Lee, Russell. Results of deforestation during the early mining days. San Juan County, Colorado. 1940. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017787890/.
The primary source will serve as a picture paired with an article that will be written by students about the photo. Even though the photo was taken almost 100 years ago, the topic of deforestation is still very relevant today. This lesson will have students focusing on writing an article explaining what is happening in the photo and make connections to modern-day environmental issues. Students will write using the lens of an investigative environmental justice journalist.
This picture was taken in 1940 in rural Colorado after logging took place. There was a demand during WWII as wood became a critical war material needed for barracks and cantonments, ships and docks, war plants and war housing, gun stocks, explosives, airplanes, and boxes and crates for war supplies.
Source: https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation and https://bit.ly/42iwU4O
- What do you see in this photo?
- What does this image tell us about human activity at this time?
- If you were an environmental journalist reporting on this photo, what key points would you report on?
- Who would your target audience be for the article?
ELA Standard
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Social Studies Standard
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.1.d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- In this lesson, students take on the role of an investigative reporter. They use information from the primary source and individual research on the topic of deforestation to write an article on the issue.
- Students need to consider the journalistic questions of who/what/where/when/why/how when they craft their stories. Students also need to determine who their target audience is for each of their articles, as that will change how they write and what they say.
- This lesson can be adapted as much as needed: it can be shortened, a specific target audience can be provided, or perhaps students don’t do research but instead must write an opinion piece.
- Writing an op-ed or an investigative story will still require students to make connections between deforestation and modern environmental issues.
- This lesson will also require students to relate the topic to their community and explain why it is important to learn about the positives and negatives of the lumber industry. In this case, students can then learn about bias and how to avoid it when they are writing as reporters.
- On the other hand, if students are writing op-ed pieces, they need to understand the concepts of rebuttal and logical fallacies. Students can work to compare and contrast the pros and cons of logging and how it might directly affect their community and economy.
- Explain to students situational awareness and the timing of their writing. They need to recognize aspects of their target audience and what information they will want. This also shapes the tone, language, and syntax of the article that students will write.
Lee, Russell. Rotting ties of abandoned railroad in San Juan County, Colorado. When the mines were abandoned, all activity in the towns and valleys was at a standstill. 1940. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017787936/.