Every week in our Picture Prompts, we post at least one image from The New York Times, without a caption, and invite students to try and decode it. What do they think the image is communicating? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can they relate to it personally? What is their opinion of its message?
This week, we’ve rounded up teenagers’ responses from three such prompts.
We often get imaginative interpretations from students from all over the world. And it’s always interesting to see how their perceptions are influenced by where they’re from, what they’ve experienced or how much they know about a certain topic.
But this is also just a useful exercise for classrooms everywhere to see how images, like words, can carry messages, and how we all “read” them differently. If you’re a teacher and you want to try this activity in your classroom, here are two ways you might use this post to do so:
Show students one or more of the images below and then invite them to respond to the questions above. What do they think the image is saying? Then, show them the student responses below to see if any are similar to their own.
Or, do the reverse: Let students see the responses first and then have them create an illustration that conveys one or more of those messages. Next, show them the actual Times image and have them discuss how it’s similar to and different from their own illustrations.
If you try either of these exercises, let us know the results in the comments! And remember, we post a new image like this each week.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the conversation on our writing prompts this week, including students from Greenbelt Middle School in Greenbelt, Md.; Helen Stacey Middle School in Huntington Beach, Calif; and Thailand.
Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length.
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We’ve all seen it in a cartoon or sitcom before. A closet or piece of furniture is stuffed full of trash and junk, which will eventually spill out everywhere.
But in real life, the same thing can be said for the way we all handle pollution — more specifically, plastic pollution. We treat it as a big and giant issue that is generally hidden from the human eye.
Sure, there’s a giant mass of it all in the Pacific Ocean, but who really cares? Big Corporations and Entities are not paying attention to extremely pressing matters such as continual trash buildup, whether in the ocean or on land. And one day, perhaps closer than you might think, that bubble will burst and all that will be left is the Flying Plastic.
I think that this image is saying that people litter a lot. A lot of people never pick up after themselves and leave a mess. It ruins the Earth. I remember seeing something at a hiking trail gift shop that showed three glass containers of dirt from 2018. One had a banana peel in it, that was gone because it had decomposed, one had a piece of paper that also decomposed, and one had a plastic fork, knife, and spoon, that were still there and never decomposed even a little bit.
This picture makes me think of how keeping our problems hidden, tucked away in plain sight, does not make them disappear. Many times we may realize that doing so makes the problems even bigger and less feasible to solve, eventually causing them to blow up in our faces. To me, assessing a problem I encounter and (if appropriate) tackling it head-on rather than avoiding it helps me learn and grow past my mistakes.
I feel like this image is communicating that humans are thinking that they are being green so they ignore what happens and parts of consumerism. As an example, where I live, everyone is going “green” by having Tesla or electric cars. This genuinely has the same effect as gas cars and shows how consumerism affects our country. It can also be like the Stanley cup-obsessed people (not all people with Stanleys are obsessed). They think that they are being smart by buying so many reusable cups, feeding into consumerism and buying “cute little” add-ons that are unnecessary and expensive, cheap-material items.
I think this picture looks a bit like me! I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate (…hate) cleaning my stuff. If you took a tour of my room, I wouldn’t show you my closet or under my bed, because under my bed … let’s say that I don’t feel the need to hide my legs from monsters because there is zero room under my bed for them. Every time I fling open the doors to my closet, I brace myself earthquake-style (school drills, anyone?) against the barrage of random things, so I don’t get a concussion.
I believe this image communicates the arts and power of the mind. Such as abstract painting. You let the brush and the colors paint the masterpiece. It represents how unique and intelligent the mind can be and it allows us to draw any sort of image we want, and visualize it.
I think this image demonstrates how our brain works. When you are writing an essay of some sort, you get thoughts from all over the place. You’re trying to connect the thoughts and have good word choices. When it’s something you think sounds correct, then you write it on paper. The idea soon goes away and new ones appear.
I think this image is communicating how monotonous and repetitive tasks are in people’s lives, such as in work or school. The ball goes to the pink head, resulting in the hand attached to it writing something and the ball receiving a green check. The ball then descends from its place above the pink head, and this process repeats over and over. This image, to me, seems to show someone who does redundant tasks for the sake of marking them as complete or adequate. I see this a lot in my own life at school, particularly when students do assignments just for their grades.
— Xiaoqing, Greenbelt Middle School
I think this image communicates that when students study or learn something, they write it down. But after they learn it and write it down, it slips away from their mind. I can relate to this because I think that most of the time it’s hard for me to really remember information. It takes a few times to comprehend it because the first couple of times, it just slips from my mind. This is a struggle when studying for tests so I just have to recite the information multiple times till it is stuck in my brain.
Personally, I feel that the image communicates the same obsession that our generation, as well as society, is often involved in within the topic of technology. The individual/user is seen scrolling through a website, rather quickly … they seem to be “scrolling” as a form of entertainment. Taking it into deeper consideration, the eye of the individual is “locked into” viewing only what is on their device, leading me to believe that their attention is solely directed to the content they are viewing. Rather than spending our spare time with loved ones, outside, or going on an adventure, I feel that we as a society are quite invested in the use of technology …
I believe this image is trying to convey the message of connection and understanding online. Through the reflection seen from this person’s eyes, I observe a stream of texts. Sometimes, people aren’t able to present their true selves in public or face to face. As a result, many seek a sense of belonging in the online world. Without the pressure of a front that many put up in real life to cater to others so as not to be left out, people can become themselves online. Other times, there are introverts who aren’t able to clearly express themselves or have the courage to reach out to others in real life. As a result, they turn to the online world due to it being easier for them to communicate without the anxiety of talking face-to-face. Personally, I’m an introvert as well, so the online world serves as a comfort zone sometimes when I find it difficult to exhibit my emotions to others.
This image seems to represent how when we are on our phones, we get immersed in it to such a degree that we lose track of time, and forget about homework, and plans we have, or we just do not go outside. I always see people in class on their phones, staring at their laps. These people are usually the ones who get sat in the back. They usually get caught, but when they can get away with it, they learn nothing in that particular day’s lesson. A lot of them either have really bad grades or cheat on tests regularly. These particular people rely on others to help them and sometimes copy work off of other people who pay attention in class.
I think this image is saying that we are spending too much time on our electronics. We are spending so much time that our eyes are getting damaged by all the lighting, especially during the night when your eyes naturally have a bigger black dot (I forgot what it is called). Your eye needs this because the bigger the dot is, the more we take in light so that is why you can see not bad in the dark. Since there is a bright light like your phone, your eyes take in a lot more light than it normally would at night. Overall I think the image is saying to take a break from your phone and go to sleep.
— Gael, ca
I think this image is saying that everyone is on their phones and that people have lost all of the fun in them. When I was in videography last period, Mr. Andrews let us watch videos from the past on our school YouTube channel and they were so much more creative than our generation now. In the videos, everyone looked like they had fun and had nothing to be embarrassed about. In the videos, people actually danced at the dances. Nowadays, everyone has a phone and they go on apps like TikTok and Instagram. We scroll on our page and see people that are in the current trends or fashion and want to be like them. Now, people don’t want to be embarrassed to do things and show creativity because they don’t want to be the only one.
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