This activity supports Common Core in English Language Arts — CCR Anchor Standards for Reading — CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5 and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6.

Grade level: Appropriate for grades 4-12 with teacher modifications
Duration: One or two class periods

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1. Select a photograph or several from the Recollection Wisconsin collections. To locate photographs that will inspire creative contributions from your students, try our thematic boards on Pinterest:
   • Life on a Wisconsin Farm
   • Wisconsin School Days
   • Wisconsin in Action
   • Wisconsin Performances
2. Ask students to list the information they can infer from the photograph(s), including facts as well as emotions.
3. Next, with their inferences in mind, have students write about a single photograph using two different genres: for example, a poem and a newspaper article, or a short fiction story and a letter to the editor.
4. Then have students compare and contrast the various structures of these diverse texts. Ask: How does our understanding of the photo change when it’s written about in different ways? How does it stay the same?