What's Going On in This Picture?

What's Going On in This Picture? November 2019

 Ever find those million-dollar resources and think to yourself, “Where have you been my whole teaching career”? About a month ago, I was scrolling/doing some research/professional development on social media when I came across this teacher discussing how excited she was for the “New York’s Time’s” newest “What’s Going On in This Picture?” I was intrigued right off the bat, so I clicked on the link to learn more. What I found made me so excited that I put it into practice the very next day in my classroom.

“Look closely at this image, stripped of its caption, and join the moderated conversation about what you and other students see.”

-What’s Going On in This Picture?

“What’s Going On in This Picture?” can be found in The Learning Network section of the “New York Times.” Every Monday, a collaborator from Visual Thinking Strategies posts a fascinating picture without a caption attached. Along with the picture, there are three questions posed to the students: 1) What is going on in this picture? 2)What do you see that makes you say that? 3)What more can you find? Students are asked to think about the questions and then answer them on a digital platform while conserving with students around the country. (note from the site: Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.) On Thursday afternoons, the site reveals more information about the photo and gives students the chance to reflect on how reading the caption and learning its back story helps them to see the image differently.

Comment posted on picture above

The two aspects I most love about this activity is that students work using a digital platform. This way, students from anywhere can communicate and discuss open-ended topics with each other. With this activity, students can learn multiple perspectives in such an authentic way. The first time I used them in class, we had a chalk talk with archived pictures. I posted the three questions from the site on the whiteboard, and each student walked around and commented on as many images as they could in six minutes. Then I choose the one that had the most comments on it, and as a class, we discussed the different perspectives people had in just our classroom. Next, I found the image on the site, and we read over a couple of other students’ thoughts on the same picture. My students noticed that many of the comments were similar to other students around the nation, but that the comments that stood out the most to them were the comments that pointed out things my class hadn’t brought up during our discussion. Finally, I revealed the original caption and information that went along with the picture, and we discussed how different our thinking was from the real story.

Here is how to get the most out of this free, authentic resource: 

1. Create a free account and subscribe, so you don't miss a picture.
2. Read the introductory post and how other teachers are using this resource in their classroom.
3. Look over the archived images and some of the prior discussion threads to see how you can use the different images in your classroom. Maybe a specific picture can kick start a new article/novel your class will begin soon? Or a picture can introduce concept discussed in social studies or science?
4. Pick your favorite image and introduce it to your class!

Let me know how you use this resource in with your students, 

Jenni Merry