History in Our Everyday Lives

Activities

Walking Tours

Mayfair District

One of the key actives is a Walking Tour, this form of “making history” is accessible and a fun way to present key questions and issues to students. First chose a theme, for this walking tour my theme is infrastructure and culture. The challenge of linking the narratives of the walking tours with the route is part of the process of designing a tour. Like any form of “making history,” it is essential to do your research. I selected a familiar geographical area – my students’ neighborhood. I am designing the tour as a way to unfold the history as laid out in my research, but unlike an article students read, the tour

will bring to life this history, their history, the history that surrounds them in their daily life. I will provide students with primary sources: photographs – captures the essence of the past to contrast with today lifestyle, and historic maps – suggests how the physical landscape has changed over time. This activity is about connecting two concepts together, one recovering the past, the other recalling students’ own specific memories of the neighborhood. Out of this melee of contested space, forms the public memory, part of what historian Jay Young says Alan Gordon has terms “public pasts.”⁵¹

The role of technology in the walking tour

Social media and mobile technology can play a useful part in historical tours. In particular, students will during the tour using mobile devices to create hashtags related to the tour, where they can compare historical images with the current landscape at specific stops.

Los Altos

My students, due to distance and cost, will not physically do a walking tour of Steve Jobs’ neighborhood, and his home, where he developed the first personal computer. My solution is to conduct a “virtual walking” tour. I filmed the neighborhood and turned it into a film to watch. I am using Goole Maps’ Street View’s capability to conduct a “virtual,” where by students discover this neighborhood themselves.

Talk Back - Critically Watching Film & Television

Students watch the HBO series “Silicon Valley” season one, episode 3 “Articles of Incorporation,” MSNBC in Changing American and KQED show “Newsroom” coverage of the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley. As a companion students read, M. Swift, Mike. "Blacks, Latinos and Women Lose Ground at Silicon Valley Tech Companies.”

This activity is used to analyze and critically understand Film & Television, the challenge is allowing students the time to look closely view and deconstruct the image they are watching. The strategies consists of the following: analyze the portrayals of different groups of people in the media. Investigate the social values presented in the media. Analyze portrayals of Latinos in the media. Identify stereotypes, presented though the media. Troupes and Conventions of story in media. Investigate television’s influence

on personal and societal values. Lastly have students rate the shows on a scale of realistic, somewhat realistic and unrealistic.

During class, view the clips and model the media observations by stopping the video to discuss the various components as listed above. Discuss the finding from the students’ own voices. Students complete the questions see appendix for handout.

Writing Activity

If you were to develop a new documentary about your neighborhood that speaks back to HBO’s Silicon Valley what would it be like? In your description, include the following components: I call them SAMS. (S) Subject, who are the characters (main/supporting) in the film; (A) Audience, who is it for; (S) Setting, what locations would you film; (M) Message, what is the content of the documentary.

Filmmaking Experience

The power of a good film is storytelling, and how does one create a good story that has the ability to unite and inspire people? Root the storytelling in a good protagonist, a challenge, a point of view and a narrative plot. Provide students with archetypical stories for them to use scaffolding to developing their own story. See appendix.

To model the storytelling process, students watch “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” directed by Joe Talbo⁵² a great short about a protagonist in an archetypical voyage and return plot. The film has a clear point of view that challenges the viewer to see the protagonist’s neighborhood in a new historical context. This film also introduces students to film writing by its accompany script, detailing for students the structure of a screenplay. Students write their screenplay with a form developed by filmmaker Marlo Custiudo. Students move into Production, creating a shot list and productions schedule before filming. Filming is the creative feature of this lesson. Undertaking the language of film through both camera shots and editing is an ongoing exercise; I use a few web sites to teach this language to my students and this can be found in the appendix. I user the words of Darious Britt, an independent filmmaker, if you wanna make movies, go make a movie. In other words don’t worry to much if your students know a little or a lot about filmmaking, the important aspect is the story.

Next is post-production which includes editing, recording, and color correction. Lastly is the screening. As I wrote before this vital and students will assist with invitations, setup and screening of their films to the community.