Lessons about shots: photography and vaccines

[Isaac Fried]

Photography Lesson at Prairie Creek

Objectives: Reading and understanding the article. Remembering and then implementing photography principles. Appreciating other student’s artistry.

Warm Up: The article with its beautiful photographs and then presenting the opportunity for students to take their own pictures.

Motivational Strategies: Using iPads was an exciting moment for the students, they usually don’t get access to technology on Wednesdays.

Activities: Students read an article about photography together, for about ten minutes. They then discuss what their takeaways were for five minutes. Then students pair up and take an iPad to go around the school property and take three pictures each, with the intention of using a principle such as rule of thirds or framing. They are given another ten minutes for this. Then each student prints off one of their photos and writes their name on it. Finally, Michelle does an art showcase for the class, holding up each student’s photo and pointing out the details and intricacies to everyone.

Closure: With the art showcase

Follow-Up: Discussing favorite photos, feeling excited about nature photography.

I think this lesson was decently structured. However, the presence of the iPads did end up being distracting and took away from the intentional composition of photos. Kids snapped images of everything they could see rather than looking carefully for the perfect shot. Michelle did lead a great discussion of the article, and the showcase at the end of the lesson gave each student an opportunity for encouragement and self confidence in their own work. The inclusion of multiple activities with varied levels of movement and participation allowed for students with different learning styles to all get something out of the lesson.

The most recent time I was at Prairie Creek, Michelle had the Herons read an article about vaccines. This decision was related to the CDC’s recent approval of the Pfizer Covid19 vaccine for children ages 5-12, which is the age range of children at Prairie Creek. The article Michelle had chosen explained in basic terms how vaccines work, comparing them to a “cheat sheet” for the body to use when fighting infection. It was really fascinating to me how Michelle navigated conversation about vaccination with her fourth and fifth graders. While Prairie Creek is a progressive school, she later told me that staff estimated only about fifty percent of their students will get the vaccine. Michelle pointed out that some of the families at Prairie Creek were actually so left leaning that they only believed in natural remedies, thus making them anti vaxxers. The Herons themselves seemed to be mostly pro vaccine, although some of the boys joked about whether Covid was real, and there was a general shared anxiety about the painfulness of shots. I could really see Michelle doing her best to advocate for vaccination without seeming to shame people for their views. She highlighted the importance of fact checking any evidence and using reliable sources for information about health. She also made it clear that because students were not necessarily in control of the choices about their physical health, it was unacceptable at school to ask questions or make judgements about others regarding their vaccination status, but one could talk about their own experience.

This discussion of vaccines at Prairie Creek emphasized to me the importance of teachers as role models for their students. Observation of how adults and other knowledgeable people remains a big part of students’ learning, and I was impressed by how Michelle modeled respectful and intelligent behavior regarding both the accumulation of information and navigating differences in opinion.

[Lauren Bundy]

The contexts of Prairie Creek and Northfield High School strike me as so vastly different that I’m amused by how iPads are a distraction across both settings. The amount of time I see students struggling to open the proper documents on their iPads or doing other activities altogether makes me question why they’re so ubiquitous. It’s too bad that the motivational strategy of giving kids access to iPads resulted in them being distracted rather than motivated to focus on the lesson, but I can’t say I’m too surprised. I wonder what the right balance for using technology in the classroom is. I’ve rarely had my computer out in classes this term (a nice change of pace after four terms of Zoom learning!), so I know it’s possible to lead a lesson without iPads. That being said, at Prairie Creek the presence of iPads was very deliberate and related to the lesson at hand, so I don’t know how one would go about eliminating the distractions associated with them. On the other hand, I would love to teachers and students be a little more deliberate about not using them.

I’m impressed by Michelle’s ability to tackle tricky but relevant topics like vaccines with young students. I do wonder how successfully we can teach children in earlier stages of cognitive development about the importance of reliable sources. When you’re not able to think abstractly, I imagine it’s harder to assess the information you receive for accuracy. Still, it seems like an important idea to plant early on, given how widespread misinformation is.

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