Reflect on Your Practice

In this section, you will reflect on ways that you have interpreted visual media with your students. Discuss the following questions with your colleagues or reflect on them in your journal. Use specific examples wherever possible.

1. What kinds of activities related to interpreting visual media (particularly photographs) have you done with your students?
2. What were the value and goals of these activities? What skills and understandings did the students gain as a result of these activities?
3. What were the challenges of doing these activities? What didn't work, and why?
4. What strategies do you use to help students engage with, interpret, and analyze media, both in terms of historical contexts and present-day events? How do these strategies differ depending on whether the media is historical or current?