As a special education teacher, I am constantly looking for new ways to get my students to practice their thinking skills. For many teachers, this a fairly straightforward task. They can have their students read an interesting article and then respond to it, or have them read a primary source and try to determine how they might respond, or they can read... I think you get the point. There are many ways to stimulate thought using written materials.

I am sure that this is a very valuable resource...
but it does not look very exciting.

However, the majority of my students have a learning disability that affects their ability to read. This means that for many of them, they spend so much effort trying to decode words, that they have very little energy left to actually think about what they have read.

Although I require my students to practice reading as much as possible in order to help them to improve their skills, I need to mix in other ways for them to exercise their minds. One way that I do this is through movies. I recently used a very popular Hollywood movie in order to help students better understand the events, actions, and results of the Age of Discovery/Expansion/Exploration (depending on your point of view and what book you are referencing).

Edutainment is nothing new. It was one of my favorite things as a kid.
But my high school students need a bit more than a 3 minute cartoon.

Before I reveal the title of the movie, here's a little background on how I began the lesson...

I began the unit by discussing the motivations of European Explorers. We talk about gold, glory and God. The next day, I ask the students what they have learned about Columbus. The vast majority have learned about his courage and tenacity. Very few have ever heard anything negative about him. I let them know that this story actually has two sides... or three... or a dozen. It all depends on the story teller's point of view.

If it is good enough for Marge Simpson...

After this introduction, I arrange the class into small groups and facilitate guided group discussions about a reading selection from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States (see I told you we read). Zinn's version of the Columbus story is based on the diary of Bartlome de las Casas (the priest from the expedition). In this version, the students learn about the exploitation of the native people by the Europeans. After finishing this, I challenge the students to determine where the truth really lies. Is the happy story they learned since kindergarten true? Is de las Casa's version more accurate? Does the truth lie somewhere in the middle?

I want them to think critically. I want them to actually apply their knowledge to different situations. Although it is true I could find other examples of exploitation of native people, I know my students will get bored and tune out. "We just heard this about Columbus. Why are we doing this again?" they would ask. Of course the reason I am "doing this" is so they can apply their thinking skills to new information. Unfortunately, that may be a little to boring for these teenagers (many of whom have attention deficit disorder).

Nothing could make us pay attention to another story about explorers overpowering natives
...unless there were like blue aliens and robots or something.

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.

Please check back tomorrow to see what movie I decided to use.

If you'd like to try and guess the movie I used, please leave your prediction in the comments.

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