Using Photography to Inspire Writing 4

By Hank Kellner

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“Can You Hear Me Now?”

Farewell, conventional telephone! Hail cell phone! Did you know that in 2006 there were an estimated 219 million cell phone users in the United States? That said, one can’t help speculating as to how many cell phones make their way into classrooms every day. And one can’t help wondering if traditional phones will soon go the way of 78 rpm records and vacuum tubes for radios.

Using a photo as simple as the one shown here, you can easily inspire students to express their thoughts about traditional phones and cell phones. They could, for example, discuss whether or not telephones help people become closer in their relationships. They could discuss some of the positive and negative effects cell phones have on their users. They could write about some ways in which using cell phones can be annoying or even dangerous. They could tell how many times they talk on the phone each day. And they could even relate several of the most interesting telephone conversations they have had or overheard.

How Some Master Teachers Use Photographs

At the University of Mississippi Writing Project, Co-Director of Special Programs Allison Movitz’s students use their own photographs to spark writings of various kinds. The students also incorporate their photos into autobiographical multi-genre presentations and portfolios. “Most recently,” writes Movitz, “we’ve used Microsoft’s Photostory™, a digital camera, and a microphone to re-create a ‘who done it’ from a mock trial in speech/debate classes.”

Mary Birky is an English teacher at the Papillion-La Vista High School, Papillion, Nebraska; a Nebraska Writing Project Advisory Board Member; and a contributor to a forthcoming book on place-conscious education. Birky uses student-generated photos to stimulate writing assignments based on the content of the photos, the mood of the photos, and the imagery in the photos. “I tell my students to ‘paint the photographs with words,’” she writes, before she asks them to create free-verse poetry based on the poetry they have selected.

Justin Van Kleeck’s very successful writing activity with students he tutors involves a seagull that simply can’t get enough Doritos. A former adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Piedmont Community College, Van Kleeck shows his students a video of a seagull that steals a bag of Doritos from a store in Scotland every day. In the first part of his assignment, he directs the students to become the thieving seagull and write process papers in which they tell their fellow seagulls how to steal, open, and eat the Doritos. In the second part of the assignment, he tells the students to write from the point of view of a shopkeeper who is telling other shop-keepers how to prevent the seagull from stealing Doritos in a creative, non-violent way. “The key to the exercise,” writes Van Kleeck, “is for students to utilize the process approach while also using their imaginations.”

Call for Submissions

Do you have a photo-related writing activity you’ve used successfully in the classroom? Would you like to share that activity with other teachers at many levels nationwide? If so, I’d love to hear from you.

Please send approximately 100 words describing your activity to me at hankpix@gmail.com as a WORD attachment to your e-mail. Don’t forget to include your name, title, school or college, city, state, and a brief statement granting permission to use your submission in my articles. Thank you.

The Addison Gallery of American Art

The Addison Gallery of American Art is a department of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. When you visit you’ll discover more about this organization’s Photography and Writing Program, which is “designed to enable and inspire students to express themselves in words and photographs.” Definitely worth a visit. •

Next: Using Photography to Inspire Writing 5

Copyright © 2008 by Hank Kellner.

About the Author | More by Hank Kellner
Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner available from Amazon. Original Edition. Cottonwood Press. I-800-864-4297. Cottonwood Press is distributed by Independent Publishers Group. Includes supplementary CD with photos. 8 ½ x11, 120 pages, perfect binding, ISBN 978-1-877-673-83-2, LCCN 2008938630. Visit the author’s blog at hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com. The author will contribute a portion of the royalties earned from the sale of this book to The Wounded Warriors Project.

01/02/09