Create a Photostory
Learn how to create stories using photos.
Younger children will love building a basic narrative, whether it be silly or serious, by creating a photo story. It's a great way to get imaginative.
Step by step instructions show you how to plan and make your story using photos, and then how to change the meaning of a story by rearranging the photo order.
This resource also includes creative extension activities that can be shared with parents to support home/school learning links.Click Here to download resources. Parents can also sign up to access ARTS:LIVE resources directly.
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Teacher Pack
The Teacher Pack below contains all the lesson plans associated with this course as a single downloadable document.
All other activity sheets and course materials can be downloaded through the Lessons Tab.
This resource also includes creative extension activities that can be shared with parents to support home/school learning links. Click Here to download resources. Parents can also sign up to access ARTS:LIVE resources directly.
The Curriculum Alignment document below maps this course against the Australian Curriculum.
Driving inquiry
How can we learn to tell stories using digital media?
Maximising outcomes
Fostering imagination and expression
Fostering imagination through media arts increases engagement with, and understanding of, the creative aspects of media that students are exposed to every day.
Imagination helps us see the possibilities in life and encourages creativity.
Creating a basic photostory provides an opportunity for students to develop their sense of self through individual expression.
Developing media technology skills
Use of media technologies (eg digital cameras and digital software) to make a photostory requires practise to capture good quality photos. These basic skills are important for active digital citizenship in the 21st century.
Prompting reflection
Reflection on the process of developing a photostory potentially increases student awareness and discrimination in regard to understanding how stories are created and manipulated in the media that they engage with.
Students can reflect on learning experiences and understand how photostories can communicate meaning to an audience. This will prompt interpretation and reflection for all students.
Empathy and understanding of others is aided by students stepping back and viewing their own artwork alongside others.
Creating resources
Create a Photostory uses media technology to make resources that can be used across other learning areas. For example, photostories can be made into storybooks with handwritten or typed text (links to English).
Language and culture
As each student creates their own story, they communicate information about their individual culture to peers.
Discussions surrounding the meaning in the photostories develop oral language and vocabulary skills.
Tips
When we read words in storybooks we read from left to right. Encourage students to do the same with photostories.
Even though students are initially using the same photos as used in the video, encourage them to create different versions of the story, as every student will have a different way of imagining the stories in the photos.
Focus on the similarities and differences between students' interpretations of the photostories - there are no right or wrong interpretations.
Encourage students to think about what has happened just before the action in the photos. For example, "What did Spotty Bear and Kylie Kitten do just before they got on the swing?"
Ensure students are properly prepared before camera use is permitted. They need to plan what they will take photos of. This is an important part of the pre-production process.
Digital camera options can include smart phones or even laptop or desktop cameras.
As new words are used in class discussions, write a glossary on the board (eg "photo frame"). Point to new words every time they are mentioned so students begin to understand their use and expand their vocabulary of media arts terminology.
You may need time between the production phase (taking photos) and post-production phase (presenting the photostories) to upload student photos onto computers. This will, of course, depend on whether you want students to self-direct this process (for Year 2 this may be manageable). Computer access will also determine how you approach and structure this step. You will need one computer per pair of students to work on their photostories..
Horizontal: in a line, going from side to side (left to right or right to left).
Location scouting: looking for suitable locations for a photo shoot.
Oral storytelling: telling a story using the voice, usually from memory. Traditionally,many cultures had an oral tradition and their stories were used to teach and pass on knowledge as well as for entertainment and ritual.
Photo frame: the borders of a photo. This is important to help you decide what you want to place 'inside' the photo.
Photo shoot: a session during which a photographer takes shots.
Photostory: a method of storytelling using only photos.
Post-production: the work undertaken on a media product after the production is completed, eg assembling and presenting a photostory after taking the photos.
Pre-production: the planning undertaken before creating a media product, eg planning a photostory.
Production: the phase when a media product is created, eg taking photos.
Props: the objects needed to help bring a story to life, eg a toy or a chair used in a photostory.
Rearranging: moving content around to create something different, eg moving photos into different orders to change the meaning of your photostory.
Setting: the location where a story is taking place, eg the beach or the swings.
Storyline: the plot, or outline of a story.
This is a valuable resource for the Media Arts curriculum for the lower primary years. It is particularly relevant to content descriptions in both the Making and Responding strands. It emphasises exploring and experimenting, communicating ideas through artworks and presenting and producing, as well as reflecting upon artworks.
This resource is also relevant to the English curriculum, particularly for the Foundation year content description on creating short texts to explore and record ideas using beginning writing knowledge, and for the year 1 content description on creating imaginative texts that use appropriate multimodal elements.
It is also relevant to the general capability Literacy, particularly the organising elements Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating, and Visual knowledge. This resource requires composing short learning-area texts to record ideas and events, and planning and delivering short presentations related to learning-area topics. It also requires understanding how visual elements create meaning, and recognising the different meanings of images in imaginative texts.
Produced by The Song Room with Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM), with support from Education Services Australia on behalf of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
With thanks to Emily Doyle
Video created by X:MACHINE Productions
Additional talent: Clare (Foulkes) Phillips
Additional images supplied by Emily Doyle
Learning Focus
Students explore how visual representations can communicate a simple story to an audience.
Learning Focus
Students decide on a specific order for a series of images and use these as stimuli for their storytelling.
Students experiment with narrative sequencing using visual images.
Learning Focus
Students learn how to make their own photostory.
Learning Focus
Students learn how to take effective photos with a digital camera to use in their photostory.
Learning Focus
Students create a simple story with a beginning, middle, and end.
Students present their photostories in digital or printed form.
Learning Focus
Students complete their storybooks by adding text.
Learning Focus
Students write a short blurb for the back cover of their storybooks that summarises their completed book.
Fun with Photostories
Create your own Photostory using pictures from recycled newspapers or magazines.
Younger children will love building a basic narrative, whether it be silly or serious, by creating a Photostory. It's a great way to get imaginative. Step-by-step instructions show you how to plan and make your story using photos, and then how to change the meaning of a story by rearranging the photo order.