By Jane Hewitt
Hemmingway is credited with writing the story - ‘For sale. Baby shoes never worn.’ Legend has it that this was in response to a bet to write a six word story that could actually make people cry. Whether he actually did or not is not important here. What is important is the brevity of narrative used to sum up a whole story. This is an exercise that works well in class with pupils of all ages.
SEE INFER FEEL TECHNIQUE = SIFT
It would be a good idea to ‘model’ this with pupils as a whole class exercise. Use this image (or any image of barbed wire) as an example. If you use the acronym ‘SIFT’ it will help pupils to analyse photographs:
Then use words that describe feelings or situations that this may make them think about.
freedom, harm, pain, escape, confined, prisoner, sad, scared, barbs, fear, hope, alone, no entry
The next stage is to actually think about where this could be. Who is looking at it? Who is narrating the story. It is important to stress that there is no wrong answer here. Words can be written on ‘post its’ or pieces of paper and physically moved around to see what stories emerge. Place the words on paper around the room so pupils can go and choose words after walking round and looking at a whole range of ideas that have been generated collectively. Barred entry, alone. Blue sky blocked. Confined, imprisoned, no escape, no hope. Freedom barred, no hope of escape. If we are told something of the context of the image, does this alter our viewpoint? In actual fact the barbed wire in this image was on top of an amusement arcade in Cleethorpes! Does this change our view of the story?
Ask pupils to work in groups and generate words from this image. Begin with ‘concrete words’ – i.e. what can they SEE.
sky, blue, barbed wire, spikes, curls, clouds What can we infer from this image? This isn’t to generate words but to help us understand the context.
That it is a dangerous situation – we are stopping something or someone either getting in or getting out – there is tension here. Is it to protect or limit? 06 UKED Magazine
Vandals again, barbed wire - no thefts! Ideas to develop the use of images to create six word stories • Give the image to the whole class, but only tell half of them where it was taken. • Get pupils to compare their stories. • How much are we influenced by what other people tell us about images and stories? • How much do we infer from images?
Jane Hewitt is a freelance photographer and educator. Look beyond the obvious - there is beauty in everything. Author of ‘learning Through a Lens’ & Author associate ITL. Find her on Twitter @Janeh271 and read her blog at janehewitt.blogspot.co.uk