December 15, 2008 (Vol. 8, No. 9)

Photo Exhibit in White Plains Shows How Bronx Schoolchildren Learned English—with a Camera

Dominical Flag
There are four squares painted on the wall. They have different colors. It's the Dominican flag. There's a man and he is tying his shoes. The man is wearing a red shirt and blue shorts just like the colors on the wall.
The photographer is Brayn P. (age 9).

What's a picture worth? For a group of Bronx third and fourth graders in the 1,000 Words project, the photos they took with a digital camera opened the door to a whole new language.

Student teachers, pursuing their master’s degrees at Lehman, implemented the program as a pilot project last summer with a group of 18 third and fourth graders from P.S. 90 (the George Meany School) in the Bronx. Developed by Lehman Education Professors Mary Sanford and Kim Snyder, the project was designed to engage students of any age as photo-documentarians and storytellers.

Many of the schoolchildren were newly arrived immigrants struggling with learning a new and complex language. But after being given the opportunity to express themselves visually, they became motivated to learn new vocabulary and improve their verbal communication. The children used digital cameras to create visual descriptions of their surrounding neighborhood. While discovering colors, shapes, and textures, they simultaneously learned how to use words to describe what they saw.

The student teachers, supervised by their professors, worked on a one-to-one basis with the eight- and nine-year-old children. Using a web-based learning system, teachers and students uploaded the student photographs to create an online gallery and archive. Each student used his or her own gallery, where verbal descriptions were added, reviewed and edited.

Their work has culminated in a 1,000 Words exhibit at the Pearson Gallery in White Plains that opened on December 4 and will run through February 27, 2009. Teachers, students, and their families, as well as others, attended the opening reception, where proceeds from the sale of framed prints will be used to purchase additional cameras for the students.

"The 1000 Words project is based on the idea that the 'Island of Competency' for English language learners is their visual literacy," explained Professor Sanford. "During the four-weeks of the pilot, the children's photographs became increasingly sophisticated, suggesting the emergence of a complex visual literacy, as well as parallel verbal ability."

For more information on the installation and directions to the gallery, visit http://pearsonartgallery.blogspot.com.

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