6th Grade Photography Lesson Ideas

[photogrl2020]

I'm helping out at my old jr. high school and doing a short of unofficial photography crash course for the 6th grade class. It's a class of 13, and I'm going to have 30 minutes every Thurs to work with them. I'm planning to break them up into pairs/groups, I'm thinking maybe 2, 3, or 4 kids at a time (obviously I won't be able to take the entire class every week, it'll take several weeks to get through the whole class) and take them out of the classroom and around the school where I can give them a short photography lesson and then help them take a few pictures implementing whatever I taught them about that week. We'll be using my old camera-a very simple, old, point-and-shoot, that they will all take turns using.

I would like to give them lessons (again, don't have much time, so they'll have to be very short lessons) on the basics of photography. Just intro-ing them into the art. They need to be very simple and basic. But I'm thinking I'll do a lesson on lighting, a lesson on composition/framing..that kind of thing. I'm trying to think of other topics I should cover.

If you had 15 mins, once a week with a small group of 6th graders (and 1 old basic digital camera), what would you teach them? What do you consider the "essentials" of basic photography technique/knowledge they should know by year's end?

[3bayjunkie]

I took a photography class in 9th grade. It was part of a communications class. The teacher loaned us a 35mm SLR to take home for a day and we took pictures of whatever we wanted on slide film then showed it to the class afterward. I must have learned something in the class because I still have some and the composition and exposures are quite good. But i really can't remember what we learned in the class. good luck!

[autofocus]

Sounds like fun. You may want to consider some of the basic tenets of good composition like the rule of thirds, leading lines, the influence of color(s) within an image, etc. Tell them to start looking at photos and ads in magazines..often you will see these basic rules in action. Tell them about cropping (in camera) when taking the image, and to avoid crops that cut off at a joint. For portraits (people or pets) tell them to always try to have good focus on the eyes. You can tell them about good light and bad light for portraits. As long as you feel it's not over their heads, you might want to give them some of the basics of white balance...like how the camera sees light the way it actually is while our brain tends to compensate for how we see the color of light. Tell them why some photos work very well in black and white and why some don't. How about telling them about using a reflector device of some sort to fill in the light...a white poster board or foam core works very nice for this purpose. Hope this helps

[mrteacherdude]

I think you will find that 15 to 30 minutes once a week is going to fly by. I host a photography club at my school; we meet for about 30 minutes once a week and there are times when it seems we are done before we even get started. But it is possible to get some things done in that time, and it's a lot of fun to get them out to take pictures. This year I have mostly 9th graders, so it's a bit challenging for me due to their attention span. Younger students are even more prone to ADDish behaviors, but their enthusiasm can be wonderful.

I like autofocus's idea of starting with basic tenets of good composition, and looking at or having them look at images in magazines and such to see the rules applied. I start with that (composition and examining images) in my club and build from there, it seems to work out pretty good (as long as they don't try to revert back to the incessant need to take arm's length Facebook pics ). I start with rule of thirds; talk about it, demonstrate it, examine images as a group, critique images, and then send them off to take pictures to share with the group the next week. However, all of this will likely be more than you can accomplish with the little guys in the time you have, and cognitively they are likely to still be very concrete and respond better to direct instruction and having a camera in their hands while instructing. But you won't know this until you actually start working with them. Thus I would suggest keeping it as simple and direct as possible at first, and see where you can take it.

You may also want to consider having specific things you will actually take pictures of in the time you have, otherwise it can be rather random and burn up all your time with them pretty fast.

Almost forgot... as strange as this may sound, you may want to make sure they know how to be still when taking a photo, properly handle the camera, and achieve good focus. I didn't think of this when I was working with a group of 7th graders last year. I let them use one of my point and shoots to take pics for a stop action movie project. I was a little surprised by the number of photos that had a finger in them or were out of focus. They were in such a hurry that they were just stabbing the button as fast as they could.

One thing you might also want to consider is seeing if any of the students have their own cameras. If school policy allows it, they could bring their own cameras. This would take some of the load off of your camera, and allows more of them to be actively involved in taking photos at the same time; kids get kind of excited and don't always like waiting their turn for things like this The possible drawback to this is you will have four or five excited kids wanting you to look at their pictures at the same time

Have fun! You will also learn a lot while you are working with them

[photogrl2020]

This is helpful, guys. Thanks. I especially like the idea to have the kids bring in their own cameras if they have them. Not sure if any do or not, but I'm pretty sure the school would be ok with it if it was clear they could only bring them out when we're actually doing photography "class" on Thursdays. I'm just a little concerned that when it comes time to get them printed out or whatever, that I won't have all the pictures in my own hands, and I'll have to rely on the students who used their own cameras to print their own photos and bring them in on time. Could be kind of messy. We'll see.

So far I'm thinking I'll start this week making sure they know how to hold the camera properly, focus it right before they snap the picture, and handle the camera with care. Maybe I'll go a LITTLE bit into framing/composition, if I feel like there's time. But I think this first week I'll focus on making sure each kid gets his/her hands on the camera and knows how to take a photo-good or not.

I'm also thinking I might ask the kids themselves if there's any topic they're interested in learning about regarding photography. Maybe I can leave a little "suggestions box" or something and we can incorporate a few of their interests into the class by the end of the year.

[sk66]

With kids that young and the lack of equipment I would focus on the "art aspect".
I would pick a different subject each week...something specific and "easy".. a person, the school entrance, stairs, a flower etc. and have each take a photo trying for something "unique". Then view all of the images the next session (why not project digital?) and discuss merits, composition, lighting etc as it applies to the different images.
Of course, only focusing on "the positives" with an emphasis on developing an eye and the art. It's actually something they could do with a cell phone.

You could look to past "weekly assignments" here for inspiration.

[dalmorloson]

I would definately include lessons on exposure and depth of field. These two components are very visual and will let them see differences with different settings.

[Gulf Coast Girl]

When I was in 6th (or maybe it was 5th?) grade we did a few classes on photography. We made "pinhole cameras" out of empty round Oatmeal containers.

I know that doesn't help you, more just me reminiscing, but I'm 45 years old and I still remember how fascinating it was to see that image on my paper film develop. To this day I still don't get how it works but I remember being giddy with delight over my little Oatmeal Box camera

[jerome.oneil]

Have you thought about using the DPS book Photo Nuts and Bolts. There are 10 great lessons and each would take a few minutes to lecture.

Jerome

[photogrl2020]

@sk66
Yeah, that's a good idea. I've been thinking about different assignments I could give them. I'll definitely take a peek at some of the Weekly Assignments on this site for ideas. Thanks! Unfortunately, I can't do digital projection (I don't think) but I'm thinking I'll put their photos on my laptop and bring that in and just slideshow them in fullscreen...hopefully that'll be large enough for them to all see. There's only 13 kids in the class so worst case scenario they can all sit in a semi-circle around the laptop and we can discuss their images.

@ dalmorloson
Yes, those are very important to photography, but I'm kind of afraid of getting TOO technical on them. I think I'll wait to see if any of them show signs of real interest in the art.

@Gulf Coast Girl
Haha, I've read about people doing that before but I've never done it myself. Sounds fun though!

@ jerome.oneil
No I haven't considered that...I'll look into it, thanks. :-)