I would integrate documentary into my classroom by having students do a group project on a documentary of their choice (following a classroom discussion and viewing of a few sample documentaries).They would watch a documentary (one from a list of suggestions by the teacher to give them ideas) together as a group of 4-5 students and then respond to the documentary by creating their own.They would interview one another about their reaction to the film and ask them about validity, basis, theme, style, tone, etc.Having them do a documentary response of their own would be a great performance assessment.
For my documentary analysis, I attended the Minnesota premier of the documentary film, Straightlaced. Below is a preview of the film:
Purpose: The purpose of this film is to discuss “gender” as a social construction that affects everyone, but particularly developing teens.How do society and the media put pressure or relief on people based on their sex and supposed gender?What are teens worried about when it comes to gender?Do they feel safer inside of a box or out of it?How do teens define masculine and feminine?Do they feel there is a gender binary?The film aims to be extremely honest in its discussion of gender by truly allowing the issue and the people it affects to speak freely about it.The film also aims to demonstrate ways in which students feel pressured to conform to a certain “standard” of gender and that they are aware of this pressure and they are willing to talk about it.
Intended Audience: Anyone and everyone.Particularly those who work with young people and people who strongly believe in the gender binary, or those who don't!
Techniques Used: The entire film is composed of interviews with young people—high school students from across the country. There is very little direction and no interaction with the director on screen whatsoever.The technique used here is letting the images and voices speak for themselves.The students seemed to direct the flow of the film and what would be the emphasis.This honesty from them made this seem extremely genuine and open.Rather than a director or other adult speaking or summarizing the issue, the film is only interviews.The students are candid, honest and opinionated.The bias of the film seemed to be more liberal—allowing for a more spectrum-based definition of gender—but it was not particularly blatant, the students had their own opinions and each person was respectfully recognized for their opinion.The film felt extremely realistic—the students sound like others I have known—and they were willing to talk about themselves, which cannot easily be scripted.
Here is a link to the website for the organization that produced the film:
The following is a VoiceThread I did as a companion to a review of Louise Erdrich's The Birchbark House. This was completed as part of a Minnesota-based Native American project for EdHD 5005.
10:05:01 Terror suspect in court: news Boston (NEWS-COURT CASES-MURDER)
10:05:10 Jury weights death penalty in murder of TV anchorman (NEWS-COURT CASES-MURDER)
10:05:24 Balloon boy family plead guilty (NEWS-COURT CASES)
10:06:02 severe storms: ocean city MD, “prolonged beating that we’re taking” “noreaster” (WEATHER)
10:09:05 mike Tyson: scuffle at LAX, fight with paparazzi (ENTERTAINMENT)
10:09:25 Commercials (ADS)
10:11:12 Obama meetings about afghan war options (NEWS-POLITICS)
Kabul Afghanistan direct report, corruption in the government
10:14:02 pilot tried to hit officers with plan! Drove car across runway (NEWS-COURT CASES)
10:15:31 alcohol tests catch 11 pilots each year (CONSUMER INFO)
10:15:40 chimpanzee attack survivor: charla nash, spoke to Oprah, lost lips, ears, nose in attack, doesn’t remember anything from the attack (PUBLIC INTEREST STORY)
10:17:45 Commercials (ADS)
10:22:02 Call of duty: video game controversy (ENTERTAINMENT/CONSUMER INFO)
10:22:23 George W. Bush to kick off public policy institute (NEWS-POLITICS)
10:22:50 Forbes 5 most powerful people:
5. Google founders 4. Federal Reserve Chairman 3. Russia’s president 2. China’s president, 1. Barack Obama (CONSUMER INFO)
10:23:57 Christmas tree at Rockefeller center delivered, lighting December 2, from backyard of 5th grade teacher (CONSUMER INFO)(ENTERTAINMENT)
10:24:29 Commercials (ADS)
10:28:04 Fort Hood shooting, Hasan to be charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder, military system-potential death penalty, needs to be released from the hospital first, had repeated contact with radical Muslim cleric (NEWS-COURT CASES-MURDER)
10:31:20 10th victim identified from Cleveland, serial killer (NEWS-COURT CASES-MURDER)
10:31:31 family accused in child sex abuse case (NEWS-COURT CASES)
10:32:07 States facing budget disasters, not only California (NEWS-POLITICS)
10:32:26 White House meets with abortion-rights advocates/”women’s rights groups” abortion debate could stall health care debate (NEWS-POLITICS)(HEALTH/CONSUMER INFO)
Reflection:
This newscast was incredibly fast paced.I had a hard time trying to follow the pace while simultaneously taking notes.One of the biggest things I noticed was how much they crammed into a small period of time—17 different issues/stories were covered in 30 minutes!Some of the content was not particularly uplifting, 4 of the stories regarded murder.There was one public interest story about the woman, Charla Nash who was attacked by a chimpanzee about 9 months ago.She appeared on Oprah yesterday, so the story was basically re-capping that interview. They showed only her answer to one question that was particularly emotional in regards to her daughter and they also showed the point at which Oprah leaned over and wiped something off of the woman’s face.This seemed to be an appeal at the heartstrings of the viewer and make him/her want to find out more information about this woman’s sad story.They mention that the White House met/is meeting with abortion-right’s activists.This was an interesting way to phrase this, because most people I know who believe in “abortion rights” call themselves “pro-choice” not “abortion activists.”The story about the famous Rockefeller Christmas tree was interesting because it framed it in a way that assumes everyone loves and celebrates Christmas and that it is the “American” way.They also mentioned that the tree came from a 5th grade teacher’s back yard and “wouldn’t it be great for her students to talk about!”This could be interpreted in a variety of ways, but again I saw it as assuming a universal association with Christianity and it made me uncomfortable.Another thing I found particularly interesting was the portrayal of the individual who performed the shootings at Fort Hood.All of the photos were older, of him in his military uniform.Not pictures of him in the hospital or in prisoner garb.I felt this was a very interesting element of that story.
Media Texts I Use During a Given Week:
Television:
Websites:
Gmail
Google
Shelfari
Class websites/wikis
Facebook
Blogger
Dictionary.com
Amazon.com/Borders.com
Wells Fargo
Radio:
KNOW (91.1): Minnesota Public Radio
Cities97 (97.1): Clear Channel
KDWB (101.3): Clear Channel
Commerical Internet/Cable Access: Comcast
Reflection: How do you think this ownership influences the content of the media you are exposed to?
I know and simultaneously regret that I am influenced by Google on a daily basis.I use Google as my main search page, I use Gmail for my main form of communication, I use GoogleDocs for writing/sharing papers with students and colleagues, etc.The search results I get from Google are always my first choice and I oftentimes believe things that Google tells me, even if another search engine doesn’t.It affects what articles I read based on results, how I communicate with my friends and family and more.Facebook also affects the way I communicate and what I think is important.If Facebook recommends a friend for me or something I be “a fan of” I consider it seriously.I like to think that MRP is as un-biased as news shows come, but I am sure that I like listening to them because of their slightly left-leaning bias.Shelfari has helped me to see the more social elements of reading through online book clubs, discussions and sharing of my book shelf.
Teaching Critical Analysis of News
I think teaching critical analysis of news programming is extremely important.I think one way to get students to really think about the potential biases of news media would be to start with the extreme: The Onion.For this activity I would give my students some articles from The Onion, without telling them it was from a fake newspaper.I would then have them read the articles and talk about them: What was it about? Why do you think the newspaper included this story?If a student hadn’t figured it out yet, I would tell them where it came from and introduce the concept of news parody and why it exists.We could then talk about Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show vs. regular news television broadcasting.I would have students work with a partner and each watch the news for that night on a different station and take notes and then do a pair-sharing activity during class the next day that would lead to a class discussion.
