02.21.06 TfU Blueprint Topic: Portrait Photography

I.

Yu-chang, Yu-hui, & Franklin

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Provide an overview of contextual factors and the topic being designed What is photography? How do we make good photographs? How do we express our unique perspectives through making our own photographs? In Photography 101, the introductory photography course offered by the Department of Art, students will be introduced to the history, science, mechanics, and aesthetics of photography and how these elements work together toward producing good photographs. Photography 101 is a general education elective for non-major undergraduate students at PSU. Students taking this course are not expected to have prior knowledge or experience with photography, and students enrolled in this course will be expected to come to class with their equipment such as a traditional single lens reflex (SLR) camera. This class will focus on traditional photographic technology and not on digital cameras. In this two hour per week, semester-long (15 week) introductory course, Teaching for Understanding (TfU) will be applied for the selected topic/unit, "Portrait photography." Through the learning activities designed based on TfU, we expect to make students as good at appreciating and critiquing photographs as they are knowledgeable about the science and mechanics of cameras. After learning these topics students will be better able to take good photographs.

II. Design Components A. Learning/Understanding Goals ¾

Overarching understanding goals: 1. How does photo appreciation help students make a good photograph? 2. How does critique help students improve their skills in making photograph? 3. How does photography help students express their views of the world?

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Unit-long Understanding goals: 1. What is the definition of a quality portrait photograph? 2. What is the science of photography? 3. What are the mechanics of a camera? 4. How can portrait photography help students express their perspectives?

B. Overview of the main activities/procedures To promote greater understanding of portrait photography, a number of design strategies will be used. We’ll emphasize TfU methods such as building: generative topics, understanding goals, understanding performances, and ongoing assessment. Where necessary, scaffolding will be used to assist students. The specific forms of scaffolding will include: supporting, sense making, articulation and reflection.

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02.21.06 TfU Blueprint Topic: Portrait Photography

Yu-chang, Yu-hui, & Franklin

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Summary of the main activities:

Introductory Performance(s)

UGs #1

Understanding Performance a. Students bring portrait photos of their choice to class and share in small groups why they think those photos are good according to their own definitions and criteria. b. Students, as a class, generate a list of definitions of good portrait photography.

Guided Inquiry Performance(s)

#2 & A. #3

B.

C.

D.

Cumulating Performance(s)

#1 , #2 , #3 & #4

Ongoing Assessments Criteria: Emphasis on level of detail and diversity of reason for defining a good portrait photograph (The teacher discusses this with students before they take photographs).

Feedback: Informal, teacher-students and student-student in the context of small groups and whole class discussion. Students are introduced to light, Criteria: Emphasis on aperture, shutter speed and film details in describing a good portrait photograph and how to manipulate the through applying the camera learned photographic Student manipulate aperture, and shutter speed, and talk about concepts and procedures in class light and film loading. Students will discuss in groups Feedback: Oral from the appropriate combination of light, aperture, shutter speed and teacher and the same for the group discussion. film for creating good portrait photographs for a given environmental scenario. Students discuss famous works of portrait photography with the concepts learned in class to determine what makes a great portrait photograph.

a. Students bring in their portrait photographs for class critique. The critique will focus on their use of light, aperture, shutter speed, and film, and will also review their aesthetic choices.

Criteria: Emphasis on details in describing /discussing their works based on the application of the learned concepts and procedures Feedback: Oral from teacher and the same for the group discussion.

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02.21.06 TfU Blueprint Topic: Portrait Photography

Yu-chang, Yu-hui, & Franklin

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Detailed description of the main activities: First Session: Students will bring portrait photos of their choice to class and share in groups why they think those photos are good according to their own definitions and criteria. Then, students, as a class, will generate a list of definitions of good portrait photography. The teacher will support students as they define the merits of portrait photographs they have brought to class. This should be understood as both a sense making and articulation activity (Quintana et al., 2004, pg. 369) as well. Articulation is necessary so as to help student state what they are seeing. Sense making helps students define why they are seeing the practices they are seeing. Second Session: In our second session students will be given information and learning activities (e.g. scenario discussions) pertaining to understanding light, aperture, shutter speed, film and the camera. In this session students will be shown portrait photographs, chosen by the teacher, and will again have to define why these images appear professional. In terms of sense making students will be able to refer to the science and mechanics of photography to better express and understand how (Perkins and Unger, 1999, pg. 108) portrait photographs are made. Reflection (Quintana et al., 2004, pg. 369) will come into play when students recall the discussion of the prior session. What was the answer to the question from the prior week, “What makes a portrait photograph?” Articulation of portrait photography goals should be easier now that the student has some technical information to refer to. Third Session: As homework from the previous session, students were told to return to class with a developed roll of film. The photographs to be discussed will now be the student’s own based on what they were taught in the previous session. In the group discussions students will now be able to apply what they heard in the previous sessions pertaining to science and mechanics, aesthetics and professional practice, with their own experience of taking photographs. Now the student has even more ability to answer “What does it take to create a portrait photograph?” This method of teaching insists that students understand (aspects of) their performance (Perkins and Unger 1999, pg. 108) even as they attempt to practice like portrait photographers. Beyond these sessions: The methods that were used give students just enough support (Puntambekar & Hubscher 2005, pg. 1) to accomplish immediate understanding goals. In the

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02.21.06 TfU Blueprint Topic: Portrait Photography

Yu-chang, Yu-hui, & Franklin

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described learning sessions, students will be asked to enhance their understanding even as they learn photographic information, craft, and evaluative information. Understanding the topics of portrait photography, students should be better able to plan (Perkins and Unger 1999, pg. 108) further learning efforts. C. How might learning goals be assessed? Peer feedback in small group discussion and instructor feedback in whole class discussion will be the main methods for evaluating learning goals and student performance. Student photographers will show their assignments in class in critique sessions. Critiques will permit a range of conversation pertaining to camera science, mechanics, methods, and aesthetics. Yet where necessary, relevant non-class content will be permitted into the discussion as well.

III. Rationale for how the design reflects the theory A. Summarize the major principles of the design theory/model and justify how your design reflects these principles Elements of Teaching for Understanding Generative Topics 1. Central to a domain or discipline 2. Accessible and interesting to students 3. Interesting to teacher 4. Connectable to diverse disciplines and contexts

Understanding goals 1. Explicit and public goals 2. Goals central to the discipline 3. Nested goals

Understanding performances 1. Related directly to understanding goals 2. Develop and apply understanding through practice 3. Engage multiple learning styles and forms of expression.

Justification of our design 1. Portrait photography is central to the domain of photography in that it is a major branch of the discipline. 2. Since most of the students have experience taking photos, portrait photography would add to students’ skills in photography and photo appreciation. 3. This topic can be related to other disciplines such as art appreciation and journalism. 1. The instructor will inform students of the goals of the unit to help students make sense of the learning process. 2. The unit- long goals are designed to help students understand the overarching goals that last for a longer period. 1. The understanding performances are designed to directly address the understanding goals. While students accumulate their understanding, they will participate in activities that require broader and deeper understanding and might cover more than one goal. 2. After students participate in the activity

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02.21.06 TfU Blueprint Topic: Portrait Photography

Yu-chang, Yu-hui, & Franklin

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4. Promote reflective engagement in challenging, approachable tasks 5. Publicly demonstrate understanding

where they critique others’ works and justify their own works, they will engage in reflecting on the feedback from others. 3. Students are encouraged to present their portrait photography with the presentations methods they prefer so that multiple learning styles and forms of expression are accommodated. 4. To demonstrate their understanding publicly, students participate in the group and whole class critique and justification.

Ongoing assessment

1. Although no formal assessment has been applied in this design, students experience informal ongoing assessment during each activity. They get feedback for their understanding from their peers, the instructor, and the photographs they produce. 2. As the instructor examines the performances of students in each activity. This way the instructor gets a sense on how students progress with their understanding of the lesson goals. This observation can inform the instructor’s planning of the next unit.

1. Criteria are relevant, explicit, and public 2. Assessment occurs frequently 3. Multiple sources of feedback 4. Assessment gauges progress and informs planning.

B. Reflect on the design, design process, and design model. We chose “portrait photography” as our generative topic because we thought it was interesting. We tried to design the activities that enable students to build understanding upon what they have already known. Meanwhile, by engaging students in activities of discussion, critique and reflection, the design aims to help students work at the level of their understanding. We felt that students should be able to “think and act creatively and competently with what (they) know about the topic” (Perkins and Unger, 1999, p. 97). One challenge in applying TfU model was designing understanding performances that require the incorporation of different concepts. In addition, it is not an easy task to appraise the difficulty levels of activities and apply the appropriate difficulty level to gradually advance learners’ understanding. Although TfU is not easy to achieve, we believe that by practicing TfU, instructors or designers will be more likely to approach a concept from broader perspectives and help students make better connections to relevant concepts. From the perspective of assessment, using the TfU framework helps us keep our focus on how to assess higher level of learning instead of lower level of factual knowledge.

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02.21.06 TfU Blueprint Topic: Portrait Photography

Yu-chang, Yu-hui, & Franklin

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References: Puntambekar, S. & Hubscher, R. (2005). Tools for Scaffolding Students in a Complex Learning Environment: What Have We Gained and What have We Missed? Educational Psychologist, 40(1), 1-12. Quintana, C., Reiser, B. J., Davis, E.A., Krajcik, J., Fretz, E., B. J., Duncan, R.G., Kyza, E., Edelson, D., & Soloway, E. (2004). A Scaffolding Design Framework for Software to Support Science Inquiry. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13 (3), 377-386. Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). Instructional-Design Theories and Models. In D. N. Perkins & C. Unger (Eds.), Teaching and Learning for Understanding (pp. 91- 114). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Appendix: Topic details: Light -To understand natural light one has to understand the science of light intensity and refraction. Using photo sensitive papers, prisms, and hand-held light meters, students will be shown how to control and manipulate light for portraits in the second lesson. Students will be required to take pictures between the second and third lesson to assess their management of light. Aperture -The aperture of a camera applies to the amount of light let into the camera. Using their cameras, students will be shown how to control the aperture for portraits in the second lesson. Students will be required to take pictures between the second and third lesson to assess their understanding and use of the aperture. Shutter Speed -The shutter speed refers to the speed with which light is let into the camera. Using their cameras, students will be shown how to control shutter speed for portraits in the second lesson. Students will be required to take pictures between the second and third lesson to assess their understanding and use of shutter speed. Film -Film is the material that captures the image that comes through the lens. Students will be given information pertaining to the differences between different film types when taking portraits. They will be required to take pictures between the second and third lesson to assess their understanding and use of film. Camera

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02.21.06 TfU Blueprint Topic: Portrait Photography

Yu-chang, Yu-hui, & Franklin

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-The camera is the mechanical device that all of these processes occur within. Students will be given information pertaining to how to manually control aperture, shutter speed, light meter, and focus. Students will be given information on how to load film batteries and flash accessories. They will be required to take pictures between the second and third lesson to assess their mechanical understanding and use of the camera. Methods -Though there are advance methods for taking photographs, at the introductory level the procedures are the same internationally. Students will be given information on how to take a documentary photograph. They will be required to take pictures between the second and third lesson to assess their understanding of portrait making procedures. In the first, second and third lessons students will be required to infer from portrait photographs (and later their own) what procedures, settings, and speeds were used to create presented examples. Aesthetics -The aesthetics of taking engaging, provocative, or refined photographs need to be learned so that students can attract the audiences they seek. Students will be given information pertaining to how to take and shape specific kinds of photographic content. They will be required to take pictures between the second and third lesson to assess their ability to present photographic portraits. In the first, second and third lessons students will be required to infer from portrait photographs (and later their own) what communicative strategies were used to create specific photographic content.

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