Interpreting and Reinterpreting Images

Session Five

Introduce an alternative perspective.

• Share or tell a story such as Encounter or Coyote Columbus that offers an alternative perspective regarding a historical event or traditional story (see References).
• Use the previous example of a sports event to discuss how we can use our own experiences to help us imagine other people's feelings.
• People who are sports fans can imagine how the other side feels when a winning goal is scored against their team, since they have had very similar feelings.
• People who are not sports fans may have a harder time understanding how anyone could get so upset by seeing their team lose, but they can still draw from other experiences they have had that caused similar emotions; e.g., an anticipated vacation or special gift being suddenly withdrawn.
• Invite students to suggest events they have personally experienced that may be similar in some respects to early contact experiences; e.g., the first day in a new school, trying to understand someone who speaks in a foreign language, meeting someone who tries to convince you about something that seems very odd.
• Project or display a copy of the demonstration drawing used in Sessions One and Two. Invite students to consider how the First Nations peoples might have viewed their early encounters with Europeans. As students offer their initial suggestions, encourage them to imagine the scene as First Nations peoples living at the time might have seen it. Explain that this attempt to place oneself in the shoes of people who lived in the past is referred to as historical empathy. Trying to empathize––to see things from the point of view of someone else without imposing your own values and beliefs––is difficult even when the person is alive. Historical empathy is especially difficult because we know much less about the people and because life in the past was probably different in ways we can only imagine.
• Ask students to suggest possible alternative perspectives such as First Nations' perspectives regarding early contact. If needed, pose questions such as the following to stimulate their thinking.

• Would First Nations peoples have understood what symbols such as a cross or flag mean to the Europeans?
• What relationship might First Nations peoples see between the Europeans, or their symbols such as the cross, and the diseases that were newly introduced?
• What theories might First Nations peoples have about how or why the European missionaries came to their land?
• Would all First Nations peoples feel the same way about the Europeans?
• Who might be more or less interested in the missionary messages?

Reinterpret the drawings.

• Review the inferences developed earlier about the collection of drawings. Invite students to suggest how the events depicted in the drawings might be reinterpreted based on their understanding of an alternative perspective. Remind students to provide support for their suggestions. Ask students to imagine if/how the dominant focus of the drawing might change if viewed and drawn from an alternative (e.g., First Nations) perspective.
• Use this opportunity to help students see that an effective reinterpretation of an event should be consistent with historical facts, specific and empathic to the people represented in the drawings.

Revisit students' initial impressions.

• Ask students to review the written response in Imagining Early Contact Experiences (Lesson Material) that they completed at the start of Session One. This response described student conjectures about the early encounters between Europeans and First Nations peoples. Have students describe three or four ways in which their impressions have changed. If their impressions have not changed, students should record three or four pieces of new information they have acquired that support their initial impressions.
• Provide descriptive feedback to students on their entries (See Assessment in Alberta: Discussion Paper).

Introduce the reinterpret challenge.

• Present the second critical challenge:

Reinterpret the assigned picture from a balanced viewpoint.

• Ask students to imagine that the historical drawings are going to be placed on display at the local museum. The curator has invited students to create the information placards for the display. The information must represent the perspectives of both the European and the First Nations peoples.

• Students can work in pairs or in small groups to create an information placard for the demonstration drawing. Provide each pair or group with the formative tool Self-reflection or Peer-feedback Checklist for Developing a Balanced Perspective (Lesson Material) to use as they create the placard. Invite a group to share their work with the class and to model how to do productive peer review. Then involve all groups in the peer-review process.

• Students will then be provided with a copy of a different picture. Using the skills learned during this critical challenge, students will create an information placard for the museum display that represents a balanced perspective. Students should refer to the directions and rubric in Presenting a Balanced Perspective (Lesson Material).

Extension

• Ask students to create a drawing, visual or multimedia representation of a reinterpretation.