I just got around to perusing the Feb/Mar 2008 Issue of Reading Today this afternoon. Tucked away on page 46 I found an article entitled “‘Reading’ photographs can lead students to better writing,” which talks about a book that deals with this entire concept. I’ve always been a proponent in looking at photographs and helping them to craft writing, but this book takes it a step further with writing activities that can be inspired by photos. Reading Photographs to Write with Meaning and Purpose is definitely going on my “to read” list for this-coming summer.
Reading Photographs Helps Students Write Better
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
On the Media Literacy Clearinghouse website, you might be interested in “Is Seeing Believing”? designed to get students to think critically about images in the past and present.
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How strange that you would blog about this topic because I just did a lesson today on using pictures to analyze mood. My kids did a great job with it. I, too, use photos with writing in my class and the book you suggested looks great. I might need to pick up a copy. Thanks again for all your great suggestions.
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Stacey-took a workshop at the National Portrait Gallery last fall. One activity we did with a partner was to select a portrait in a gallery and talk about how we could each use it to teach across curricular areas in 10 minutes. My partner was a high school history teacher and I’m elementary. We selected a Keith Haring painting. We couldn’t talk enough about the possibilities for both our classes once we got thinking about it. The point was to get us and thus our students to develop our visual literacy. I can’t imagine how much our kids could have talked about it! This book sounds great. Thanks for the tip.
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Reading photographs.
I’d never thought of this. But it does make sense.
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