Yesterday I wrote about teaching my students with special needs about The Age of Exploration/Discovery/Expansion. This includes class discussion based on prior knowledge, introduction of some new information, and discussing a selection from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.
I want my students to take their learning a bit further. I use a movie to help me with this task.
What is the title of the mystery movie?
What's in the box? I assure you it is not Gwyneth Paltrow.
I did actually provide a hint in the following caption...
Nothing could make us pay attention to another story about explorers overpowering natives
...unless there were like blue aliens and robots or something.
On the challenge of getting my students to practice their thinking skills in a way that wouldn't bore them to death, I thought:
But what if I could "trick" them into applying these thinking skills? What if I could get them to see similarities between 15th and 16th century explorers and another story? Do I have to use a real story to help them to practice these skills? Perhaps not.
I decided to try something a little different. Instead of completing another reading, I had my students analyze a famous Hollywood movie in order to allow them to practice their thinking skills.
That mystery movie is...
James Cameron's Avatar
There are many parallels between Avatar and the European explorers we studied.
First, the students connected the "Na'vi" people to the native people of the Americas. The name "Na'vi" is not a very subtle way to encourage the audience to make this connection. My students also noticed that the Na'vi used more primitive weapons than the humans. In addition, the Na'vi had a special connection to nature, much like the indigenous Americans.
Like many things in the movie, the Na'vi's "connection" to nature is not very subtle.
The students were also able to quickly determine that fictional resource "unobtainium" was a symbol for gold. The corporation in charge of the expedition to the planet Pandora puts the acquisition of this resource above anything else... including the lives of the indigenous inhabitants of the planet. My students connected this concept to the Howard Zinn reading. In the portion that we read, the Europeans required the native people to reach a gold quota. If they did not, the natives were killed.
In the movie, the largest deposit of "unobtainium" was located directly under the Na'vi's most sacred tree. When a scientist explains how devastating the destruction of the tree will be to the inhabitants of Pandora, the head of the corporations boldly says, "They're fly-bitten savages that live in a tree. Alright, look around. I don't know about you, but I see a lot of trees. They can move!" My students immediately recognized this as similar to the attitude of explorers who expected native people to relocate in order for the Europeans to take the land. This quote also allowed the class to discuss the term "savages" and how offensive this term is.
Are people "savages" for wanting to protect their home?The students also recognized that the humans had a technological advantage over the Na'vi. Because of this advantage, a small number of humans was able to control a large native population. My students immediately made this connection to the European explorers as well.
The discussion ended with a student asking, "Did any native people ever rise up and defeat the explorers?"
I didn't answer. Instead I said, "Hmmm I don't know. Maybe we should look that up".
My students are currently researching native uprisings from throughout history. Nearly all of them are really interested in finding out. I'd like to say all of them are super excited, but then you'd know I'm lying... they are still teenagers after all.
You sound like a teacher I might have actually wanted to listen to rather than tune out by staring out a window, haha! I had a few of those, sadly not as many as the 'other' kind ;)
I've been taking a look at posts written by the people ' under attack' on this platform. the-alien's posts are interesting and well done, I really enjoy them, and I really enjoyed this. Personally I think the higher rewards for people who have been here for a long time and continue to produce great content, should be seen as an incentive. I see it that way. I'm beginning to think the anger over it has something to do with entitlement. I know first hand how difficult it is to be a free lance writer, how much work it is to make anything for months let alone daily. I'm guessing many of them do not or they would appreciate steemit for what it is.
Sorry for the rambling, that's just my thoughts on the matter.
Thanks! I had a lot of good teachers growing up... but not all. The first thing I do when I sit down to write a lesson is think " what would my bad teachers do?" Then I do the exact opposite! Lol. I try never to do anything that I wouldn't want to. Do as a kid. And thanks for the kind and understanding words. They weren't rambling at all. I needed that today. I really do want to help the community here.
What a great teacher you are making! thank you for us all!
Cameron was greatly inspired by the South American tribes he connected with before making the movie and, as you underline so well in this article, the characters found in the movie have an awful lot of parallels to the actual few last aboriginal people of this planet.
The knowledge is still within the planet, here and there and it is still mostly a matter of stopping our madness and reconnecting with the land where the land is still vibrant, healthy, unspoiled or profaned/raped.
The philosophy of welcoming depicted by the great majority of tribes of this world parallels the ways of life itself. Some tribes and/or small groups and/or individuals having had the misfortune, in some ways, to encounter a philosophy exposing them to the dangers of an opposite way of thinking developed a warrior like culture and promoted it as a way of survival, eventually as a way to conquer... Unfortunately, this way of behaving is unsustainable for all tribes as it eventually bit one back, like the snake.
There are still so many tribe having to deal with this conquerer mentality that goes against the way of life... We are still all paying greatly for it today and might even perish at its hands. May we all get together as one again for the sake of life and our survival and thriving. All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
Wow. This comment would make a great post. So many wonderful and powerful thoughts here. I too agree we need to come together as human beings. There are so many great things we can do when we embrace different cultures and see the good in each other instead of trying to change people to be like the "dominant" group.
Thank you so very much @handshot, your equally great words of recognition are thoroughly appreciated and close to our one heart. as much as it may be doing a very good post, if it is not read or recognized, what is going to be the worth of it. Right now, my writing doesn't get much attention even when I spend 5 days on an article, like the last post I ended up sharing, I still end up making less than $20.00 worth. Maybe it is more in the net worth or it but in the value of the change/movement provoked in the single or few that it should be measuring with ,but my time is also taken in consideration and feel like the time isn't ripe yet for me to do so. Later, most hopefully sooner than later, I shall write on this topic.
Thank you so very much for your kind words of encouragements this way. Namaste :)
You selected an amazing movie because it is exactly the story of the Exploration Age. You totally had me thinking a history based film.
When I watched the movie with my son I described the similarities with the "New World". My kids are half Native American so it was a modern way to show them what happened.
That is awesome. I feel pretty good knowing you were thinking the same thing when you saw it. Not only because you have the Native American connection but because you are a parent. I was hoping parents would get what I was trying to do. Seriously thanks for taking the time to make that comment.
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