Steps in Creating a Photo Story

• Planning – deciding on the topic, who will do what tasks, how long the project will take and if you will need money.
• Depending on the type of photo story, you may take or scan all the pictures first, download or develop them and then write the story. Or you may be recording a process – making a tuuq or kakivak. In that case, you will be recording each step of the process and writing about it as you go.
• Plan the layout of the book. Use scrap paper folded over to make a model of your book. Use it to plan which photos and text go on each page, title pages, tables of contents, credits, etc.
• The facilitator teaches mini-lessons on the writing process, syllabic keyboarding, grammar and any other topics as they come up.
• There are lots of interesting things to be learned through the creation of the book: cropping and sizing photos, adding borders and graphics, inserting the photo into the text, choosing the font and format for the text.
• When the project is complete, create a CD of each photo story so other copies can be made in the future.
• If you don’t have a digital camera or scanner, you can create the text for the photo story by hand or on the computer and glue the photographs on the pages. You may want to laminate the book to preserve the pictures.
• The photo stories can be used as reading material for the literacy group, their children and future literacy groups.

Inuktitut is relevant to the regions where it originated from our ancestors. Like all important things, learning Inuktitut is not easy. It takes time, commitment, and patience but the rewards are well worth it. All families need to communicate as best possible.

Jose Kusugak in Inuktitut 93, 2003