A couple of days ago I found @SocImages that in a short time has provided me with some good resources to use in my Sociology classroom. Early on, I retweeted some of the articles for my Sociology students to discuss, but the interest in the discussions, along with some of the visual pieces has forced me to find ways to implement them in my Sociology class. Thank you to @SocImages for the great resources and I highly suggest that any Sociology teacher on Twitter give them a follow and take a moment to look through all they have to offer!
This is a great site for not only showing students different presidential campaign commercials, but also allowing students to create their own commercials.
In my class, we talk about different propaganda techniques, then we look at different commercials and try to identify the different techniques being used. After working through the commercials as a group, students are assigned to use the "Admaker" part of the website to piece together their own commercial with focus on using different propaganda technique. Because of the different topics/clips that are provided, the purposed of the assignment is much more based on the process of creating propaganda vs the actual content in the commercials. Another teacher (thanks @jobtabhistory) suggests having the students create a commercial storyboard focusing on key ideas of Reagan administration. Once complete, the students can watch the actual commercials produced by the Reagan campaign and compare/contrast the different styles in how to deliver the key messages to the voting public. Overall, there is a lot of different things that can be done with website which is your "one-stop shopping" for all things presidential commercials!! The Center for the Study of the American Constitution (CSAC) provided this years fellows with a collection of reading materials relating to the Founding Fathers and the process of creating the Constitution. Two of these books show how powerful primary documents can be when looking backwards in time and provide students with the ability to process primary documents while at the same time allowing their imaginations to paint the final portrait in their own mind.
The Founders on the Founders by John P. Kaminski focuses on thirty of the most prominent figures from the American Revolutionary Era and uses letters written by their peers in order to give us a glimpse back in time to see what these men truly were like through the eyes of their friends and enemies. An Assembly of Demigods by John P. Kaminski and Timothy D. Moore uses the same approach as The Founders on the Founders but this book expands out to fifty-five members of the Constitutional Convention. These books are great resources for teachers interested in taking a variety of different viewpoints of our Founding Fathers. The perspectives used in the books come from a wide range of individuals and each perspective shines a slightly different light. Also, the use of primary resources can be used in multiple ways to challenge and stimulate students to learn through the eyes of people who lived over two-hundred years ago. Both of these books would be great additions to any U.S. History or Government teacher looking to take a second look at the Founding Fathers. The past couple weeks have been very busy, but very productive especially in terms of taking advantage of my fellowship at UW-Madison with the Center for the Study of the American Constitution (CSAC). The time I spent at CSAC for my first meeting was amazing. Not only did CSAC supply numerous resources for us to take home and use, but also the people who work as members of CSAC are amazing people who are amazing at what they do. To hear Dr. John Kaminski tell the stories of the Founding Fathers through their own words captured in primary documents was priceless. Also, to work with Timothy Moore in regards to the pedagogical aspects and uses of the primary documents housed at CSAC was eye opening.
At the end of our first session, my assignment is to create a lesson plan using the resources that can be found at the CSAC website. In the coming weeks, look for a lesson plan using the resources found here. If you are looking for lesson plans that have already been created using the above linked resources, some of those can also be found on their website here. |