Provide students with an image with key details partly obscured. Ask them to anticipate what might be going on, when and where it comes from, and any other relevant questions (see image slideshow for ideas). Then uncover the image and ask them the same questions again. Finally, ask them to speculate about what happened before / after this image, and what its significance is. The teacher should end by providing the essential context to help students answer the questions.

Taking it further:

• Before uncovering the image, students could be given a copy of the obscured image and asked to draw in the remainder of the scene.
• Students could provide a caption for the image before it is uncovered, and another one afterwards, and a final one after the teacher has provided the context. These could be written on three different-coloured post-it notes and placed underneath a copy of the picture to illustrate how thoughts developed.

Step 1: Students speculate

2. Students speculate again, teacher provides context

Step 3: Closing thoughts