Learning Activity
Aired November 11, 2003
The debates over three recent television docudramas illustrate that the line between fact and fiction often depends on the interpretation. Analyze a docudrama from a particular perspective and evaluate the docudrama as a credible historical representation.
Consider the topics students are currently studying in class. Select one or more movies that address the topic (for a sample index, see Related Sites). Inform students that they will watch the movie as movie critics. Organize students into small groups and assign each group one perspective on the movie. For example, if it is a political docudrama, one group could review the movie from the main subject's perspective, one group can represent an historian's perspective and another group can examine the movie from a minor character's perspective. While reviewing the movie, student groups should consider the following questions:
• From whose perspective is the story told?
• What are the main themes of the movie?
• How do the plots and characterizations in the movie compare with the subject matter as it is presented in textbooks, original pieces of literature or other sources?
• What techniques do filmmakers use to tell their story (i.e. original footage or quotations, a narrator, fictional characters)?
• What aspects of the movie appear to be fact or fiction?
• What message(s) do you think the filmmakers are trying to get across?
• How does this version of the story compare with other versions of the same story? How do you account for the similarities and differences?
• How might your group's perspective on the movie compare with other groups' perspectives?
Have student groups present their reviews of the movie from their assigned perspectives. As a class, analyze the similarities and differences among the reviews and evaluate the value of the docudrama(s) as a credible historical representation.
Correlated Standards
The Standards for the English Language Arts (http://www.readwritethink.org/standards/) are published by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) (http://www.ncte.org/homepage/)
1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
The National Standards for History (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/ ) are published by the National Center for History in the Schools (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/).
Standards for Historical Thinking: Standard 3: The student engages in historical analysis and interpretation. Therefore the student will be able to:
A. Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas, values, personalities, behaviors, and institutions by identifying likenesses and differences.
B. Consider multiple perspectives of various peoples in the past by demonstrating their differing motives, beliefs, interests, hopes, and fears.
H. Hold interpretations of history as tentative, subject to changes as new information is uncovered, new voices heard, and new interpretations broached.
Related Sites
CNN.com: 'Saving Jessica Lynch' has Iraqi hero (http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/07/tv.jessicalynch.ap/)
CNN.com: Conservatives Protecting One of Their Own (http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/07/ip.pol.opinion.reagan/index.html)
Docudramas http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/D/htmlD/docudrama/docudrama.htm
Teaching with Movies http://www.teachwithmovies.org/heritage-list.htm
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Judging Information Rubric (http://go.hrw.com/resources/go_ss/teacher99/rubrics/RUBRIC16.pdf)
Keywords
docudrama, Ronald Reagan, Jessica Lynch, fictionalize, compelling, slant, miniseries, Alzheimer's, Elizabeth Smart
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