Readability Level For Annotated Bibliography

Photojojo!: Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas

Photojojo is all about helping folks take better pictures and do more with them once they’ve got ‘em. So here are a couple of useful pointers, because we love you so. First, check out the sections on how to take better pictures (page 149) and improve the one that you have (page 7). Then, read up on the materials you’ll need for the projects we’ve put together (page 8), and the resources section telling where you can find those materials (page 184). And variations scattered throughout the book. Then get in there! Start making stuff in Part One, and start having more fun with your camera in Part two.

Camera: Either film or digital will work just fine. Most of these projects will work with either a point-and-shoot or a single lens reflex (SLR). There are a few exceptions, but by and large you’ll be fine with whatever camera you can get your hands on.

Computer: Whether Mac or PC, laptop or desktop, you computer doesn’t have to be fancy as long as it works.

One of use here at Photojojo lives in an apartment where she can’t put holes in the wall. And with her high ceilings, that’s a lot of white wall to cover without using any nails. In the midst of her despair, she realized that here was a huge, easy, affordable, and (best of all) removable solution to the problem the Ginormous Photo Mosaic. Though our mosaic differs slightly from traditional mosaic art, which uses small images or fragments to form one larger image or pattern, the Photojojo photo mosaic still shows off the bigger picture—the awesome memories you have of family and friends.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for Photojojo!: Insanely Great Photo Projects

and DIY Ideas is 8.4.

The Best Part of Me: Children Talk About Their Bodies in Pictures and Words

When I pray my hands overlap. I’m in the sun they shine. The color of my hands is toasty brown. These beautiful things are mine.

My elbow is like a little circle. I’m using my elbow when I’m mad. I put my hand on my waist and my elbow sticks out. My elbows are on a table when I’m writing or reading. I like my elbows because I play with my elbows when I jump rope.

I like my feet because I painted the toe nails and because I cut them not too short and not too long! Mosquitoes like my legs (blood). I take after my Dad because they like his blood. I have long legs. I picked to put my feet on leaves because I like to play and I couldn’t run and play without them.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for The Best Part of Me: Children Talk About Their Bodies in Pictures and Words is 4.9.

Photography for Kids: A Fun Guide to Digital Photography

What is it about taking pictures that interest you so much? There are many reasons people like photography. For starters, it’s fun! It’s exciting to capture snapshots of fascinating moments, people, animals, places, and things. When we grow older, we can look back at our pictures to remember a great vacation or a special first day of school. In some ways, photographs become our memories; they can bring the past back to life. Ask your parents if they have old photos of your great-grandparents from when they were children.

If you want to focus on your friend Anna, for example, the camera doesn’t know whether to focus on her or the girl behind her. You have to make sure the camera is focusing on the right subject. To use the autofocus, press the shutter-release button halfway down--don’t press it all the way down or you’ll take a picture. As you do this, you’ll see the image come in to focus on the camera’s screen. A little box will indicate which object the autofocus has selected as the focal point of the picture.

Find an interesting spot in your town—one that you walk by regularly—where people like to gather, like a fountain. Take a picture from the exact same spot every day for a whole week and then compare your pictures afterward to see how the spot changes from day to day.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for Photography for Kids: A Fun Guide to Digital

Photography is 6.9.

Annotated Bibliography (Final Version)

The photography units for the below trade books, vary throughout the year. These materials are mostly referenced during introductory lessons such as, introduction to photo vocabulary, introduction to the 16 elements of photography, or introduction to great photographers, past and present. However, I regularly reference them many times within the year due to their basic structure, the less difficult vocabulary, and simply because the students are familiar and comfortable with using these tools for their learning.

Below is a description of each text, its Flesch-Kincaid reading level, and an explanation of how each text is used throughout my Photography I/Photography II courses. Please keep in mind that I teach special needs students grades 7-12. The students are grouped due to their various needs and capabilities. This places their reading levels and abilities of processing and comprehension at multiple levels; for example even if some individuals are capable of reading at more advanced levels, they may have difficulties processing or organizing the information. So the disparity in Flesch-Kincaid levels, allows a vast majority of the complex material that any photography class can offer become more palatably and easy to understand.

Ebert, M. (2011). Photography for Kids!: A Fun Guide to Digital Photography. Santa

Barbara, CA: Rocky Nook.

This book touches on many topics of photography in a very clear and distinct way. It is placed at a 7^th grade Flesch-Kincaid reading level. It includes topics such as the history of photography, the workings of the camera, downloading images, creating interesting portraits, and it even features a quick reference glossary in the back of the text. This guide is very user friendly; offering larger print, colorful backgrounds for some of the pages, and great images for students to use as inspiration for their own photos.

I use this guide for many different lessons throughout the year. Some include, Introduction to Photo Vocabulary, Functions of the Camera, Macro Photography, and Portraits. I tend to print pages from the guide and use them as introductions to my lessons. The way that the information is introduced in this text, makes some of the intimidating photography topics less threatening for my students.

Ewald, W (2002). The Best Part of Me: Children Talk about Their Bodies in Pictures and

Words. New York, NY: Little Brown Books for Young Readers.

The author of this book, Wendy Ewald, has created many books on the topic of literacy through photography. The idea is to use photography as a tool to stimulate creativity in writing, along with increasing students’ analytical and communication skills. The style of this text is similar to a picture book, using larger images on one side, with complimentary self expressive writing by children on the other side; placing the Flesch-Kincaid reading level at 5^th grade.

I introduce this topic to of literacy through photography to my Photography I students as a segue lesson for Portrait Photography. The photography in this text helps to show the different ways an individual can be photographed, in order to create expressive self portraits. The writing piece that we discuss, eventually gets added to the photograph offers an additional touch of individuality; and something that students can identify with. This style helps students to be comfortable in their abilities, both academically and creatively.

Gupta, A. (2009). Photojojo!: Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas. New York,

NY: Potter Craft.

This book gives great ideas for projects that photography students can explore as homework and holiday assignments. I tend to assign the various topics to students, explaining them thoroughly touching on each step. These projects can also be used for interim project ideas in between photography units. This text helps me to stay current as a photography and art teacher; offering projects like using CD jewel cases to make rearrangeable, refillable photo frames for a wall installation or creating a human calendar, where every day is a picture of a friend holding a number.

This text can be a little challenging for certain readers, placing it at a Flesch-Kincaid reading level of 8.4; the vocabulary is at a moderate level, however, the step by step instructions may be difficult for some to comprehend and execute, without some assistance. Photojojo, helps to reinforce what students are learning, along with giving them the tools to expose their photography to an audience in a inventive way.

Maylon, John. Artcyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine, 2011.Web. 19 Oct. 2011.

The website works well for researching different photographers from the 1800's to present times. It is a great resource for teachers and students alike. There are three different search boxes at the top-center of the home page for artists, artwork, and even art museums. This website also offers more refined ways of researching art related topics, through "medium" and "nationality" searches. This site is useful when teaching a unit on Historical, Cultural, and Social context. It allows students the versatility and ease of having “everything art” at their fingertips. In addition, this site offers inspiration to young artists/photographers.

I tend to use this site with my Photography II students, when we are analyzing photographs in order to stimulate ideas for themes such as “Something Old” or “Beloved”. Though useful, I place the reading level of this site at a high school level, merely because of the style of the site, it may be over stimulating or cluttered with a lot of information for challenged readers.

The Artist’s Toolkit: Visual Elements and Principles. ArtsConnectEd, 2008. Web. 25

Oct. 2011

This site helps reinforce visual elements and principles, the fundamentals to teaching art and photography. This is a great reference tool when I teach certain beginning elements of photography such as line, shape, color, and texture. It offers many experiential learning options for all learners ranging from an elementary to middle school reading level. Such as watch, find, and create, a visual and hands on way of exposing the young artist/photographer to theelements and principles of art, or the encyclopedia tab, that offers a shortexplanation of the fundamentals of art, along with comparing and showing how they are used in various famous works of art. This website helps students to get comfortable with new ideas and concepts; creating an eagerness for the student towant to learn more.

Reading Next Online Activity

Reading Next, talks about literacy issues amongst America’s youth, correlates dropout rates
to literacy issues and a lack of interest in school, it offers ways to help teachers be more aware of the diversity in their classroom and how the idea of diversity needs to reflect in their teaching styles, and it offers, The Fifteen Elements of Effective Adolescent Literacy Programs, which are designed to recover the literacy rates of middle and high school students. Topics that are offered in the Reading Next article have been a reoccurring theme in most of the readings this semester. It has been suggested to create strong and cohesive/content heavy lesson plans that help the = teacher and the student, to help the teacher to prepare for different learning styles, and to organize the teacher with an arsenal of classroom/teaching techniques that improve their efforts and make them more confident in the classroom. There is mention of EL, ESL, and special needs learners, throughout the readings, though in the Reading Next article, I find that there was more emphasis on including these students’ needs in the lessons and instruction in order to create a balance in the classroom for all learners. I found that Reading Next was formatted similarly to the IRA, Adolescent Literacy: A Position Statement reading. Introducing the reason for the text, along with the contributors, and offering different “elements or principles” that suggest literacy assistance to adolescents. Lastly throughout the readings, there are many scenarios or dialogues that are mentioned in order to make the suggestions in the readings more real for the “learning teacher”, so that they can see how these foundations can be used effectively in the classroom.


As a photography/art teacher who works with students that have special needs, such as ADD, ADHD, Autism, Aspergers, emotional disturbances, and OCD, the groupings that are assigned to my classroom are always at multiple levels; academically and socially. Due to this diversity, my instruction and the materials that I use during my instruction, vary; they range from elementary (3rdand 4th grade) to high school levels (10th grade). I always use graphic organizers, step by step processes, chunked material and instructions, repeat directions, and more. This helps students understand information in more practical ways; ways that they can appreciate. In my experience, I find that even with students that have higher literacy and who are capable of handling material on their grade level, they still tend to have major issues with executive functioning. So even if they understand/comprehend the material, and may even get the deeper/more conceptual meanings of some of the assignments, it’s very hard for them to organize their information and represent the material the way they understand it in their own
minds.

Due to the subject matter that I teach, it is necessary to always include a technology component in the classroom. This includes digital cameras, computers, website and internet searches, Word, Photoshop, etc. For many students that have trouble with literacy, it is subjects like photography and art, which add an aesthetic/more visual element to the instruction, that make the learning easier and more experiential for the student. Of course, depending on the students’ levels and processing abilities, I have to use similar tactics as listed above to help the child achieve successfully. In addition, depending on their literacy abilities, I also use programs like Kurzweil and Read Naturally; these are assistive reading technologies that help the student to be more independent when working on various reading/writing assignments.

Annotated Bibliography (still in the works)

Ebert, M. (2011). Photography for Kids!: A Fun Guide to Digital Photography. Santa
Barbara, CA: Rocky Nook.

This book touches on many topics of photography in a very clear and distinct way. It ranges from a 7th to a 9th grade reading level. It includes topics such as the history of photography, the workings of the camera, downloading images, creating interesting portraits, and it even features a quick reference glossary in the back of the text. This guide is very user friendly; offering larger print, colorful backgrounds for some of the pages, and great images for students to use as inspiration for their own photos. I use this guide for many different lessons throughout the year. Some include, Introduction to Photo Vocabulary, Functions of the Camera, Macro Photography, and Portraits. I tend to print pages from the guide and use them as introductions to my lessons. The way that the information is introduced in this text, makes some of the intimidating photography topics less threatening for my students.



Ewald, W (2002). The Best Part of Me: Children Talk about Their Bodies in Pictures and
Words. New York, NY: Little Brown Books for Young Readers.


The author of this book, Wendy Ewald, has created many books on the topic of literacy through photography. The idea is to use photography as a tool to stimulate creativity in writing, along with increasing students’ analytical and communication skills. The style of this text is similar to a picture book, using larger images on one side, with complimentary self expressive writing by children on the other side; placing the reading at an elementary level. I introduce this topic to my Photography I students as a segue lesson for Portrait Photography. The photography in this text helps to show the different ways an individual can be photographed, to create expressive self portraits. The writing piece adds another touch of individuality; and something that students can identify with. This style helps students to be comfortable in their abilities, both academically and creatively.



Gupta, A. (2009). Photojojo!: Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas. New York,
NY: Potter Craft.

This book gives great ideas for projects that photography students can explore as homework and holiday assignments. The projects can also be used for interim project ideas in between photography units. This text helps me to stay current as a photography and art teacher; offering projects like using CD jewel cases to make rearrangeable, refillable photo frames for a wall installation or creating a human calendar, where every day is a picture of a friend holding a number. This text can be a little challenging for certain readers, placing it at a high school reading level; the vocabulary is not complicated but the step by step instructions may be difficult for some to comprehend and execute, without some assistance. Photojojo, helps to reinforce what students are learning, along with giving them the tools to expose their photography to an audience in a inventive way.



Maylon, John. Artcyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine, 2011.Web. 19 Oct. 2011.


The website works well for researching different photographers from the 1800's to present times. It is a great resource for teachers and students alike. There are three different search boxes at the top-center of the home page for artists, artwork, and even art museums. This website also offers more refined ways of researching art related topics, through "medium" and "nationality" searches. This site is useful when teaching a unit on Historical, Cultural, and Social context. It allows students the versatility and ease of having “everything art” at their fingertips. In addition, this site offers inspiration to young artists/photographers. I tend to use this site with my Photography II students, when we are analyzing photographs in order to stimulate ideas for themes such as “Something Old” or “Beloved”. Though useful, I place the reading level of this site at a high school level, merely because of the style of the site, it may be over stimulating or cluttered with a lot of information for challenged readers.



The Artist’s Toolkit: Visual Elements and Principles. ArtsConnectEd, 2008. Web. 25
Oct. 2011

This site helps reinforce visual elements and principles, the fundamentals to teaching art and photography. This is a great reference tool when I teach certain beginning elements of photography such as line, shape, color, and texture. It offers many experiential learning options for all learners ranging from an elementary to middle school reading level. Such as watch, find, and create, a visual and hands on way of exposing the young artist/photographer to the elements and principles of art, or the encyclopedia tab, that offers a short explanation of the fundamentals of art, along with comparing and showing how they are used in various famous works of art. This website helps students to get comfortable with new ideas and concepts; creating an eagerness for the student to want to learn more.

Camera 101

I use this for my Photography I students, as a small introduction to the functions of the camera.

ACCE The Final Cut

Culminating Video Project I created for students to show their work on
the 16 Elements of Photography

Images that I have taken to use as examples for my Photography II students

Images by James Nachtwey that I use as examples for the Photogrpahy Elements, Line and Texture.

Images by Wendy Ewald from various books on Literacy Through Photography

EDU 551 Web 2.0 Group member topics

Brendan Coleman - Designing a Digital Classroom
Christina Delgado - Negative Effects of Web 2.0 in an Educational Setting
Jon Cortney - Educational Applications of Social Networking
Eileen Clements - Everything Wiki

Web 2.0 For Teaching Teens Blog Post

Q: What is Web 2.0 and how does it relate to teaching teens?

A: Web 2.0 is a term used to describe the evolution of the World Wide Web. The idea is that the web now focuses on people sharing information online, e.g., blogs, tagging, wikis, and social networking. Web 2.0 has allowed the web and its' components to become more user friendly and a more intergrated part of society.

Web 2.0 allows teachers to engage students in a more interactive way, especially teenage students because of blogs, socialnetworking, and wikis. It gives students a more increased way to participate in the classroom, and outside of the classroom, 24 hours a day. The students take possession of their own learning, along with sharing what they have learned on the web with their peers.

O'Reilly, Tim. (2005, September 30). What is Web 2.0? Design patterns and buisness models for the next generation of software. O'Reilly. Retrieved September 24, 2011, from http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

Q: Do negative effects of Web 2.0 exist? If so, how do these cons pertain to today's society?

A: In the article, "Web 2.0. The second generation of the internet has arrived. It's worse then you think.", there is a paragraph that summarizes the negative effects of Web 2.0 so well that I must list it verbatim. "Web 2.0 technology personalizes cultures so that it reflects ourselves rather than the world around us. Blogs personalize media content so that all we read are our own thoughts. Online stores personalize searches so that all we see are advertisements for products and services we already use. Instead of Mozart, Van Gogh, or Hitchcock, all we get with the Web 2.0 revolution is more of ourselves."

It's obvious that technology, computers, the internet, and Apple, run today's society; to some extent, we have to except the inevitable fate we have been given. However, it is our responsibility as individuals to know who we are, what are abilities/limits are, and what it is that we can offer society, and be satisfied with the outcome. It is also our duty to know the world and understand how we fit in it, not allowing our minds to be clouded by one way of thinking but to be open to many schools of thought. This can only enlighten us and possibly help to create a true visionary, not an impostor.

Keen, Andrew. (2006, February 14). Web 2.0 The second generation of the Internet has arrived. It's worse then you think. Retrieved October 13, 2011, from http://www.weeklystandard.com.

Q: Are Web 2.0 tools being used in the classroom and as teaching resources too soon?

A: There's no doubt that diversity in education always lends itself in a positive direction, but is it too soon to consider Web 2.0 tools, as a "new" form of education and teaching? If you consider my last post, it's no coincidence that Van Gogh, Hitchock, and Mozart were viewed as masters in their field. The skills that they gained took many years to attain and the works that they created took decades to be appreciated. So how is it that the authors of blogs, wiki's, social networking, and podcasts, just came on the scene and their publications are considered such reliable resources? So much so, that the education system is beginning to change it's format (21st Century Skills), forcing teachers and students alike to use these forms of resources in the classroom or at home.

Like with any "new technology", there is a lot of trial and error that should be put in place in order to work through problems that may arise with the technology and with the user of the technology. This and the lack of serious training on these technologies, could be a formula for disaster when using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom; and should be considered. Some other things that should be looked at before jumping on the Web 2.0 "bandwagon" are the possibilities of inaccurate information that is shared, the material on Web 2.0 tools such as blogs changes so often that it makes them hard to archive or index, and even the misconception that because these tools are more appealing to students, that they are more apt to use them; if a student doesn't read a textbook, then who is to say that they are going to read an entire blog.

Technology is great; it adds spice to a somewhat mundane classroom style. As educators, we need to make sure we are educating ourselves with not only the pro's of Web 2.0 tools, but the cons as well. Especially before we are introducing these sort of things into the classroom.

Allen, D., Allen, D. W., Onderdonk, J. C., O'Shea, P. M. (2011). A Technological Reinvention of the Textbook: A Wikibooks Project. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 27(3), 109-114.

Hong, W. (2008). Exploring educational use of blogs in U.S. education. US-China Education Review, 5(10), 34-38.

Annotated Bibliography Prospectus

As a Photography /Special Ed teacher in the Baltimore City private school system, I was inclined to establish much of the curriculum on my own. The use of websites and published literature are extremely important to this process.

Due to the student population that I teach, the books listed below have assisted me in creating diverse lesson plans, and have given me the freedom to teach in a more creative way. I teach both middle and high school levels, however the reading levels of my students range any where from grade 3 to college. These resources allow me to teach various photography units, such as the elements of photography, at easy, medium, and advanced levels.

Photojojo, gives great ideas for projects that students can be given as homework and holiday assignments. It can also be used for interim project ideas in between units.

Photography For Kids: A Fun Guide To Digital Photography, is an overall source that I use throughout the year. Whether it's teaching photo vocabulary, the proper use of a camera, or creating interesting portraits, I consistently reference this guide throughout the year.

The Best Part of Me, is wonderful supplementary tool that I use to teach a unit on literacy through photography. The author of this book, Wendy Ewald, has created many books on this topic. The idea is to use photography as a tool to stimulate creativity in writing, along with increasing students analytical and communication skills.

Ewald, W (2002). The Best Part of Me: Children Talk About Their Bodies In Pictures and Words. New York, NY: Little Brown Books For Young Readers.

Check it out!

Gupta, A. (2009). Photojojo!: Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas. New York, NY: Potter Craft.

Check it out!

Informational Websites

JPG Magazine Website

This website is a good visual tool for photographers. It is a blog style website that is all about the love of photography and sharing your world through the lens. My favorite and most inspiring part of this site is it's theme and photo challenges section (under Features). It gives you great ideas as a photographer/photography teacher, to inspire creativity for your photos and your lessons. Whether a theme with deep meaning like, "Political Power: Effecting and Being Affected By Politics", or something simple and fun like, "Back To School", these ideas will help promote your thoughts and give a sense of originality to your lessons and your images.

PhotoVoice: Participatory Photography for Social Change

This website exposes you to a different type of photography; photography for social change. The mission of Photo Voice is to expose disadvantage communities all over the world to photography and the means to use this medium as a form of advocacy. This site links you to workshops that can improve your skills as a teacher, exposing you to teach social change through photography. It also allows you to be a part of projects throughout different countries. It reveals different ideas and visual examples for your very own projects. This site is a great resource for all types of photography and photography courses, especially photojournalism.

Artcyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine

The website works well for researching different photographers from the 1800's to present times. It is a great resource for teachers and students alike. There are three different search boxes at the top-center of the home page for artists, artwork, and even art museums. This website even offers more unique ways of researching art related topics, like through a "medium" and "nationality" search. The website is useful when teaching projects that may use different art forms or artists as inspiration for the project. It is also helpful if students need inspiration for their photography; I tend to use this site with my Photography II students, when we are analyzing photographs for creative portraits.

Photography for Kids by Kids

A useful site for almost any information about photography, especially digital photography. It contains a lot of interacting sites; one called "Be An Explorer". This section gives you many cool photo projects to try out, many connect to the research and reading that are a part of the other sections, on the site. This site is a good way to allow your students to have some independent work time, but still keeping them committed to learning. When I use this site with my students, I make sure that I generate questions beforehand, in order to ensure that they are gaining information from their searches.

Morgue File

This is a free photo archive website. This site allows access to photos for inspiration, as a means of reference when talking abut different photography elements, and for the use of any photo based projects; photo collages, photo advertisements, and/or posters. Another thing that makes this site useful for teaching, is that it offers a Classroom section. It teaches the basics in photography; offering lessons on various topics such as color filters/special effects in photography, ISO and technical aspects of the shutter, and Composition and it's importance when taking a picture. I give this site to my students as a resource to find any images that they need or want for various projects. I tend to only use the Classroom section with my high school students because the lessons are a bit in depth and they have a better grasp of the technical aspects of photography.

The Artist's Toolkit

This site helps reinforce visual elements and principles, the fundamentals to teaching art and photography. This is a great reference tool when I teach certain beginning elements of photography such as line, shape, color, and texture. It offers many experiential learning options for all learners ranging from an elementary to middle school reading level. Such as watch, find, and create, a visual and hands on way of exposing the young artist/photographer to the elements and principles of art, or the encyclopedia tab, that offers a short explanation of the fundamentals of art, along with comparing and showing how they are used in various famous works of art. This website helps students to get comfortable with new ideas and concepts; creating an eagerness for the student to want to learn more.

Ebert, M. (2011). Photography for Kids!: A Fun Guide to Digital Photography. Santa Barbara, CA: Rocky Nook.

Check it out!