How Different Media Affect Adolescents' Views of the Hero: Lessons from Amistad

Autor/inn/en	Friedland, Ellen S.; Phelps, Stephen; del Prado Hill, Pixita
Titel	How Different Media Affect Adolescents' Views of the Hero: Lessons from Amistad
Quelle	In: Middle School Journal (J3), 38 (2006) 1, S.20-26 (7 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0094-0771
Schlagwörter	Teaching Methods; Foreign Countries; Grade 8; United States History; Slavery; Faculty; Preservice Teacher Education; Films; Preservice Teachers; Middle School Students; Field Trips; Reading Assignments; Discussion (Teaching Technique); Role Models; Ethics; Africa + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Ausland; School year 08; 8. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 08; Sklaverei; Academic Staff; Lehrkörper; Lehramtsstudiengang; Lehrerausbildung; Film; Middle school; Middle schools; Student; Students; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Exkursion; Identifikationsfigur; Ethik; Afrika
Abstract	"Amistad," the story of a group of Mende people illegally brought to the United States from West Africa in 1839, was taught to a group of 90 eighth grade students. To learn about the "Amistad," these eighth graders visited a replica of the ship, read a nonfiction account of the Amistad story, and viewed the Steven Spielberg film "Amistad." Two aspects of this project were found to be of special interest: (1) the teachers wondered whom the eighth grade students would choose as the heroes of the "Amistad;" and (2) how the multimodal approach to this unit -- discussion, hands-on experience, reading, and film viewing --would influence students' learning and perceptions, particularly with respect to the heroes of the incident. Three teacher education faculty members, the authors of this article, helped to plan these various learning activities and involved several of their teacher education students in discussing the Amistad story with the eighth graders immediately before and after viewing the film. Visualization of the story and the characters was the overriding theme in student reports of what influenced their learning and their insights. However, each medium provided students with a vehicle with which to confront or conjure images of the Africans' experiences, and these visualizations engaged them in learning. The multiple learning experiences appealed to varied learning styles and helped students to go beyond the facts of the Amistad story to develop a much more immediate and intense appreciation of the evils of slavery and the kinds of heroism needed to confront and defeat such evil. The teachers got a clear sense of the students' development of ethical standards, their moral offense in the face of injustice, their interests, and their learning preferences. The teacher education students came to appreciate the abilities and engaging qualities of middle school students and learned several useful lessons about teaching and learning in the middle school. Critics argue that school curricula often do too little with too much; however the students in this project acquired a greater understanding of many important themes in American history and enabled them to make crucial intertextual links. The project demonstrated the many possibilities for making learning and teaching engaging, exciting, and powerful. (Author).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10