Click on the New York Times Photo Page at

Each day the New York Times displays images from news events around the world. These images are always dramatic and high quality, providing an excellent resource for student writing.

          Divide the class into five small groups and develop five learning stations---one area for reading, one for writing, one for discussion, one for listening, and one for writing on the internet. Whether you have access in your room (or library) to only one computer or access to a block of four or five, you can assign a group of four to six students to explore one site---the photo page of New York Times.

          As they examine the photos, have each student select an image they find fascinating and write a brief paragraph describing it, using the brush strokes described in this chapter. Explain that the small thumbnail images on the photo page can be enlarged by clicking on them. Also mention that the categories listed below the thumbnails lead to an archive of additional images.