In Literacy and Justice Through Photography, Wendy Ewald, Katherine Hyde, and Lisa Lord share their perspectives as an artist, a sociologist, and a teacher to build on students’ own ideas and experiences in integrating four Literacy Through Photography projects—American Alphabets, The Best Part of Me, Black Self/ White Self, and Memories of Past Centuries—into the curricula. Using the backdrop of contemporary culture and the politics of urban schools, the book presents creative and engaging portraits, detailed project descriptions and lesson plans, and reflections and resources to promote critical thinking, self-expression, and respect in the classroom while also addressing the standards across various disciplines and grade levels.
“We believe that a primary reason for doing these projects is that they provide students the chance to explore—with honesty, creativity, and critical thinking—important social, personal, and political topics that otherwise are easily avoided in the classroom. . . . Whether looking at the body, identity, race, culture, and/or language . . . Literacy Through Photography, as a philosophy and practice, is about students learning to read and write by doing, by creating their own works of art (rather than studying someone else’s) that combine words and images to express an idea and to tell a story.”
—Wendy Ewald, Katherine Hyde, and Lisa Lord, from their introduction
Wendy Ewald has published ten books; Literacy and Justice Through Photography is her first work written specifically for classroom teachers. Secret Games, a thirty-year retrospective of Ewald’s work with children, was shown from 2000 to 2006 at museums across the United States. The projects and lesson plans presented here are inspired by Wendy Ewald’s collaborations with children and teachers and have been developed and tested for over a decade.
Katherine Hyde has a Ph.D. in sociology. She coordinated the Literacy Through Photography (LTP) program at the Center for Documentary Studies for eight years and has been the director of LTP for four years. She also teaches several courses at Duke University on sociology and photography.
Lisa Lord, author of Success in Reading and Writing: Grade 3, and Success in Reading and Writing: Grade 6, has taught for over thirty-five years, and has National Board Certification and an Ed.D. in literacy.
Ordering Information
Literacy and Justice Through Photography is available from your local bookseller or by ordering directly from Teachers College Press.
192 pages / 80 black and white photographs
$31.95 paperback, $68 hardcover
ISBN 978-9-8077-5281-4 pb, 978-0-8077-5282-1 hc
November 2011
2011 National Council of Teachers of English convention
“Memories from Past Centuries: Archival Photos and Student-Made Movies Change Lives”
Presenters: Wendy Ewald, Katherine Hyde, and Lisa Lord November 19, 2011, 9:30–10:45 a.m.
Chicago Hilton, Waldorf Room, third floor
Chicago, Illinois
banner image:
Cherica's other-self-portrait, 2004, from Black Self / White Self Project. See Photo Gallery for full image.
