Overview | In a world where digital cameras and amateur photos are as ubiquitous as the cell phones that carry them, has photojournalism lost impact? Or has the proliferation of images only made us more receptive to, and appreciative of, professional work? In this lesson, to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Iraq war, students look at and respond to photos of fallen soldiers’ bedrooms. They then create and present creative photo essays.
Materials | Photographs printed in advance (see list below), blank sheets of paper, computers with Internet access and projectors, cameras
Note to Teacher | This lesson begins with a series of images of bedrooms left behind by fallen soldiers who served in Iraq. We imagine that you and your students will be as moved by them as we are. Reading the introductory essay aloud before students see the photographs may be enough preparation, but gauge your students’ reactions, pausing where necessary to talk through, perhaps one on one, any powerful emotions that arise.
And as always, we would love to hear from you. How do you teach with photographs? What strategies do you use to prepare students for potentially upsetting material? How do you know when to regroup? Tell us here.
Warm-up | Before students arrive, print out some or all of the photos from the photo essay “The Shrine Down the Hall.” Post them around your room, numbering each image, and put a blank sheet of paper underneath each one. When students arrive, tell them that the photographs they will look at today were published just as the United States military was marking its seventh year in Iraq.
Before students circulate to look closely at the photos, read aloud to them the short essay “War Memorials with Neatly Made Beds.” Then provide guiding questions for them to consider as they examine the photos: What can you tell about the person who lived in each room? How? What do you feel as you look at each room? What do you notice most about each room, and why? How does knowing that the rooms were occupied by soldiers who have died shape your experience of the photos? How does each photograph memorialize the life, not the death, of each soldier, as photographer Ashley Gilbertson contends?
Ask them to jot down their responses to these questions and any other ideas that jump out at them, both in their notebooks or journals and on the sheets of paper that accompany the pictures.
