Audio Nation
California author John Steinbeck once said, “You can learn more about people by listening to their songs than any other way, for into the songs go all the hopes and hurts, the angers, fears, and the wants and aspirations." Music is a universal language that we use to represent joy and sadness, excitement and fear, and the countless human emotions. It is a part of life, as it has been for thousands or perhaps millions of years. Thus, we can also use it as an authentic tool to teach us about past generations and other cultures. Rather than read someone else's interpretation, we can learn the connection between music and the events of an age for ourselves. With only minimal context, we can learn about the treacherous work of building railroads in the "promised land" during the the nineteenth century by listening to "Casey Jones" or the patriotic sentiment of preparing for World War I in "Over There." As times change and music continues to evolve, cultures will continue to leave behind songs that can act as time capsules, telling vivid stories of the era.
It's amazing how powerful audio can be. In only a few minutes on NPR's Radio Diaries, I learned about a teenage girl's struggle to find and defend her own identity as she doesn't conform to the expected stereotypes (listen to Amanda's diary), territorial disputes in a strange purgatory for New York City educators who were asked to temporarily but indefinitely leave the classroom (listen to the portrait of the rubber room), and the almost seventh year evolution of the New York Knicks basketball team (listen to the starting five history). Documenting people's lives through audio (and video) gives us a much richer and deeper look into other people's lives than text alone can. We can understand subtle nuances through the background noise, pitch of the voice, and raw utterances. I think it would be very worthwhile to have students make radio diaries to document their own experiences, similar to LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman in "Ghetto Life 101" (and later, Our America). With little to no training, students could produce a wonderfully illustrative look into others' lives.
Resources:
It's amazing how powerful audio can be. In only a few minutes on NPR's Radio Diaries, I learned about a teenage girl's struggle to find and defend her own identity as she doesn't conform to the expected stereotypes (listen to Amanda's diary), territorial disputes in a strange purgatory for New York City educators who were asked to temporarily but indefinitely leave the classroom (listen to the portrait of the rubber room), and the almost seventh year evolution of the New York Knicks basketball team (listen to the starting five history). Documenting people's lives through audio (and video) gives us a much richer and deeper look into other people's lives than text alone can. We can understand subtle nuances through the background noise, pitch of the voice, and raw utterances. I think it would be very worthwhile to have students make radio diaries to document their own experiences, similar to LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman in "Ghetto Life 101" (and later, Our America). With little to no training, students could produce a wonderfully illustrative look into others' lives.
Resources:
- Songs of Our Times created by the Library of Congress
- Radio Diaries created by NPR
Video Nation
Below is a suggested learning activity that incorporates a primary source video as the crux of student's investigation into history. This is activity is designed to be incorporated within the middle of a longer Holocaust unit for middle or high school level students. As part of this unit, students learn what propaganda is and how it is and was used, both today and in the 1930s-1940s in Europe. Students analyze various pieces of Nazi propaganda, including campaign posters, children's books, magazine covers, speeches, other print media, and a video/documentary--all of which were used by Hitler and his master propagandist Joseph Goebbels to spread anti-Jewish beliefs throughout Germany and Europe.
Learning Objective: Students will analyze a primary source video, Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew), in order to better understand how Nazis spread their antisemitic views to the German people.
Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETAVC0an138
watch only portions of film: 01:00-05:00, 12:00-14:00, 17:00-19:00, 21:00-22:00, 48:00-52:00, 56:00-60:00 (approximate times)
Learning Objective: Students will analyze a primary source video, Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew), in order to better understand how Nazis spread their antisemitic views to the German people.
Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETAVC0an138
watch only portions of film: 01:00-05:00, 12:00-14:00, 17:00-19:00, 21:00-22:00, 48:00-52:00, 56:00-60:00 (approximate times)
Questions for Discussion:
- How are Polish Jews portrayed in the video? (corrupt, filthy, fat, hook-nosed, lazy, ugly, greedy, and perverse)
- What are the Jews compared to? Describe why. (rats -- "Where rats turn up, they spread diseases and carry extermination into the land. They are cunning, cowardly and cruel, they travel in large packs, exactly the way the Jews infect the races of the world.")
- What is the Jews' goal? (to eventually take over the world, by first controlling banking and commerce)
- Identify a scene that was designed to show the brutality and inhumane nature of Jews. (the rabbi viciously and cruelly slaughtering the cow, contrasted by the nuzzling of the innocent lambs)
- What is the purpose of the film? (to reveal the "true" nature of Jews, to show how Jews act as parasites)
- Why would this video be persuasive? (it seems real, with real video footage; it would be hard to know that the video was doctored or falsified; plus, it was presented as a factual documentary)
- What makes this video propaganda? (The Nazis used the video to negatively influence the way other people felt about Jews.)
- What propaganda techniques are used in this film? (assertion, name calling, pinpointing the enemy, stereotyping)