LEARN NC

North Carolina History Digital Textbook Project

Tobacco bag stringing: Elementary activity two

By Pauline S. Johnson

1 "Magic Eye" lesson plan

By Pauline S. Johnson

This is one of a series of activities that will help educators use the Tobacco Bag Stringing project materials in their classrooms. Throughout the series students will learn about tobacco stringing, study primary source documents and visuals, engage in a role play/debate, and practice critical thinking and analysis skills.

Learning outcomes

  • Students will analyze four primary source photographs from the Tobacco Bag Stringing collection.
  • Students will make inferences about the lives of the people in the photographs.
  • Students will recognize and discuss the place of primary source photographs in historical investigation.

Teacher planning

Materials needed

  • Copies of the four photographs. You will need one set for each group of four students. For this activity, you will need to cut off the names and the biographical information at the bottom of each photograph. You may also want to enlarge the images so they are easier to see. (Note: the photographs can be printed on standard computer paper, but may appear more engaging if printed on photographic paper.)
  • Mrs. Daisy Stamper
  • Mrs. Leacey Royal
  • Mrs. Samuel Stayley
  • Mrs. Cornelia Neal
  • Enough “Magic Eyes” for each student. A Magic Eye is a half sheet of construction paper or card stock with a hole about 2 1/2 inches in diameter cut from the center. The Magic Eyes give the students a chance to more carefully examine their photographs by focusing on smaller sections.
  • Copy of “Analyzing photographs using Magic Eye” sheet for student.
  • Copy of “Discussion questions” sheet for each group.

Time required for lesson

30–40 minutes

Procedure

  1. Ask the students how many of them have had pictures taken of them. Ask them how many of them have taken pictures. Have a short discussion about why people take pictures.
  2. Explain that they will be examining some photographs for a different reason today—to discover what it was like to live in a different time.
  3. Put the students in groups of four.
  4. Give each group one set of the photographs, and give each student a magic eye and a copy of the “Analyzing photographs Using Magic Eye” sheet. Each student will examine only one of the photographs at this time.
  5. Allow the students time to study their photograph and fill in their analysis sheet.
  6. After students have finished their individual analyses, have each student tell his or her group about the photo the student has studied.
  7. Tell the students they will now come up with a group idea (inference) about how it was to live in 1939 for the people in their photographs.
  8. Pass out copies of discussion questions to each group.
  9. Have them discuss and fill in the sheet.
  10. Allow time for groups to present their ideas to the class.
  11. Give students time to discuss the ideas and develop a class consensus.
  12. Explain that what they have done is the much the same thing that historians do when they use photographs to better understand a different time. Discuss why this is important. Make sure that students understand that, just as they had different interpretations of the photographs, historians may have different ideas about what photographs can tell, too.
  13. You may want to share some of the biographical information for the photographs with the students after the end of the discussion time.

Assessment

  • Assess by clarity of student understanding as evidenced during discussion.
  • Assess by collecting the individual and group question sheets and check for completion and indication of understanding.

Enrichment

Have the students write a “day in the life” of a child in one of the families they have seen and analyzed. It could take the form of a diary entry or a short story.