Explaining the image Explain the im age Observations WHO is in the image? Use visual cl ues to develo p informative explanations of images WHAT are the people doing? Pu rp os e • Introductory analysis: To help students unde rstand the basic co image in anticipatio ntents of an n of involving them in other activities req of the image. uiring deeper analy sis • General information: To help students gathe r general informatio a historical or conte n about mporary situation or place — either to studied or to provide extend what they ha a starting point for ve already an inquiry into a ne w topic. criteria: ◆ ◆ , without captions WHERE does the image take place? or explanations, tha t meet the following create some myste ry about the event depicted; allow students to dr aw several inferenc es about each of the 5W er. age or protective cov They have little camoufl e of edg the at d ate situ are They look as if they of of a large area. One view a has t tha d roa a ions icat mun com a g usin the men appears to be type ly members of some The two men are like anized org tia because an of informal army or mili man r uniforms. The military unit would wea er. They are not likely lead the be standing might ical Islamic group. to be members of a rad and up their large weapon They could be setting out d checkpoint or look ammunition along a roa n monitoring the situatio be spot. They seem to . to fire their weapon rather than preparing device. Im ag e se le ct io n • Select one or more images t is in casual clothing tha Two men are dressed ha s. They are posing wit common among Moslem s arm . They have no side large motorized weapon the of pons are visible. One and no secondary wea cap. yer men is wearing a pra Possible inferences questions. Inve s t igat ing image s Explain the ima ge WHEN did the action in the image take place? WHY is the action happening? ears in sight. The land app There are no buildings the in ins nta with mou to be semi-arid plains htly tion seems to be slig loca ir The d. oun backgr . und nding gro higher than the surrou ss to be contemporary dre The clothing appears tex ern shirts and mod for Islamic men: fitted potem con appear to be tiles. The weapons also not to be still green and ear app ds rary. The fiel mer weather. yet burned by hot sum ners. They have a substa They are observing oth ry; do not seem in a hur tial military weapon but road. a by they are positioned Summary explanation: e along the edge of a They could be on a ridg as Eastern country such rural road in a Middle n. Afghanistan or Pakista ; within the last 20 summer Late spring or early so. years or g screen the traffic alon They may be trying to m fro esirable groups the road to prevent und entering the region. ned a large weapon positio bers of a militia with portray two Islamic mem ly sumear or ing spr The image appears to late tern country during the al area in a Middle Eas ups. to monitor a large rur region from hostile gro order to safeguard the in 0s 200 ly ear or mer of the late 1990s ul — rds on the road to Kab ingimages Northern Alliance gua nicsourcebook/investigat ://www.tc2.ca/wp/electro http at le ilab ava ge Ima This resource was produced with the support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). We also acknowledge the contributions of Library and Archives Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Council (SSHRC). Credits: Featured photo: © CIDA photo Roger LeMoyne. Small images: (top) Glenbow Museum NA-2445-3; (middle) Library and Archives Canada e000762644; (bottom) © Susan Duncan. Design: Poissy Design Inc., Vancouver Published by in conjunction with © The Critical Thinking Consortium 2009 Purchasers of this resource have permission to duplicate the blackline masters for their own classroom use. The teaching instructions are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced or digitally copied without prior written permission. ive. er what makes an explanation informat Explaining the image Name: _______________________________________ Ins t ruc tio ns Image: _______________________________________ red on the previous page or • Distribute image(s): Use the image featu before students investigate other ity another image to demonstrate the activ of students with a sample image, or images independently. Provide pairs two or three minutes for each pair to display the image on a screen. Allow discuss what it sees. of images as sources of information. • Introduce the task: Discuss the valueunco ver detailed information about Explain that students will be asked to Their task — like that of a reporter or the situation portrayed in the image. ive explanation of the image. Distribhistorian — is to develop an informat the students. ute a copy of Explaining the image to • : Explain that the students’ task Explain inferences and observations clues or observations. Provide an is to draw inferences based on visual the image (such as, the two men example of a direct observation from example, the men might belong have a large gun) and an inference (for observation provides the evidence to a military group). Point out that the e other observations and suggest for the inference. Invite students to mak fact that the men don’t appear to be possible inferences (for example, the are not part of the regular wearing uniforms may suggest that they Sample prompts WHO is in the image? Observations Possible inferences • What role or occupation? • What status (rich/poor)? • If several people, are they related to each other? WHAT • What actions? are the people doing? • What objects are used? WHERE • In what region or country? does the image take place? • What is the focus of attention? • In what setting (rural or urban)? • What is the terrain (flat/mountainous)? • Are there landmarks (natural and human)? WHEN • What time of day? did the action in the image take place? • What time of year? WHY • What reason might there be for the actions? is the action happening? • What year or decade? • What historical period? • Does the broader context suggest a purpose? • What might happen next? Summary explanation: Criteria for an informative explanation Accurate and relevant observations: the evidence accurately describes the relevant details in the image; Plausible and imaginative inferences: the inferences go beyond the very obvious conclusions and are supported with several pieces of evidence found in the image or based on other known facts; Use with Explain the image © The Critical Thinking Consortium 2009 Detailed and fully developed explanation: the explanation includes suggestions with appropriate detail for each of the 5W questions. uss with a partn • Discuss criteria: Invite students to discexpl them (for example: anations and invite students to critique If necessary, provide examples of poor ussion, introduce the attacking a city.). Based on student disc The men are having a picnic. They are rmative explanation: following criteria for identifying an info ant offered accurately describe the relev observations: the observations that are ◆ accurate and relevant are details in the image; nd the very obvious conclusions and ve inferences: the inferences go beyo topic; the t ◆ plausible and imaginati abou n know facts found in the image or based on other tive supported by several pieces of evidence tenta but iled deta ides appropriately loped explanation: the explanation prov ◆ detailed and fully deve answers to each of the 5W questions. to examine the ing in pairs • Develop explanations: Invite students work and possible inferences on the ons rvati nts’ underConfirm stude ferences and in of g in nd sta r by asking fo observations . each examples of assigned image and to record their obse must be supported by one or more chart. Remind students that an inference students to develop a detailed summary observations from the image. Instruct questions by incorporating the most explanation addressing each of the 5W sentence or short paragraph. Remind reasonable inferences into an extended tifying an informative explanation and students to consider the criteria for iden to avoid making definitive statements. ion of the image with another military forces). • Share findings: Invite student pairs to share their explanat pair of students. plausibility of their explana- to confirm the • Seek corroboration: Encourage studinents e topic or the image or in other images of the sam Assessing the explanation cularly that are parti from the image ghlighting fo ity easier by hi Make the activ l, ation. duce additiona loping an explan d images; intro te re helpful in deve rp te in y sil er, more ea dents with few ay • Provide some stu nge students. le al ch to simple, everyd images clusion” using on “c d more enigmatic an e” nc of “evide ew the concepts ow this?). entify • Where needed,hreasvi, Sally is tired. What evidence might sh te students to id uc lusions and invi (s nc co le sib examples au pl ovide a few e struggling, pr • For students wtahoilsarfrom the image. res of paper to at they use squa supporting de by suggesting th e ag im e th in on the detail • Help students tfooncue-s quarter of the image at a time. conceal all bu • Name:_____________________________________ As se ssment After students have received feedback on several attempts to develop informative explanations for images, use Assessing the explanation, to evaluate their completed charts. Outstanding Identifies many Accurate and and relevant relevant accurate details observations from the image, including several less obvious details. Plausible and imaginative inferences Detailed and fully developed explanation Provides many varied and imaginative inferences that are highly plausible. Very good Identifies many relevant and accurate observations from the image, occasionally recognizes less obvious details. Provides many plausible and sometimes imaginative inferences. ___ Competent Identifies a number of relevant and accurate, but obvious details from the image. Basic Identifies only a few of the most obvious details from the image, not all of them are relevant or accurate. Provides a number Provides a few plausible of inferences that are generally but obvious inferences. plausible but rather obvious. Explains the most Explains the image Explains the basic aspects of image in some in rich detail, the image but not providing insightful detail, providing with much detail. conclusions about conclusions about each aspect of the each aspect of the image. image. Explains the image in general terms that cover only some aspects of the image. In progress Struggles to identify any relevant and accurate details from the image. Struggles to provide any plausible inferences that build upon the observations. Struggles to explain any aspects of the image in any detail. Comments: Use with Explain the image © The Critical Thinking Consortium 2009 Inve s t igat ing image s tions by referring to additional clues oborate and textbook, or the internet) that can corr to outside sources (such as an atlas, a supplement their conclusions. form of ents understand what is required of this • Investigate other images: When studback ts and sumchar data d plete com e on one or mor investigation and have received feed the data chart for l images to investigate and a copy of mary explanations, provide additiona each image. what has been all the images, as a class, summarize • Summarize information: Drawing on orar ion about rmat info l tiona y event. Provide addi learned about the historical or contemp osed. prop been have that ns any dubious conclusio the topic or the image(s) to challenge series to help duce students to other activities in this • Further investigation: If desired, intro different investigative lenses. them explore the same images using Explain the image Suggest that the 5Ws are an (Who? What? Where? When? Why?). • Introduce the 5Ws: Review the 5Wsand to suggest the most obvious ents drawing inferences. Invite stud effective strategy for reading images or two of the 5W questions. responses in the featured image to one beyond obvious clues, trying • Look for details: Encourage students toiblelook from the image. Invite students to extract as much information as poss g the image to generate more to use the sample prompts on Explainin Confirm that studen ts can stigation. If necessary, provide an specific questions to guide their inve cor rectly identify key and ted) arres details be to t abou are men of the image(s) and unfounded inference (for example, the draw If e. imag the by orted supp be ot plausible inference invite students to explain why this cann s. featured in the image(s), encourage topic the ied stud dy alrea have ents stud s. ence knowledge when making infer them to draw upon their background e of the topic, encourage students ledg know If they have little background s. Suggest that they qualify their conto be very tentative in their inference be,” “possibly,” and “perhaps.” clusions by using terms such as “may r students details Encourage stude nts to provide feedback on oth er students’ completed data charts based on the criteria, perh aps using the assessment rubr ic. Explaining the image Name:________________________________________ Image:________________________________________ Sample prompts WHO is in the image? Observations Possible inferences • What role or occupation? • What status (rich/poor)? • If several people, are they related to each other? WHAT • What actions? are the people doing? • What objects are used? WHERE • In what region or country? does the image take place? • What is the focus of attention? • In what setting (rural or urban)? • What is the terrain (flat/mountainous)? • Are there landmarks (natural and human)? WHEN • What time of day? did the action in the image take place? • What time of year? WHY • What reason might there be for the actions? is the action happening? • What year or decade? • What historical period? • Does the broader context suggest a purpose? • What might happen next? Summary explanation: Criteria for an informative explanation Accurate and relevant observations: the evidence accurately describes the relevant details in the image; Plausible and imaginative inferences: the inferences go beyond the very obvious conclusions and are supported with several pieces of evidence found in the image or based on other known facts; Use with Explain the image © The Critical Thinking Consortium 2009 Detailed and fully developed explanation: the explanation includes suggestions with appropriate detail for each of the 5W questions. Assessing the explanation Name:________________________________________ Outstanding Identifies many Accurate and relevant relevant and observations accurate details from the image, including several less obvious details. Plausible and imaginative inferences Provides many varied and imaginative inferences that are highly plausible. Detailed and fully developed explanation Explains the image in rich detail, providing insightful conclusions about each aspect of the image. Very good Competent Basic In progress Identifies many relevant and accurate observations from the image, occasionally recognizes less obvious details. Identifies a number of relevant and accurate, but obvious details from the image. Identifies only a few of the most obvious details from the image, not all of them are relevant or accurate. Struggles to identify any relevant and accurate details from the image. Provides many plausible and sometimes imaginative inferences. Provides a number of inferences that are generally plausible but rather obvious. Provides a few plausible but obvious inferences. Struggles to provide any plausible inferences that build upon the observations. Explains the image in some detail, providing conclusions about each aspect of the image. Explains the most basic aspects of the image but not with much detail. Explains the image in general terms that cover only some aspects of the image. Struggles to explain any aspects of the image in any detail. Comments: Use with Explain the image © The Critical Thinking Consortium 2009