Overview

This resource contains teaching instructions, reproducible data charts, and assessment rubrics to support students in learning to:

• use drawings, photographs, and paintings as vivid and evocative sources of information about historical or contemporary times and places;
• recognize the limits and pitfalls of using images as sources of information.

This resource was produced with the support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). We also acknowledge the contributions of Library and Archives Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Council (SSHRC).

Table of Contents

Assess the explanation
Judge whether a proposed explanation of the contents of an image is believable

Explain the image
Use visual clues to develop informative explanations of images

Explore daily life
Draw conclusions about the lifestyle, practices and conditions of a person or group

Focus on the senses
Identify the sensory experiences represented in an image

Describe inner thoughts
Infer the beliefs, fears and values of a group or individual featured in an image

Uncover the themes
Identify words that capture the underlying feeling or message of an image

Decipher the artist’s views
Interpret the artist’s impressions of people, events or objects as revealed in an image

Reflect on the image
Develop thoughtful reflections to extend or speculate on ideas raised by an image

Look for distortions
Learn to anticipate and detect potential inaccuracies or misleading features in an image