Irish. I am Christian. I only believe in one god. I read the Holy Bible. I read all his words. I love to pray!
Helping people
I like to help people. I like to be nice to people. I like to be really really nice to people. I like to help people. I like to be nice to people.
My Hair
My hair is blond hair. I like my hair because it is smooth. My hair is special because it gets compliments a lot. It reminds me of Hannah Montana.
Running
I am an active kid. I like to run a lot. I wish I could run all across the world! I am about to run across the school!
Twirl Around
I love the Twirl Around. Do you know what’s fun? The Twirl Around! It is on my playground at school It goes around and around. It is awesome. I love it! I would go on it 1,000,000 times. I love the Twirl Around!
The Reading Man
I am reading Tony Hawk. I read Tony Hawk books all the time. I like to read books.
Rock Star Reader
I love to read. I am a second grader and I am reading chapter books. I am a rock star reader! It is awesome to read. It is so fun. I love to read.
Having Fun
I like to have fun. Skateboarding is fun. Basketball and pig swimming is fun. That’s why I chose having fun.
Gold Rush Elementary Self-Portraits project description, Katie Hyde
January 25, 2009
Last fall I spent a school day working with Kristen Hyde and her second-graders at Gold Rush Elementary School in Parker, Colorado. Our self-portrait photography project connected to another class project in which Kristen’s students were writing their own ‘expert’ stories. This is a writing workshop project that Kristen often uses at the beginning of the year. The project introduces students to the format of writing workshop and does so by drawing on a topic kids are familiar with. Students can focus on their strengths while getting to know each other. Kristen tells her students that once they’ve written their expert stories, there will be 25 resident experts in the room that they can go to if they have a question about a certain topic someone else has written about.
The week before I came Kristen read aloud Aliki’s Painted Words/Spoken Memories. This is the story of a young girl, Marianthe, who paints scenes from her life to share her thoughts and feelings with new friends and classmates when her family arrives in a new country. This story introduced Kristen’s students to the idea of using both words and pictures to tell about oneself.
On the day of my visit, Kristen began the day with Monday morning’s usual activity—community circle. Her students gathered on the carpet and took turns telling each other something about how they were feeling, and telling me something unique about themselves, as a way of introducing themselves to me. Students mentioned feeling happy because they’d spent the weekend playing with a friend. They talked about how they loved to read or play football. When one student hesitated over the question of what made him special, his classmates encouraged and reminded him about his special magic tricks.
Reading photographs—
Our first activity involved teaching the second-graders how to read photographs. Read the rest of this entry »
LTP November Workshop 2008 Community Alphabet
November 26, 2008
Community Alphabet PDF
A community visual alphabet
In November a group of 16 artists and educators from North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, DC, California and New York attended a two-day LTP workshop. One activity involved creating a visual alphabet about the concept of community.
We divided everyone into four groups, and assigned each group a portion of the alphabet. Within their groups, individuals discussed their definitions of community and memories associated with place, as well as stories about the contemporary communities they are part of.
Each group came up with a list of community-themed words associated with their assigned letters. From the list they chose just one word for each letter and set out with Polaroid cameras to make visual representations of the words.
After shooting, we asked that each group select their favorite photograph of each letter/word (they shot several pictures of each word) and then display the alphabet on the wall. Once everyone had taken a look, we asked people to choose one image to write about in the form of a memory, a definition, a story, an association, or a poem.
Spotlight: Turning the Page
October 14, 2008
Mister Crabs
By Tyonna Brown, Ms. Chu’s 1st grade class
“My photograph is of me at the market. I went to the market with my grandma. My grandma is wonderful! She took me to the market so we could take photographs together. We took lots of pictures. When we got home from the market, we ate Mister Crabs. They were delicious! I loved this photograph because we had a fun day.”
Turning the Page first connected with Literacy Through Photography when Wendy Ewald’s exhibition Secret Games: Collaborative Work with Children was shown at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 2002. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Durham LTP team held a workshop in DC, and three people from the Turning the Page program attended. TTP then invited the Literacy Through Photography staff back to DC in summer 2003 to teach a five-day training for 14 DC public school teachers. Since then TTP has continued to build our program.
Turning the Page has successfully engaged Washington D.C. public school teachers and students in community based-learning with more than 60 DCPS teachers and 2,200 students participating in their Literacy Through Photography program since 2003.
Through this innovative partnership between Turning the Page and D.C. public schools, students develop writing and photography skills as a means of self expression. Students base their photography and writing projects around three community-based themes: self & dreams, family, and neighborhood.
Spotlight: Durham Teacher Celebrates Culture
September 15, 2008
Celebrando Cultura! Celebrating Culture!
A project with 4th grade students at Forest View Elementary School
In 2007, while teaching at Forest View Elementary School, teacher Paula Januzzi-Godfrey and her students completed a project called Celebrando Cultura! Celebrating Culture! using writing and photography to create photo journals.
Click here to view the project:
Celebrando Cultura! Celebrating Culture!
Project Description
By Paula Januzzi-Godfrey
Celebrando Cultura! Celebrating Culture! began with an introduction to the concept of photo/visual journals followed by brainstorming and choosing topics (family stories, culture, or traditions) for the journals. Students learned to write journal entries daily and sketched ideas for journal design and layout options in their journals along with ideas they had for their photo journals.
Next each student made a plan as to who or what they would photograph, who they would like to interview and what questions they would ask for the interviews. They role played the interviews in class before the actual interviews with family members.
Each student created a draft layout of journal pages for interview questions and photos or other artwork to accompany them. Once the plans and drafts were completed I introduced how to use the cameras. Finally, the cameras were sent home with each student to take their first roll of film. Many students were allowed to take the camera home for several days if needed. Some students needed to take photos at different times during the project. Cameras were used through a check out system and shared as needed.
After film was developed and interviews were completed, students began putting together their final projects. The innovative part of this project came from the students as they developed their photo journals. Each journal had its own personality and style, reflecting the uniqueness of each student.
Our project ended with the presentation of the photo journals at Barnes and Noble Bookstore. It was more that I had hoped for. Twenty-two of the twenty-five students in my class attended this event, along with family members. A Durham Public Schools translator was present to provide simultaneous translation for Spanish speaking families. A “favorite” photo from each journal was chosen by each student, which I enlarged to 5 x 7 and matted. The photos were on display at Barnes and Noble and given to each student to keep along with their journals.
Paula Januzzi-Godfrey is a 4th grade teacher in Durham currently teaching at Southwest Elementary School. Since attending a Literacy Through Photography workshop in 2006 she has experimented with LTP and carried out successful projects in her classroom.
Click here to see Paula’s journal about the process of doing this project:
