Lesson Planet
Search educational resources
  • Sign In Try It Free
  • AI Teacher Tools
    • Discover Resources Search reviewed educational resources by keyword, subject, grade, type, and more
    • Curriculum Manager (My Content) Manage saved and uploaded resources and folders To Access the Curriculum Manager Sign In or Join Now
    • Browse Resource Directory Browse educational resources by subject and topic
    • Curriculum Calendar Explore curriculum resources by date
    • Lesson Planning Articles Timely and inspiring teaching ideas that you can apply in your classroom
    • Our Story
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Testimonials
    • Contact Us
  • Pricing
  • School Access
    • Your school or district can sign up for Lesson Planet — with no cost to teachers
      Learn More
  • Sign In
  • Try It Free

Hi, what do you want to do?

Create a lesson plan
Create a lesson plan
Generate resources with 80+ AI teacher tools
Generate resources with 80+ AI teacher tools
Search 200,000 instructional videos
Search 200,000 instructional videos
Find a teaching resource
Find a teaching resource
Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Exploring Identity Lesson PlanUsing Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Exploring Identity Lesson Plan
Publisher
Teaching Tolerance
Resource Details
Curator Rating
Educator Rating
Not yet Rated
Grade
6th - 12th
Subjects
Social Studies & History
7 more...
Resource Type
Lesson Plans
Audience
For Teacher Use
Duration
45 mins
Instructional Strategies
Direct Instruction
2 more...
Technology
Projection
Usage Permissions
Fine Print: Educational Use
Lesson Plan

Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Exploring Identity

Curated and Reviewed by Lesson Planet
This Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Exploring Identity lesson plan also includes:
  • Activity
  • Graphic & Image
  • Join to access all included materials

Even without captions, photographs can tell amazing, involved, and complex stories. Viewers analyze two photos, consider what the pictures reveal about the subjects' identity, and determine the social justice issues represented in the images.

198 Views 75 Downloads

Concepts

social justice, social-emotional learning, identity, tolerance, gender, gender equality, self identity, photo stories, photograph analysis, immigration, united states immigration, media analysis, biodiversity, point of view, author's perspective, perspective

Additional Tags

social studies

Instructional Ideas

  • Have class members shoot their own photos for a gallery walk in which they add post-it notes with suggested captions for each other's pictures
  • Invite a member of the art department to talk about techniques used in photography

Classroom Considerations

  • The first of 12 lessons using photographs to teach social justice
  • Presumes a protocol has been established to permit a safe, respectful discussion of social justice issues

Pros

  • Includes questions to help viewers to closely examine and analyze the images

Cons

  • None

See similar resources:

Activity

World War II in Photographs

National WWII Museum
A picture is worth a thousand words, and this activity is worth so much more! Learners closely analyze a series of photographs from World War II, matching them with their appropriate captions and sequencing them into a correct...
7th - 12th Social Studies & History
CCSS: Adaptable
Instructional Video

The War Photographer - Ernest Brooks

Curated Video
How can a photograph change the course of a war? Learners analyze, through a short video, Ernest Brooks's photographs of the First World War. They investigate how photos served as propaganda and altered the way troops fought the war. The...
8 mins 9th - Higher Ed Social Studies & History
CCSS: Adaptable
Instructional Video

An Introduction to John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice

Macat
Justitia, the Roman symbol of justice, is traditionally pictured as blindfolded, holding a sword in one hand and a balance scale in the other to represent that idea that justice should be independent of wealth, power, or status. But how...
9th - 12th Social Studies & History
CCSS: Adaptable
Lesson Plan

Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Affirming Our Commonalities and Differences

Teaching Tolerance
Photos can challenge stereotypes. To gain an understanding of the big picture, groups examine a series of photographs and analyze how a photographer's choices can shape a viewer's reaction to an image. For the first set of photographs,...
6th - 12th Social Studies & History
Instructional Video

Article III: Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court

National Constitution Center
After oral arguments and the lawyers go home, what actually happens in the Supreme Court? Justice Stephen Breyer describes how members of the court discuss cases and write opinions behind the scenes. Though their discussions involve...
5 mins 7th - 12th Social Studies & History
CCSS: Adaptable
Lesson Plan

Social Media and Ferguson

Facing History and Ourselves
How can social media help or hinder civil dialogue? How can information shared on social media be verified? As the investigation of media reports of the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown continues, class members read...
9th - 12th Social Studies & History
Lesson Plan

Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Exposing Homelessness and Poverty

Teaching Tolerance
Photos can capture a complete story in a single image. Class members closely examine a photo of a homeless camp and attempt to read the story told by the picture. They then read the caption for the photograph and compare their notes with...
6th - 12th Social Studies & History
Lesson Plan

Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Exposing Gender Bias

Teaching Tolerance
Young sociologists are asked to read two photographs, identifying how the photographer uses point of view, color, pose, light, and shadow to express a stereotype of women or to challenge those stereotypes. Partners then create their own...
6th - 12th Social Studies & History
CCSS: Designed
Lesson Plan

Selma in Pictures: Socratic Seminar

Teaching for Change
Photographs from the freedom movement in Selma, Alabama serve as the basis of two Socratic Seminars. Class members prepare for the seminars by closely observing the images, form a hypothesis, and use evidence from photo to support a...
9th - 12th Social Studies & History
Activity

Journalism for Justice

Teaching Tolerance
Roll the presses! Or at least have your class members participate in the time-honored tradition of the student press by creating their own newspapers or journalist pieces on a social problem. After conducting research and collaborating...
6th - 12th English Language Arts
CCSS: Adaptable
Try It Free
© 1999-2026 Learning Explorer, Inc.
Teacher Lesson Plans, Worksheets and Resources

Sign up for the Lesson Planet Monthly Newsletter

Open Educational Resources (OER)

  • Health
  • Language Arts
  • Languages
  • Math
  • Physical Education
  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • Special Education
  • Visual and Performing Arts
View All Lesson Plans

Discover Resources

  • Our Review Process
  • How it Works
  • How to Search
  • Create a Collection

Manage Curriculum

  • Edit a Collection
  • Assign to Students
  • Manage My Content
Contact Us Site Map Privacy Policy Terms of Use