Images in the Classroom

A few years ago I was reflecting on how best to teach the African Slave Trade to my 9th grade world history students. While there are many different pedagogical approaches to teaching such disturbing and inhumane events and ideas to students, many of these methods require educators to use grade level or above readings and writing assignments. Certainly, these readings can be quite provocative and stimulate great discussion; however, I found that many of my students were so challenged by slave narratives and other primary and secondary documents that the full effect of the atrocities could not be felt. While that year many of my students had more life experience than me in terms of issues they dealt with on a daily basis they lacked the reading skills to match their maturity. For many educators this is certainly a problem—struggling readers with the ability to process complex and mature concepts and topics. As I brainstormed how best to take on this pedagogical challenge it led to reflection on how to best engage students in topics that are sometimes controversial, emotional, and unimaginable. The answer was clear—images.
As this week’s readings suggest, images are able to stimulate ideas and express meaning and stories. Further, they can encourage analysis and synthesis. For this particular lesson my goal was for students to understand:

1) the effects of European enslavement on the indigenous peoples of the Americas,
2) the role of African tribes in selling/trading slaves to Europeans,
3) the European conquest of African villages,
4) the experience of the Middle Passage including slave revolts and conditions aboard the slave ships, and
5) the arrival of the slave, the slave auction, and life on the plantation

To accomplish these goals I collected images of each part of the slave experience. Before presenting these images to the students we discussed the process of analyzing images and the power that an image can convey. After modeling an image analysis, students were organized into groups of three and given an envelope of images. The first task required students to place the images in order. During this phase, students were able to see the chronology of the experience and see the “big picture” of what had occurred. While this could have been done through a reading as well, being able to hold on to the pictures and creating a visual timeline for students made the ideas and events more tangible. Once students believed that the pictures were arranged in the appropriate order they articulated to me why the order that they had was correct. The next step required students to do an analysis of each image. This demanded students to look at particular details just as they would read for in a printed text. Students were encouraged to look for expression, types of weapons, clothing, etc. for each image in a step-by-step process. The end result was that students were able to breakdown each event/phase of the atrocity and talk about each with a strong sense of understanding. During the image analysis process students were also asked to develop discussion questions and write a list of questions to further inquiry to stimulate further exploration. The last phase of the lesson required students to take what they learned from the images and discussion and write a letter to slave.

Since I developed this lesson I have done it every year and found it incredibly successful. Students engage with the images and are able to create more connections than had I simply used slave narratives or other primary and secondary sources. The images encourage students to think critically and “see” history in front of them versus that of “reading” history. Since this activity I’ve had an increased appreciation for incorporating images in the classroom, especially when the topics lend themselves to challenging themes.