These are optional activities for further engagement and/or ways to scaffold the lesson for language learners and students’ across diverse learning spectrums.

Become a Photojournalist:

In 2009, Boniface began a national tour displaying photos of post-election violence. How do photos help tell a story or paint a picture?

Interpret the idiom: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Create a compare/contrast digital timeline in photos, video snippets, and soundbytes of two (2) nation’s political protests and history of voter’s rights inaction and suppression (for example, Kenya during its most recent elections and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that took place in the United States after the murder of civilian George Floyd at the hands of White police officers.)

Gallery Walk (or Virtual Gallery)

Using stills from Softie, print and tape those images on your (virtual) classroom wall. Using images from the national archives, find images appropriate for your student community and for visual comparison (if any) and tape those images to your (virtual) classroom wall alongside the stills from Softie. Padlet may be a preferable platform on which to do this project.

Ask students to note what strikes them visually. What is different? What is shared? What is included in the frame? What is not included in the frame? Why does that matter?

Use these visual images to spark a classroom dialogue about framing stories, contemporary narratives, historical narratives, and the power of images.