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Day 1 Lesson - Positive Introductions and Photography

Positive Introduction Activity

(written by Behdad Bozorgnia and Aghigh Ebrahimi Bazaz)

Overview

Students are introduced to one another and to the workshop leaders, and students begin to reflect upon their cultural identification and why they’ve joined the workshop.

 

Learning Objectives

Students learn about one another and about workshop leaders so as to feel more comfortable sharing their experiences.

Students practice expressing themselves through the written word.

Students reflect upon their experiences growing up in their particular contexts and learn to share that experience in a professional and creative way.

Students start to see that they have experiences that others share, and that they are not necessarily alone in their feelings regarding their cultural identity.

Students are introduced to idea of workshop blog and are encouraged to think about how they will represent themselves on the blog.

 

Time Needed

 2 hours

 

Process

1) Workshop leader presents the idea of a “positive introduction” by informing students that they will be free-writing, for 15 – 20 minutes, about the time that they felt “best about being Iranian” or “felt most proud to be Iranian.” If students are not Iranian, they can free-write on what they think is best about Iran or even what is best about their own cultural group. Workshop leader reminds students that they are going to be creating a blog from their experiences throughout the workshop and that these positive introductions might be represented on the blog to express some new information regarding Iranian identity.

 

2) Workshop leader shares his/her own positive introduction that he/she will have already written, so as to model the activity for students.

 

3) Students are given time to write their reflections.

 

4) Students share their reflections. Workshop leaders listen carefully and use each student’s ideas as a means of opening up a discussion about identity and personal experience. The goal of the experience is to help young people to feel less alone in their experiences.  Workshop leader can videotape portions of these discussions in order to upload to the blog. For an example of a positive introduction, see below.

 

 


 

Photography Lesson

(written by Hossein Parishani and Aghigh Ebrahimi Bazaz)

Overview

Students work with photographer to learn about how photographs are created and edited, and begin to think about re-representing Iran through their own perspectives and experiences.

 

Learning Objective

Students learn how photos are edited and/or doctored to convey certain meanings

Students learn to edit their own photos

Students begin to think about how they wish to see Iran represented.

 

Time required

 6 – 8 hours

 

Materials Required

Photographer as guest speaker/facilitator

Free photo editing software

Students’ photos of Iran (whether taken by their own hands or found online)

 

Process

1) Photographer visits workshop to showcase his/her photos and camera equipment. Students ask photographer questions as s/he explains the work.

 

2) Photographer teaches students the basic concepts of camera technology and photography.

 

3) Photographer introduces students to photo editing software and various methods used to edit photos.

 

4) Students share their own photographs of Iran or photos that they’ve seen and liked.  They then are assigned the task of editing one photo to convey an image of Iran that they would like to share with the world. They may also choose to create a visual collage from a collection of photos they’ve amassed. Workshop leader will remind students that whatever and however they choose to edit, they will need to be able to explain their choices later.

 

5) Students work with photographer and workshop leader to edit their photos using the free software introduced earlier.

 

6) Once all photos have been edited or collaged, students reconvene as a larger group and share their products. They are asked to display their work and discuss why they chose to represent Iran in this way: Why did they choose these specific photos? How did they make editing decisions? What was behind their choice in color palette?

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