Using Photographs in the Classroom

I work at a school where over 90% of the students live in poverty. They simply do not have same the experiences as students from other schools in our district. I attended a training once at a school in a very different part of town. The students were doing their activity and having a conversation comparing their trips where they went to the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower respectively. They were in 3rd Grade! Most of my students have not even been to the beach a little over 2 hours away. Many of my students' families don't have reliable transportation and visit the places they can walk or take the city bus to.

Knowing this fact, I like to use lots of photographs in the classroom. Photos from different cultures, photos from all over the world. I really like the site: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/week-in-pictures , however there are many different "This Week in Pictures" sites from various news organizations. I would not recommend letting the students on the site themselves-sometimes there are graphic pics from war and protests. But they have a lot of human interest pictures.

So how do I use them in the classroom (all pics are from the site above): 

1) Our objectives include speaking in complete sentences-so describe this picture in a complete sentence as part of our morning whole group warm-up:

2) Telling stories: tell me a story about this picture-beginning, middle, end.

3) Creating titles or captions:

4) Math-how many squares? How many wheels? 

5) Unanswered questions: what questions do we still have about this picture.

6) Social Studies-current events/comparing cultures

7) To inspire writing-look at this picture and write a story. Sometimes I give everyone a different picture-then this can be a workstation.

8) Teaching empathy-how does the picture make you feel? How do the people in the picture feel?

9) Big Ideas-what could this picture represent?

I'm so excited to be starting a Photography Club for our students this year. I am hoping to teach them about famous photographers like my favorite, Ansel Adams and then teach them the basics about taking photos. I want them to learn there's more than just taking selfies. :) If anyone has had a club like this in elementary and has any suggestions-I would love to hear them. Still trying to figure out the logistics. I think using disposable cameras would be too expensive and I don't know about letting them take the digital cameras home. But we'll figure it out! :)