Grades:	Upper elementary (3–5)
Subjects: 	English–Language Arts
Time Required: 	Approximately 4 class periods
Author: 	Susie Newman, Dean of Academic Affairs, Marquez Charter School, Los Angeles,
	with J. Paul Getty Museum Education Staff

Lesson Overview 
Students keep journals in which they respond in writing to Dorothea Lange’s photographs.

Featured Getty Artwork
White Angel Bread Line, San Francisco by Dorothea Lange
Stoop Labor in Cotton Field, San Joaquin Valley, California by Dorothea Lange
Dust Bowl Refugees Arrive in California by Dorothea Lange
Pledge of Allegiance, Rafael Weill Elementary School, San Francisco by Dorothea Lange

Learning Objectives
- Students will respond in writing to selected images by Dorothea Lange.
- Students will create their own journals filled with reflections on Lange’s photographs.

Materials Required
- Journals or sketchbooks (or several sheets of paper stapled or bound together with yarn), pencils

Steps

Day 1: Students create journals that will be used for writing, sketching, and pasting in images. 
Introduce each image to the students as an independent basis for discussion, and then bring the images together for a comparative discussion. Use the following photo-analysis questions to get started.
- What do you see, think, and feel when you look at this photograph?
- If you can see facial expressions of people depicted, how would you describe them? 
- How would you describe the body language of the people depicted?
- What do you think the people might be thinking?
- What sort of response do you think Lange wanted you to have?
- How would you describe the setting in the image?
- Can you tell the time of day or season? How can you tell?
- What do you think the image is about? What makes you say that?
Discuss the images as a group:
- How are these images similar?
- What differences do you notice?

Summarize what students have reported on each of the images. Provide background information about the images that is appropriate for students’ comprehension levels. Also provide biographical information about Lange.

Days 2 and 3: Reintroduce the images as a group to students. Ask them to take a quiet moment to look at them carefully. Have each student choose an image, and provide the student with a photocopy. Explain that the image they choose will be the subject of their journal entries. Ask students to paste their photocopied image inside their journals.

Journal assignments:
Description—students write about what they see in the image they have chosen. Encourage them to start off by listing what is in the image (the nouns). Next, students can include descriptive words (adjectives). 
Questions—students write questions they have about the image. These might be questions about the people, setting, or action depicted, or they might be questions they would like to ask the photographer.
Reflections—students write about their personal reactions to the image. What is the overall mood or message of the photograph? Do they like it or not? Why? To prompt their writing, it may be helpful for them to think in terms of themes, for example: hardship, patriotism, work, and daily life. 
Diary entry—students write a story in the form of a diary entry about what is depicted in the photograph. Students write in the voice of one of the people in the image they selected. Students base their writing on what is in the photograph, the background information they have about Lange, and the events surrounding the image. 

Day 4: 	Students read their entries aloud to the class.

Assessment
Teacher observation of student discussion and time on task.

Students write about the images from four angles: describing what they see, posing questions, reflecting on their personal response to the image, and creating a diary entry written in the voice of an individual depicted in the image.

Extensions
Have students write and illustrate a story using the steps below.
- As a class, make a web showing the common characteristics of a story.

- Identify the main character of the photograph in Dust Bowl Refugees.

- Use the characteristics of the main characters and of the web to create a series of events that leads up to the scene in Dust Bowl Refugees.

- Chart a list of the events in order as reference for the students.

- Write a story that includes the main events that are listed on the chart.

- Use colored pencils and have the students re-create in their journals the main events leading up to the moment in Dust Bowl Refugees.

Standards Addressed

Common Core Standards for English Language Arts

Grades 3–5

WRITING
3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons.
3.4 With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
4.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
4.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
4.4 Produce clear and coherent writing (including multiple-paragraph texts) in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING
3.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
4.3 Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker or media source provides to support particular points.
4.6 Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English (e.g., presenting ideas) and situations where informal discourse is appropriate (e.g., small-group discussion); use formal English when appropriate to task and situation. (See grade 4 Language standards 1 and 3 for specific expectations.)
5.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
5.3 Summarize the points a speaker or media source makes and explain how each claim is supported by reasons and evidence, and identify and analyze any logical fallacies.

English-Language Arts Content Standards for California Public Schools

Grade 3
Writing 
2.2–Write descriptions that use concrete sensory details to present and support unified impressions of people, places, things, or experiences.

Grade 4
Writing
2.1–Write narratives: 
a. Relate ideas, observations, or recollections of an event or experience.
b. Use concrete sensory details.

National Standards for English-Language Arts 

Grades K–12 
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.