What’s Going On in This Picture? | May 4, 2015

By The Learning Network
What’s going on in this picture? Look closely at the image above or view it in a larger size, then tell us what you see by posting a comment. On Tuesday, we will reveal more about the image and its origins at the bottom of this post. Uncredited/Press Trust of India, via Associated Press

Updated: May 5, 2015

Students

1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:

  • What’s going on in this picture?
  • What do you see that makes you say that?
  • What more can you find?

2. Next, join the conversation by posting a comment below. (Please remember not to post your last name.)

3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.

4. On Tuesday, we will reveal more information at the bottom of this post about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?

More?

Updated: May 5, 2015

This week’s image appeared in the March 21, 2015 paper under the headline “Go to the Top of the Class” with the following caption:

Young people climbed the wall of a building on Wednesday to help students taking an examination in Hajipur, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

The Times also wrote:

About 600 high school students in eastern India were expelled this week for cheating on pressure-packed 10th-grade examinations, education authorities said Friday. The scandal received widespread attention after Indian television footage showed parents and friends of students scaling the outer walls of school buildings to pass cheat sheets to students inside taking exams. More than 1.4 million 10th graders are taking the tests at more than 1,200 high schools across Bihar State, and they must pass the exams to continue their education.

You can watch a video about the cheating scandal on CNN.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

VTS Moderator May 4, 2015 · 7:18 am

Good morning and welcome to today’s puzzling picture!

After last week’s adventure into the wonders of nature, we return to a very human story today. What’s going on with this building? What are these people up to? Once you decide, make sure to let us know what you see that makes you think as you do. And don’t stop at one idea: consider several possibilities. You know: what more can you find?

Remember to read the comments of others before or after you come to your own conclusions. If you agree or disagree with someone—or want to build on their ideas—sign in with your own blog name and include theirs in the body of your response with an @ sign in front—like we do in our posts. That’s how you tell them you’d like to “talk.”

As usual tomorrow’s edition of the Learning Network will share with us the original caption for this picture. Such information always adds to what we discover today. You’ve been doing great work lately. We look forward to more of the same today!

Faith DeNigris May 4, 2015 · 8:16 am

In this picture people got locked out of the building and not one has a key on them so they had to climb into the window.

Victoria May 4, 2015 · 8:16 am

I think that in this picture people are either trying to get back in their houses or their breaking into houses.

Paramjeet S May 4, 2015 · 8:16 am

Exams are going on in some village school and these outsiders are helping their friends cheat inside by throwing chits, etc.

Phoenix B May 4, 2015 · 8:20 am

I believe that this picture depicts people looking for someone or something in a building. I think this because men are climbing up the building and looking through windows.

Adam May 4, 2015 · 8:21 am

To me it looks like some people/construction workers are either building/repairing a building or are just trying to climb up to the top.

Patrice May 4, 2015 · 8:21 am

I think that they’re looking in at prisoners or they could be trying to escape.

Colleen May 4, 2015 · 8:21 am

I think I know this photo. Its a photo of the cheating on exams in India. Inside the rooms are students taking an exam and the people on the wall are giving them the answers. There have been some changes made in how the exams are taken now., but its interesting to see how blatant the cheating was and how desperate the people were. Notice that it is only men who have climbed up the building..an example of how men and women differ in either culture or possibly in some innate characteristics.

Ben May 4, 2015 · 8:21 am

I think that there doing some work in the building

alex May 4, 2015 · 8:21 am

I think there people trying to get up into a prison

Alex.V May 4, 2015 · 8:22 am

I think the picture is people trying to get Into an old prison and maybe all those people are relatives

Sofie May 4, 2015 · 8:25 am

I see a bunch of people climbing over a old building. I wonder if they are trying to escape somewhere.

Kaylee/sms May 4, 2015 · 8:36 am

I think that its a bunch of boys trying to be spider man-gone wrong. I think this because there are ropes hanging from the building and they are climbing them and tried to go rock climbing on a building. I think this is a bad idea, but they’re boys.

Tyler S.M.S May 4, 2015 · 8:40 am

I think it’s a locked off building that is a prison because the building has bars over the windows. The very top windows look like they’re unlocked and have no bars. The people look poor too because they have ragged clothes. Are the people training to parkour or are the people training to be spider-man?

Jacob/sms May 4, 2015 · 8:42 am

I think they are trying to get into a building or escape a building or training people to get into a building-Like important people that need to train. I also think they are trying to protect a building from something that has bars inside of the windows, but I don’t know why all these people are closing or opening window covers. I’m not really sure why…??

willa/sms May 4, 2015 · 8:43 am

The people on the building look like they are from India, and they look like they are trying to get out from prison. How I know this, is there are bars on the windows.

masen/sms May 4, 2015 · 8:45 am

they must have storms often because of the bars

GRACIE May 4, 2015 · 8:45 am

I think it is a prison because the rooms have bars on the windows.Some people are trying to warn the people because there is a a big storm coming.

Alexis/sms May 4, 2015 · 8:46 am

I have a bunch of ideas going through my head! Are they doing cleaning, breaking in, breaking out, being very dangerous,maybe there was a fire? But the thing I want to point out is that if you look very closely there are some of the boys on the side of the building are holding ropes so the thought I’m going to go with is there might of been a small fire on the top floor because it looks blackish and it is very dark and it may be getting bigger by the minute so they are trying to get out of the building but if you look even very very closely the windows have bars over them then I think it can be a prison and the people on the side of the building are trying to help the people break out and there are a big mob or a group of people watching them or the big mob could be police man or at least some of them are and they are ready to attack the people or ready to take them to jail well that’s what i think you should post your own thought if you haven’t yet.

Gillian AOSE May 4, 2015 · 8:49 am

I think that this picture was taken in India while parents are helping their children cheat on tests so that they can get better test scores. I had heard that this was common in India, because the parents want their children to be able to have a brighter future than they did. Helping them take their tests helps ensure better scores for the kids. The sheer number of parents there demonstrates how widespread this practice is and how little the government cares about it.

Mrs. Harris’ class May 4, 2015 · 8:51 am

We see men climbing the side of the building peering in through the bars. We also notice that no one has reached the top yet. We think they are looking for or at something in the building. It could be a prison, a school, or a hospital. We notice that they are all guys wearing western clothing. We think they are somewhere in southern Asia, India, Nepal, or Pakistan.

English 3 DCHS May 4, 2015 · 8:53 am

It’s probably in India-that much we agree with. However, because there are bars on the windows, we think that the building is a prison. People are either breaking in or breaking people out. We say that because it looks like people are tampering with the bars.

Aiswariya May 4, 2015 · 8:58 am

Bihar board exam cheating

VTS Moderator May 4, 2015 · 9:05 am

We have some immediate speculation about what type building this could be. Perhaps a home, a prison,or a school? Let’s dig in deeper — @Victoria, @Paramjeet S, @Patrice, please share what you see in the picture that led you to your interpretations.

Meghan C AOSE May 4, 2015 · 9:14 am

This appears to be a building where adults are climbing the walls and peering into it. The fact that they are all crowding at windows could be they are trying to tell people inside important information. There are too many of them to be spies, and the crowd of other parents at the bottom indicates there is something else going on. They could also be climbing walls of a school trying to tell students inside information on a test or exam.