Challenging On Photography
In this activity, students will debate one of Sontag’s statements from On Photography.
PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON 2: CLASS DEBATE
1—2 class periods (60-90 min)
HANDOUTS:
Handout 1 (as needed)
Handout 2A (as needed)
Handout 2B (as needed)
WORKSHEET:
TEACHING PLAN:
- Art and Culture
Medium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History
Subject Matter > Philosophy
- History and Social Studies
Themes > Culture
Themes > Globalization
World > The Modern World
- Literature and Language Arts
Place > American
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Debate skills
- Discussion
- Evaluating arguments
- Interpretation
- Media analysis
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Oral presentation skills
- Persuasive writing and speaking
- Representing ideas and information orally
- Summarizing
- Synthesis
- Textual analysis
- Visual analysis
- Visual art analysis
- ELA Reading: 1, 4, 7
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-2, 4, 6
- HSS Reading: 1, 4, 7-9
LESSON 2 HANDOUTS
- Allow additional time for preparation of arguments (in-class or as an assignment), asking students to include perspectives from other writers, photographers, and critics in their response (see Photography Unit Research handout for related texts and resources), or to incorporate digital media into their presentation.
- Arguments may also be turned in as written summaries, response papers, or media presentations.