Bringing History to Life in Elementary School by Analyzing Photos

History has the potential to be a captivating subject in elementary classrooms, but too often, it involves rote memorization and lacks relevance. As a result, students are often disengaged. 

Instead, children should learn about history in ways that promote critical thinking and encourage them to better understand the world by making connections between past and present. Bruce VanSledright referred to this approach as “historical thinking,” or engaging in the same thinking processes used by historians. 

This means learning how to analyze primary sources, like photographs and artifacts, to understand important ideas like chronology, how the human experience has changed throughout time, and the causes and consequences of historical events. Guiding students to think critically about history enables them to evaluate how decisions made in the past impact the present and to reenvision a more just future.

I’ve found photographs powerful in fostering students’ historical thinking; they provide a visual entry point and prevent the reading barriers that students sometimes experience with text-based sources. Like other primary sources, photographs tell a story about history. 

Getting Started

First, determine the major learning goals you hope students will achieve when studying a particular topic. Standards are a helpful guide, but they’re often broad. One state social studies standard regarding women’s suffrage states, “Examine the main ideas of the suffragists’ movement,” which can include many important ideas, including civil rights, equality, and representation.

Intentionally select historical photographs that reflect the major learning goals you’ve determined. Then, create questions for each step of the three-step analysis process while keeping in mind the purpose of each step. 

Include several guiding questions for students to consider regardless of the photograph you select, such as “What do you observe in the photo?” and “What color is the photo?” Other guiding questions should be context-specific, such as “How does this source help us better understand the women’s suffrage movement?” 

Visual Discovery Activities

Teachers’ Curriculum Institute provides a helpful framework for guiding students in analyzing historical photographs. Titled “Visual Discovery,” the activity scaffolds student thinking through three steps: gathering evidence, interpreting evidence, and making hypotheses from the evidence. 

Students gather evidence as they pay close attention to details, such as people, objects, and text. Next, they begin to interpret evidence as they make inferences about those details. Students then draw conclusions about the story that the photograph seeks to tell; they consider how the photographer’s perspective may influence that story and make connections between past and present. 

When implementing this kind of activity, you can create an anchor chart and/or graphic organizer that includes guiding questions for each step. The following samples present the three-step process for learners in kindergarten through second grade and third through fifth grades.

Grades K–2: Ruby Bridges

With this photo of Ruby Bridges, invite students to gather evidence using guiding questions like these: What do you see (people, objects, place)? Do you see adults, children, or both? What do you notice about their skin color? What do you notice about the place? What color is the photograph?

Next, offer questions that help students interpret the evidence: Who are the people in the photo? Do you think the photo was taken today or a long time ago? Where do you think the photo takes place? Why are the adults helping the young girl out of the building? What do you see in the photo that supports your conclusions?

Support students’ making hypotheses from evidence, asking these questions: What story is the photo trying to tell? Who do you think took the photo and why? What more do we want to know about the person who took it? The time period? What have we learned about Ruby Bridges from this photo? What more do we want to know about Ruby Bridges? What does this photo make you think of today?

Analyzing photographs captivates my elementary students and draws them into historical narratives. However, they typically want to skip the first step and immediately make interpretations. Don’t let them do this! Gathering evidence requires a thoughtful look at details. There are many men in suits and ties in the Ruby Bridges photo, but one is wearing a police cap—an important detail that students could miss if they don’t observe evidence first.

Grades 3–5: Women’s Suffrage Movement

For a lesson based on the photo above from the women’s suffrage movement, support students’ gathering evidence with questions like these: What do you observe (people, objects, place, text)? What kind of clothing are the people wearing? Do they appear to be men, women, or a mix of both? What words or text do you see on the signs? What do you notice about the location? What color is the photo?

Help them interpret evidence, asking: Who are the people in the photo? When and where do you think the photo took place? What are the people trying to accomplish? What evidence from the photo supports your conclusions?

Students can create hypotheses using questions such as these: What story is the photo trying to tell? What more do we want to know about the creator of the photo? About the historical context of the photo? Why do you think the creator took the photo? How does this source help us to better understand the women’s suffrage movement? What more do we want to know about the women’s suffrage movement? How does this photo remind us of voting and/or gender rights today?

Guiding elementary students through the analysis process often leads to more questions, which is exciting and a powerful way into future instruction. For the women’s suffrage photo, my students were intrigued to know more about the photographer. What was their stance regarding the civil rights of women? Was this photo taken to help or hinder the cause? They also wanted to know more about the experiences of women of color who faced intersecting levels of oppression, particularly in the Jim Crow South. Document students’ questions and weave them into subsequent learning experiences.

These activities are powerful tools for guiding elementary students to think like historians, providing an accessible scaffold for engaging students with powerful history topics and concepts, and with critical thinking about the past.