Literacy Through Photography
Project: Exploring Colors and
Emotions Through Pictures
RE 5130
TARA KIVETT
1 ST G R A D E
RAY CHILDERS ELEMENTARY
Lesson Plan for Day 1
Objectives
 NCSCOS Social Studies Competency Goal 1.03- The
learner will compare and contrast similarities and
differences among individuals and families.
 NCSCOS Language Arts Goal 4.04- The learner will
engage in extended oral discussions
Day 1: Colors and Emotions
 I read the book One by Kathryn Otoshi to my students which is about
the color blue which is bullied by the color red. The book includes
others colors in the story and I asked the students to look for the
emotions or feelings that the colors stood for in the book. When I was
finished reading the story we made a list of colors and the emotions
that they felt they represented.
 Here is the list: blue-sad, peaceful, calm; green- happy, sick, curious;
black- sad, very mad; purple- important, very happy; yellow- happy,
excited; red- angry, embarrassed, happy
 This was the springboard for my first graders to begin thinking about
what they would like to take a picture of on the playground. They would
be finding an emotion in the color of an object and taking a picture of it.
Lesson Plan for Day 2
Objectives
 NCSCOS Competency Goal Social Studies 1.03- The
learner will compare and contrast similarities and
differences among individuals and families.
 NCSCOS Competency Goal Language Arts 4.04- The
learner will clarify purposes for engaging in
communication.
Day 2: Framing and How to Use a Camera
 I decided to use our violence intervention program called Second Step
because it uses large cards with pictures for discussion that go along
with lessons. I chose two pictures that had children in them. I held the
first picture up that had a little girl in the middle sitting on grass
pulling a piece of gum off of her shoe. In the background you can see a
blacktop but she is the main focus. I asked the kids if they remembered
the picture and they all did and responded with the fact that the little
girl was upset that she had gotten gum on her shoe. I told them that
now instead of focusing on her feelings and the little girl I wanted to
focus on the photographer or the person who took the picture because
they were getting ready to be photographers.
Day 2 continued
 I asked them to look at the size of the girl in the photograph and talk to me
about her size. They all said she looked big. We all shared how to make
objects larger with a zoom button. I then asked them why they thought the
little girl was in the middle of the picture and they responded with because
that’s what the picture is about. I thought that was great. I linked this to
what they would be doing by writing on chart paper the key points they had
just made. I titled the chart paper photographers. I wrote down use zoom
or get closer to objects to make them larger and focus on one thing to make
it stand out. I explained to them that they should do this when they took
their pictures too. We looked at the second picture of two little girls. One
girl is skateboarding and the other little girl is standing with her arms
crossed and not happy. I chose this picture because it has two subjects and
I wanted them to see that it is still balanced. I asked them to talk about the
size of the subjects or people this time. They said that the girls weren’t that
big this time and I asked them why. After thinking for a minute they got
the concept that it was because there were two of the girls in the picture
and one student said “The photographer probably couldn’t get so close to
them. He had to stay back”.
Day 2 Wrap Up
 I added to my list if you’re taking a picture of something large
or more than one thing you don’t always need to zoom in and
may need to stay back. After making our list I showed the
students the camera that they would be using and told them I
would show them the zoom button that would allow them to
make things larger like we had just discussed. They all went
back to their seats and I put the camera under my document
camera as I pointed out the basic parts of the camera: the on
button, the shoot button, and the zoom button. Then the
students all got a square with the middle cut out and practiced
going around the room and framing an object. If they couldn’t
get the object in their frame they knew they had to step back
and if they couldn’t see the object in their frame they knew
they had to “zoom in”. This was the link to our actual
photographing.
Lesson Plan for Day 3
Objectives
 NCSCOS Competency Goal Guidance: 4.05- The
learner will develop skills in areas of interests.
 NCSCOS Competency Goal Guidance: 4.03- The
learner will demonstrate how to work cooperatively.
Day 3: Photography Day
 Today my students went outside on the playground to take their
pictures of something that was a particular color that they had chosen.
 Some students took pictures of slides, trashbags, benches, others
student’s shirts, and even grass. I noticed most students chose to move
closer to the objects to do framing but twos student remembered how
to zoom in and one got a good picture of the sky. Most of the students
centered the objects in the middle of the screen on the camera and I
only had to help two hold the camera because they weren’t able to see
what they were trying to take a picture of on the screen. One of these
was an ESL student who said she had never gotten to use a camera
before. The whole process only took about 15 minutes and I was very
surprised at how quickly it went by.
Lesson Plan for Day 4
Objectives
 NCSCOS Competency Goal Language Arts 4.05- The
learner will write by using an author’s model of
language (mine) and extending the model.
Day 4: Descriptive Writing
 I printed off the pictures that the students had taken outside
and told them that we would be using them to do a writing
task today. I reminded them that we had talked about how
certain colors make us think of feelings and referred back to
our feelings chart that we had made together. I showed the
students a picture of grass that I had taken. I told them I was
going to show them an example of how to write about the
picture in way that lets someone know how that picture makes
me feel and that they could use my writing as a model much
like we can use author’s books as a model for writing. I asked
them what I took a picture of and they responded “Grass”. I
wrote down “I took a picture of grass” for my first sentence. I
then reminded them that we had talked about how important
colors were in Kathryn Otoshi’s book and I needed to mention
this so for my next sentence I wrote “The color was green”.
Day 4 continued
 I explained that I needed to talk about how that color makes me feel
and not only how it makes me feel but why because not everyone may
feel the same way about green. I explained that green makes me feel
peaceful because you can lie in grass so for my next sentence I wrote
“Green makes me feel peaceful as if I am a child again lying in the soft
grass watching the clouds”. I asked the kids to tell me the three things
that I told them in my piece of writing and they said, 1) what I took a
picture of 2) the color 3) how it makes me feel and why. I told my
students I wanted them to use my model and tell me those same three
things about their pictures and that they should glue their pictures to
the top of their papers.
 While students worked on their writing I walked around and if they
were vague I asked a question that prompted them to give more
information.
Lesson Plan for Day 5
Objectives
 NCSCOS Competency Goal Social Studies 4.06- The learner
will compose a variety of written products. (friendly letter)
 NCSCOS Competency Goal Social Studies 5.06- The learner
will self monitor composition by peer conferences.
Day 5- Friendly Letters
 I had the kids recall the emotion that they wrote about when describing
their picture from day four. Then they talked to a neighbor about a time
that they felt that way. I shared my example first of feeling relaxed. I
talked about feeling relaxed this summer when I went to the beach and
walked along the shore at night and how I could feel the cool sand
beneath my bare feet. I told them that there weren’t a lot of people out
on the beach at night so it wasn’t noisy and all you could hear the waves
gently crashing in the ocean. All that made me feel relaxed.
 We reviewed the parts of a friendly letter: the greeting, the body, the
closing, and signature. They all began to write their letters to me using
what they had discussed with their partner. Students drew a picture to
go along with their writing and shared it with a partner.
Student Photography
STUDENT DESCRIPTIVE
WRITING AND FRIENDLY
LETTERS AS EVIDENCE OF
STUDENT LEARNING
Student 1
Photography/Description
Friendly Letter
Evidence of Student Learning

Visual Literacy
On our playground at this time of year the
grass is patchy in some places, particularly
where we were taking pictures. When this
student took her picture she chose an area
that had as much grass as she could find
and although she did not use the zoom
button she did get pretty close to the
clovers that she wanted in the pictures. As
I watched her, I noticed that she dropped
down on her knee and bent down so she
could do the zooming in herself. She was
very comfortable with the camera and
knew where to push the button to shoot.
She did not try to stand back and take a
picture of everything and really had a firm
grasp of framing. The only thing that
could have made her picture better would
have been to use the zoom button, but I
think the picture works because she still
got close enough so that her picture is
mainly focused on the green clovers.

Writing
This child is one of my lower readers and
writers. I have worked with her on
consistent punctuation and capitalization
and she has mainly used them
consistently in this piece. According to my
rubric she is a developing writing and she
included a four leaf clover in both writing
samples, although she didn’t have to do so
in the friendly letter. This shows me that
the project really interested her. When I
asked her about her picture on the
friendly letter she said the person in black
was her sister and she was in the corner. I
asked her why she was upside down and
she said she wasn’t upside down, she was
just getting down low to take a picture of
the four leaf clovers. Since she drew a
picture of herself taking the pictures I
could conclude she really enjoyed the
project and her writing reflected this.
Student 2
Photography/Description
Friendly Letter
Evidence of Student Learning
 Visual Literacy
This student had a bit more trouble with the
camera than most. When she got the camera
she couldn’t see the dirt that she wanted to
take a picture of. So I asked where she was
pointing it and she realized that she wasn’t
pointing it down toward the dirt. Once I
finally got her “pointed in the right direction”
literally she knelt down to get a picture of the
dirt. She didn’t quite have the concept of
framing what’s most important as the grass is
in the middle of the picture but I was just
happy that we got dirt in the picture after the
first few attempts. I was actually surprised
that this student didn’t have more experience
with the camera because she comes from one
of my more affluent families but I don’t think
that she takes on much responsibility. I
definitely see that it’s not too early to start
teaching them these skills like photography.
She was very happy once she got her picture
and was satisfied so we kept the one that you
see at the top of her writing.
 Writing
While writing this student got stuck on orange
makes me feel relaxed so I asked her why and
she said it reminds her of an orange chair. I
thought that it was interesting that she chose to
compare the orange dirt to an orange chair. I
wish that she had gone on to say why an
orange chair is relaxing (comfy, watch tv, etc)
but her main idea is there. In her friendly
letter she chose to write about feeling relaxed
in her room. She included the color of her
bed and when she felt relaxed which was at
night. I thought her ending was interesting
“In my own room I sleep”. This sounds like a
poem to me. She probably has no idea that
her letter could probably be used as poetry
but I was thinking that it could even be suited
for shape poetry. According to my rubric I think
that she has characteristics of an early
developing and developing writer. Her
punctuation and capitalization is consistent and
her spelling is easily read but she does not
include as many details for content purposes.
Student 3
Photography/Description
Friendly Letter
Evidence of Student Learning
 Visual Learning
This student was only one of two who
remembered how to zoom in on an object. As
a result he got pretty close to the trashbag
that he wanted to take a picture of without
standing right up next to it. Also, the
trashbag is in the middle of the picture so it is
the main focus of the picture. He also asked
me a lot of questions while taking it so I knew
that he was really concerned with how it
would come out. For example he said
“Should I zoom in or step closer to it?” I also
thought it was interesting that he chose the
trashbag to take a picture of instead of a
bench or a tshirt like other students in my
class were doing. When I asked him why he
said he liked it because “It was shiny and it
flapped in the wind”. He seemed to very
comfortable with taking pictures and I think
he gets to do a lot of things independently at
home because he has 6 siblings. Overall, I
think he did a pretty good job with framing
and using the zoom feature of the camera.
 Writing
This student used the model that I provided
well and related the black trashbag to being
happy. This was unusual for me because
normally I don’t think about black as being a
happy color. However, I liked that he took
what he had talked about in our first lesson
and applied it. We had said that just because
one person might see a color and feel a
certain way doesn’t mean that you’ll feel the
same way. In talking with him I asked him
what made him think of haunted houses and
he said the trashbag when the wind hit it kind
of looked like a ghost and it made him
remember that he liked haunted houses. I
thought that was great and just another
example of how this project brought out great
connections. His friendly letter includes
details of setting, sound, time, and consistent
punctuation and capitalization. According to
the rubric he would be a developing writer.
I chose to put the
student photographs
along with writing
samples outside my
classroom in the hallway
to be displayed. Parents
frequently drop by and
can easily see student
work there. Other
teachers have been
wondering what we’re
doing with the cameras
and now see the finished
products. The kids all
feel a sense of pride to
see their work published
in the hallway. I have a
banner called great work
hangs out here. Work
will stay up for two
weeks.
Plan for Publishing Student Work
Rubric for Evaluating Student
Work
THESE ARE THE GUIDELINES I USE
THROUGHOUT THE 9 WEEKS TO ASSESS
WRITING SAMPLES. THIS RUBRIC IS A PART
OF THE K-2 LITERACY ASSESSMENT BY
NCDPI.
1ST GRADE WRITING RUBRIC FROM DPI
Final Thought
PHOTOGRAPHY IS AN OUTLET AND
MEANS OF OPENING UP MANY
STUDENTS IN AN EFFORT TO PROMOTE
LITERACY.