Primary Source Minute – See, Think, Wonder. Cut it!

Learn how James Oigara, assistant professor at the Ella Cline Shear School of Education, describes using Lewis Hine’s historical photographs from the Library of Congress with pre-service elementary educators.

The TPS program at SUNY Geneseo is a unique collaboration between the Livingston County Historical Society Museum and the Ella Cline Shear School of Education. Their project inspired elementary preservice educators to purposefully integrate Library of Congress materials into their field classrooms.

Learn more about their TPS project here.

Transcript

I selected a photograph taken by a photographer well known in the 1940s. I selected this for two reasons. One, it’s a photograph with children, and my pre-service teachers are going to work with children. So I wanted something relevant when we talk in class, something relevant to the kids. So if they utilize a primary source with children, it’s easy to have that relationship.

Local Connection

The most important is there is a connection to our local history here. The photographer Hine, did work all over the United States and even internationally, but specifically New York. And towards the end of his career, he did some photographs here in Rochester, New York, but also after he passed away, all his work was contributed by his son to George Eastman. He was the founder of Kodak Camera, which was founded here in Rochester. So we have a museum called the George Eastman Museum. It has thousands and thousands of Hines’ photographs.

Elementary Primary Source Analysis

In order to analyze this photograph and thinking about the children, especially the elementary – From the Library of Congress, there is a procedure they have. What do you see? It’s used in some of the lesson plans. I took that idea and also used See, Think, Wonder. [Harvard Project Zero: See Think Wonder]

Now the See, Think, Wonder strategy uses sequencing. The idea here is to slow down the children and think before making conclusions. It has three steps. One is to see and the seeing meaning you just have to look and say what you see. I only need one word. When you go two words. Then you are starting expanding. Once you finalize with what you see on a particular photograph you move to think. Think is now interpretation expand. And then the last is what questions you have. That’s what you wonder.

It’s a strategy really very good if you are doing small groups. For instance, this particular photograph, I divided it into five different pieces. So I have five different groups, and those groups may have five or four students. I actually cut this photograph into pieces. I give each group a piece of a photograph, then they start analyzing.

Each group is doing a different section. Nobody knows what each group is doing. I give them, like ten minutes, now let’s hear from each group what part of the photograph you had. And take us through the sequence. What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder?

So I can reveal part one and that group will give what they discussed. Then I move to the second portion of that particular photograph, then the third, and then I move to fourth, and then the last group. They will all provide the sequence of the analysis. What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder?

After everybody has finished, I reveal the whole photograph and at that point normally I have an AHA moment for students because they do not know what the photograph looked like. And then it leads into a discussion. What new discovery have you seen?

Ah-Ha Moment!

The first realization for them is how hard it is to actually do this process. See, Think, Wonder how hard it is to do this process. Simply because easily student just rush to make interpretations. This is a moment that I help them to understand that if you are going tp use primary sources in the elementary classroom, that’s even harder for the students, especially to tell them you just want one word. What do you see?

Normally we intend to interpret things. Say you are seeing a child, you may say, “I see a child seated.” I didn’t ask if the child is seated or is standing. What do you see? It’s a child. Or I see a chair. I see a table. If you are going to add something else, then you are moving to the next stage.

So we try this a couple of times, a couple images, until they are now comfortable to apply this in the classroom. I have had students realize how inhumane, how unjust this work was for the children at that particular time. And for them going into the classrooms where they are going to be working with the kids, this is an opportunity for them to see where we have come from. And we are not saying that everything is okay with children. They are still children around the world who face serious problems, but this shows us how far we have come as a country.

References

The Primary Source Minute highlights the educational work of the Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium, a grant program through the Library of Congress. This is not an official publication of the Library of Congress and does not represent official Library of Congress communications.