Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer
SED 741 - Social Science Methods Discussion Guides:
Defining and Refining our Tools - How do we our tools of the trade in our classrooms?

Following, please find the discussion guides for this session. 

Television Statistics

In the late 1990s, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week or about 112 hours per month - or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years watching television. The Nielsen report issued in 2009 found that the average American watched more than 153 hours of television/computer programs per month, compared to 151 for 2008 and 145 hours in 2007.

A poll conducted in the U.S in the late 1990s found:

Family Life

Children

Violence

Commercialism

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Source: TV-Free America: http://www.csun.edu/~vceed002/health/docs/tv&health.html

Defining and Refining our Tools

Topics for Discussion:

Class activity - In breakout rooms, please do the following:

  1. On your own or as a group, read the next two sections: "How student decision-making processes are influenced by television," and " Necessary concepts and skills for critical TV viewing." (5 minutes)
  2. Discuss how you might use the information in these two sections, as well as the information above under "Television Statistics" in your classroom. (10 minutes). Be sure to elect a spokesperson to speak for your group when we come back to discuss this with the entire class.

HOW STUDENT DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES ARE INFLUENCED BY TELEVISION

1. Television programmers use short scenes which pander to or create short attention spans.  Programmers use the KISS rule - Keep it short and simple.  Students are trained to expect rapid editing with fast-paced action accompanied by simple solutions.  Students carry their short attention spans and their lack of thought about what they are seeing into the schools.

2. Students bring their televised "education" into their classrooms.    Life and reasoning are much more complex than taught on television.  Yet young people who watch a lot of television tend to arrive at simple but fallacious solutions.

3. Many students have concluded that thinking abstractly is much too difficult.  They erroneously conclude that if it is easier and quicker - just like television - then it must be better.  Some student capacities for abstracting, imagining, and creating are dwindling because they are choosing the passive visual experiences rather than the active experiences of reading, critically viewing, and critically thinking.  Relying on images rather than  on verified information affects student abilities to make knowledge and evidence-based decisions.

4. Most television scripts use vocabularies aimed at the lowest common denominator.  Students who have consumed large quantities of television and have done little serious reading have no way to develop the vocabularies necessary to discuss important ideas.  The inability to use the more abstract symbols of language affects the quality of decisions.

Necessary Concepts and Skills Students Need to  Become Actively and Critically
Involved with Television Programming

Remember - the average young person spends 4-5 hours a day watching television!

1. Because television controls our perceptions, we need to understand the technical mechanisms used to gain such control.  TV controls our perceptions in at least four ways: the angle of the camera, the speed of the cuts, the number and kind of technical interventions, and the length and time for each montage.  Let's examine the angle of the camera - If ex-Marine Colonel Oliver North is pictured during the Iran-Contra Congressional hearings with the camera pointed up toward him, this gives the viewer the "feeling" that North has power and command.  Conversely, if the camera is shooting down it gives the viewer the "feeling" that North does not have power and is not in command.  An angle from the side suggests that he might not be telling the truth.  An angle straight into his eyes gives the sense that he is being truthful.

2. Because television controls have we "feel" about what is on the screen, we need to understand how we are being manipulated.  Pictures affect how we feel about things, and the pictorial language of television is the close-up shot.  Extreme close-ups suggest intimacy while long shots suggest a distant relationship.  A fast-paced set of "cuts" will affect how we perceive the story that is being told while a slow pace, with a lot of "dissolves," suggests we should feel something else.  Music will greatly influence the mood with which we digest the scenes - as will canned laughter.

3. Because television is edited for an intended effect, we need to understand how it is designed to direct our feelings and perceptions. Every TV show has an intended effect - something the producers and advertisers want us to believe.  Thus, everything is edited after filming - even "live" shows - to meet that intended effect.  For instance, if in the 2003 California Recall/Governor's Election, the director chooses to "cut away" to Arianna Huffington while "Arnie" is speaking - a specific message is made.  Or if the director "cuts away" to the audience while the Green Party candidate is speaking - and the audience is showing displeasure - another message is being "sold" to the public.

4. Because television is manipulated technically and by subject matter choice, we need to understand the tools used to keep us attentive.  In order to keep us attentive, directors must technically manipulate what we see on the screen.  The average 30-second commercial has 20 technical manipulations - cuts, zooms, dissolves, etc. - that are used to keep us focused on what is being sold.  Directors must also focus on bizarre, controversial, and confrontational subject matter in order to keep us interested.  Thus, if there is a  protest in front of the US Capitol and a small amount of violence occurs, the few minutes of violent action is what is shown rather than the hours of quiet protest.

5. Because television is about the business of making money, we need to be aware of this influence on what we watch.  Commercial television networks pay the Nielsen television rating's service to determine the number of people who are watching a particular program.  If people are watching, advertisers will pay to reach them; if they are not watching, their profitability will be low and they will not pay.  Television broadcasters show what people WANT - we control the market!

Why we should use film in our classrooms

1. The film message is too important to leave to amateurs - students need teachers to help them understand the message.

2. Some topics require the use of film.

3. Film can communicate a moment in time with a power and precision that personal memoirs and history textbooks often cannot achieve.

4. If we ignore the influence popular cinema plays in the lives of our students, we are also ignoring their perspectives.

O'Connor's Guide to Film Analysis*

Film is best analyzed using the techniques of traditional historical analysis.  This involves a two-stage analytical process:

1. Stage One:  Analyze the film in terms of:

2. Stage Two:  Analyze within three major frameworks - moving-image documents as: These are the same questions historians ask when analyzing any document!
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* John E. O'Connor and Martin A. Jackson, American History/American Film: Interpreting the Hollywood Image  (NY: Ungar Publishing Co, 1979).

Toplin's reasons to use Hollywood feature films

These reasons can be applied to the use of entire films in the classroom, the use of films for extra credit, and the use of snippets of films to hook student interest.

Resources for Teaching about Film

To Read:

Online:

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Ideas for Using Current Events and Political Cartoons in the Classroom

Resources for Current Events:

Resources for Teaching Current Events:

Resources for Political Cartoons and Teaching with Political Cartoons

Next week's assignment:

  1. Each person will pick one of the 9 "Tools of the Trade" listed below.

    As you look at these tools, you will notice that some have several resources and others have only 1 or 2. Don't use these as guidelines for your choices.

  2. Each person will review each of the resources and be prepared to discuss how useful they are to the classroom with your peers next time we meet.
  3. Each person will find at least two other online resources and be prepared to share them with their colleagues next time we meet. These must be submitted to me no later than Tuesday so I can add them to the list for next week's discussion.

Tools of the Trade:  Selected Online Resources

National Archives Document Worksheets http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/

General Document Collections

Letters:

Speeches:

Oral History

Photographs:

Photo of Hurrican Katrina

Photo of Hurricane Katrina

History Day - http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/index.htm

Music

Mock Trials, Simulations, and other creative approaches

Debate:

guideline to debate in the classroom

The Boston Tea Party – An Historical and Contemporary Analysis

(Note: this article was condensed from and informed by an article to be published by Ray Raphael, " Tea Party Myths: What you didn't learn in school about the legendary brouhaha in Boston that helped spark our revolution.")

Introduction: We all know that on December 16, 1773, several dozen men dressed up as Mohawk Indians and cut open 340 chests of tea belonging to the East India Company and dumped the contents in Boston’s harbor.

So the questions for our classroom discussion are: What was the Boston Tea Party and Does it have any relationship to the current Tea Party Movement? To answer the question, we are going to examine several myths:

In short ...

Resources for teaching about the Tea Party Movement