Photo Follow Up

 Some of my best lessons are ones that are hard to document because they are discussions we have in class.  To follow up on the macro photography assignment, we did a discussion based reflection and a positive peer critique (because by the end of the year, we NEED some positivity!!).

For the reflection, I printed one picture by each student, labelled them on the back with the name of the student, and hung them up on the board using numbers to identify them.  We then discussed what a macro photo is and chose which photo best showed the qualities of a macro photo.  We chose the best example by placing post-it notes on the board next to the number of the photo.  While I asked the students to not be influenced by peer pressure, my 7th graders almost unanimously chose the same photo.  Interestingly, it turned out to be a photo by a quieter student who does not have many close friends in the classroom.  It was really cool to see all the students rally around him when they realized it was his photo.  5th grade all chose different photos which lead to the conclusion that it was difficult to choose just one examples because we had demonstrated mastery of macro photography.

After the discussion, we gave positive peer feedback.  Without revealing the artist behind the photo, the students had to write on a notecard "I like photo # __ because ______" and give a well thought out reason.  Interestingly, while 7th graders mostly complimented the one they chose as being the best example of macro photography, the 5th graders each ended up choosing a different photo so that each photo received some positive feedback.  It was great to see the smiles on their faces when they read their compliments!