Second graders at Davis Magnet IB World School took these photographs as part of a project called Davis on the Map.

I am not going to write captions here or identify the student photographers. These came from a quick pass through many (but not all) of the photographs.

Some of the great photography observations: “It is easier to take photographs in the shade than in bright sunlight.” “I noticed the star pattern. I didn’t see it when I wasn’t looking through the camera.”
Students studied the photography of Roland Freeman before they began taking their own pictures. They also spent time looking at books with many different kinds of photographs. I think the preparation shows.
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The second class went out photographing the neighborhood today. We had fully charged cameras and enthusiastic students. Once again, our neighbors were welcoming and gracious. I modified my explanations a little based on my experience on Monday. Before heading out with each group of six, we talked about why the camera seems to go off unexpectedly; we talked about horizontal and vertical photographs; and we reminded them that the purpose of the trip was to capture photographs of the neighborhood and our neighbors — not each other. (That might be a project for another day or another group — portraits.)

Here the students are meeting Carlton Reeves, an attorney who works across the street from Davis Magnet IB World School. Later, writing in a journal, one of the students wrote that he had learned that some lawyers work right across the street: “I will want to join that job.” Reeves is part of the firm Pigott, Reeves, and Johnson. Brad Pigott answered many student questions, including: “What tools do you use?” “What kinds of people come to you for help?” He showed them the firm’s library (now tiny because of internet access to law books), the copy room, the offices of his partner’s, and, most importantly, his desk.

Several students brought small notepads with pens or pencils to take notes during the visits. The teachers, Ms. West today and Mrs. Jones on Monday, also took notes. In between last week’s preview walk and this week’s photography field trips, the students wrote in journals and composed questions. Here is one student’s summary: “We went walking. I saw a lot of places. We got a lot of information. We talked about our neighborhood. We saw a fountan too. We took a long walk. We saw a big party house too. We did not know our neighborhood was like this. And I learned that our place is not that bad. Our place is good. This place in Jackson is special to me. We almost went to every house. Every house we came to the people that was there were all being nice.”

Here we are at The Commons at Eudora Welty’s Birthplace. Jonathan Sims, the resident artist, played a little music in a building (once a house) that is being renovated to house a restaurant. Here’s what one student wrote after last week’s visit to the Commons: “Eudora Welty was real special because she was a famous writer. Eudora has a statue of her because she won a big prize for being a good writer. The thing I want to know is was Eudora Welty real tall.”

Davis second graders set out for their first neighborhood walk today, accompanied by teachers, parents, and me, the resident artist. We walked along Congress, Barksdale, West, and George streets to meet neigbhors of all kinds: lawyers, homeowners, missionaries, labor unionists, restaurateurs, developers, and public policy analysts. All the houses we toured were very old, but had been renovated for various uses.

In several places, students noticed photographs hanging on the walls: in two places, the photographs were hung as artwork: a law firm had a small gallery of black and white photographs of old buildings around the state and a restaurant had copies of very old photographs of Jackson in the early 1900s. In the family home we visited, there were many family pictures displayed in the hallway and on the dining room walls.

We spent time with some Christian missionaries who open their homes for church services, prayer meetings, meals, and who give away clothes and Bibles. The students had many questions for the two women: “Where do you get the money to buy all these houses?”
“Do you also have toys to give away?”

“Do you know your neighbors?”
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“Do you walk around in the neighborhood?”
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“Why do you have all these pictures on the walls?”
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In several cases, the current owners of the houses were able to tell the students about the first occupants of the house. Across Congress street from Davis is the childhood home of writer Eudora Welty. One stop along our tour was a new development called The Commons at Eudora Welty’s Birthplace. Old homes around the newly built plaza now house a coffee shop and bookstore. Another house has been renovated for a restaurant. In addition, there is a brand new building — built in a style consistent with the surrounding houses — for large events such as weddings.

In the center of the plaza is a water fountain, which the students loved. All in all, the tour took about two hours. We stopped in on eight of our neighbors. Now, students will reflect on what they learned, do some more research, and select the places they’d like to go back and photograph. That will happen next week.

I am continuing my work on the photography unit I’ll be doing with second graders at Davis Magnet IB World School. I introduced this in two previous posts: first, here, and then, here. Today, I’ll discuss how I prepared my introductory workshop for students. First, the team and I talked about the nuts and bolts: I will be working with two classes, totaling 49 students. We decided that the introductory workshop will take place in the auditorium and I’ll do four 45-minute sessions — during each time slot, half the class and the classroom teacher will join me in the auditorium and half the class will remain in the classroom with a teaching assistant.

In order to put together my talk, I had to make some broad decisions. First, as we talked as a team, we realized that my primary goal is not to teach the students photography, but to equip them to use photography as a tool to help them learn about the school’s neighborhood. It helps to keep focused on the central idea: “Individuals and groups work together to build and maintain a neighborhood.”

The second helpful step was to review the visual arts curriculum objectives for the unit. I had pulled these objectives from the Mississippi Department of Education’s Visual Arts Curriculum. For artists who don’t have experience in elementary school classrooms, these objectives are a wonderful resource. In particular, they help with making sure the material is at the right level. For example:

5a. Identify art that tells stories and expresses ideas and feelings.

5b. Know ways that artwork and design communicate ideas, actions, and emotions.

2b. Identify foreground, background, and middle ground in a work of art.

2e. Recognize dominant elements of art in art work. (line, shape, color, texture, form, pattern.)

So, in my talk I will introduce myself as an artist; and then as a photographer. I will tell them why I take photographs (i.e. what I want to communicate and what I want to learn). I will then introduce the photography of Roland Freeman. Together we will look at and analyze some of his documentary photographs. My talk is peppered with questions for the students. They will get up from their seats to examine the photographs; they will listen to my observations, but they will also make their own.

In addition to my talk, I developed two activities: one we will do in the auditorium and one will be done in the classroom. The first is a cutline matching activity. I will read the cutlines and the students will try to identify the photograph that it belongs with. I want the students to understand that photographers also use text to communicate. We will talk about how the photographer collected the information in the cutline. (I created a one-page sheet of thumbnail versions of the Roland Freeman photographs we’ll be talking about so students can continue to refer to them in the classroom: they will be writing about them in journals.)
The second activity is a simple one that will get students thinking about framing. Students will use paper, a pencil, and a ruler to make a frame. The teaching assistant will supervise this activity in the classroom.