Reading
Dorothea’s Eyes, a picture book
biography by Barb Rosenstock,
reminded me of how emotional response seems to have dropped out of the
conversation about reading. In our urgency to promote reading comprehension and
vocabulary development, we seem to have lost sight of why we read in the first
place: to learn information and to
respond emotionally. Dorothea’s Eyes can
help us begin to restore emotional response—our feelings—back into the
conversation. This book offers
many openings for discussion:
·
It’s a picture book that introduces children to
the work of the outstanding photographer Dorothea Lange, who took to the
streets to photograph good people facing hard times. Her photographs of people
during the Great Depression of the 1930s and her photographs of
Japanese-Americans placed in internment camps during World War II are
iconic—they evoke the tensions of the times. They are memorable. What do your
students learn from these photographs? How do the photographs make them feel?
·
The book maintains a clear, consistent focus,
namely that Dorothea Lange saw the world with her mind and her heart. Her
photographs detail a real historical context with caring and compassion. The
author of Dorothea’s Eyes states, “Her
heart knows all about people the world ignores.” Six of Lange’s well-known
photographs are included in the book. These include “Migrant Mother” and “White
Angel Bread Line.” It’s not too early to share these compelling photographs
with children and discuss when and where they were taken. Discuss feelings
these photos evoke.
·
This book can jumpstart conversations about
“facts” and “feelings” about the past—something I have long considered
essential in learning history. It’s not enough to know about the past. We also need to care
about it.
If
you want to build on this idea of examining historical photographs with
children, follow up with Gordon Parks:
How the photographer Captured Black and White America by Carol Boston
Weatherford. As the author tells
us, his photograph called “American Gothic,” helped viewers see “the
contradiction between segregation and freedom.” This happens only when we see with our minds and our hearts.
