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 7th 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 5th 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.
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