Ken Burns – Telling stories and manipulating your kids

One of my earliest memories of useful discipline-specific staff development was not organized by my school district or building. It wasn’t organized by my building or department chair.

It was designed by Ken Burns. Yeah. That Ken Burns.

The guy who directed and produced the awesome Civil War documentary that first aired in 1990.

I learned more about the Civil War and how to teach about the Civil War by watching that nine part series. Ken used amazing images, poetry, oral history, biography, and music to tell an incredibly interesting story. I began to realize that a big part of being a highly effective teacher of history is the ability to tell a great story. And more importantly, I realized that a big part of my job was to help my kids learn how to tell their own stories.

A recent article highlights a video that has Ken describing a bit about the process of telling great stories. It’s a sweet five minutes. Two things that stood out for me.

1. Ken says that a great story is the same as a mathematical equation. One plus one equals three: 1+1=3. A great story is greater than the sum of its parts.

2. Ken also uses a word that I’ve been using for years. And it’s a word that bothers some teachers. The word is manipulate. I love that word and I think we need to use it more when we talk about teaching and learning.

I starting thinking about manipulating the brains of history students several years ago while reading a great book by James Zull titled The Art of Changing the Brain. Zull suggests that a teacher’s job is to re-wire the brains of students so that new learning takes place. One way to do that is through positive manipulation of emotion.

So when I heard Ken Burns talking about using really good stories to manipulate how people respond to content, I got this deja vu / heard this before sort of moment.

The video is a nice reminder of what teachers can be working on between now and the start of school next fall – researching and perfecting great stories. Creating an emotional connection between content and kids so that their brains are re-wired.

Manipulation. It’s not always a bad thing.

America: The Story of US on History Channel

If you haven’t been paying attention, you’ve already missed half of it.

The History Channel is broadcasting a 12-part series titled “America: The History of US” that started several weeks ago and continues every Sunday night until the end of May.

The History Channel PR people are pretty proud of it:

With highly realistic CGI animation, dramatic recreations and thoughtful insights from some of America’s most respected artists, business leaders, academics and intellectuals, it is the first television event in nearly 40 years to present a comprehensive telling of America’s history. Elaborate, ambitious and cinematic, the series will take you into the moments when Americans harnessed technology to advance human progress, from the rigors of linking the continent by transcontinental railroad–the internet of its day–to triumphing over vertical space through the construction of steel structured buildings to putting a man on the moon. It is an intensive look at the people, places and things that have shaped our nation, and the tough and thrilling adventure that is America’s 400-year history.

And they’re probably right. While not an in-depth look at American history, it does do a nice job of providing an overview of major historical events. You can (and probably should) chunk out smaller slices of the episodes as a handy way to hook kids into deeper topics.

I really like the graphics and CGI effects that provide a good overview of geography and space. Students will also appreciate that not all of the interviews are “stuffy” historians, the show seems much more “conversational” than a typical documentary.

On the show’s web site you’ll find a variety of resources you can use. There are several short video clips as well as a few complete episodes to view online, iTunes episodes for only $2.99, an interactive online quiz, a teacher’s guide and a separate activity guide. Teachers can also receive a free DVD of the entire series through an online request form. The site also has some nice cross-links to similar topics.

The History Channel is airing re-runs throughout the week. Check the Episode Guide for specifics.

We Shall Remain starts today

The PBS series, We Shall Remain, starts later this evening and ends, five episodes later on May 11. It seems like a very ambitious undertaking – document four centuries of interaction between North American natives and those who came later from Europe.

Each 90 minute episode covers a specific period of time by focusing on specific individuals and events. As the Los Angeles Times reviewer states:

Of the many elephants occupying the room that is the history of the United States, none is larger than the official mistreatment of the Native American by the new neighbors from over the water. Like slavery, it is a subject at once much discussed and somehow fundamentally ignored, and because the story has been so sensationalized on the one hand and romanticized on the other, there is a continual desire to tell it right.

The latest attempt is “We Shall Remain,” an ambitious, largely gratifying series of five feature-length documentaries that begins airing weekly tonight on PBS as part of “American Experience.” They do not attempt to encompass the whole of that history, a task for which many more documentaries than five would be needed, but pick signal stories, beginning with Thanksgiving 1621 and ending with the 1973 Indian takeover of a small town on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

I’ve seen just bits and pieces of trailers but like what I see. Some of the earlier segments rely on re-enactments which can seem a bit cheesy at times. But the overall feel of the series is typical of PBS projects – high quality and historically accurate.

What I like is the attempt to be truthful to both sides of the story:

What all their stories have in common is the White Man: The series is not an exploration of the way Indians lived among themselves but rather the way their way of life was put under stress by white interests and attendant, imported ideas about land, money, humanity and God — and the various ways the natives accommodated or resisted new political realities and continually rewritten rules.

There is plenty of nuance to the telling: This is not a story of heroes and villains but of ordinary flawed humans, most of them doomed to failure.

And like all PBS stuff, they have created a useful Educators page with post-viewing questions, discussion starters and student activities. Things are aligned to standards, you can check out bibliographies and there is an extensive Resources page.