-I'm always trying to make it, not make history hip, but make it come alive for them rather
than me standing up there lecturing for 45 minutes.
-It's just very rich, all wrapped up in a very short, ten minute mini doc. One of the
best ways that we learn, I think it's been shown in research, is through storytelling.
It starts with finding the right story... whether for a class discussion or an idea
for a student driven research project.
-You can then use Retro Report to refer back to something that happened in the past and
why it's relevant or may have impacted something that's happening today.
-It's one of those things, they have a video for almost every time frame that you could
think of as you hit into contemporary America. I'm teaching civil rights 1960s right now.
I was like, I really need a good video to help tie this in. And I went to the teacher
website for Retro Report and I clicked on civil rights and bam.
-As the national anthem played, Smith and Carlos raised their fists and ignited a worldwide
controversy. -I can tell you my students, like, if I would
have just shown that video of the 1968 Olympics, they would have been, you know, why are we
talking about this? But, because that connection of African-American athletes was in there
throughout history and it shows Colin Kaepernick, it's like, wow, this is still pertinent.
-The first thing that appealed to me about the Retro Report documentaries was the length.
They were short enough that I could show them in class and then we would have a discussion
afterwards. -And I'm all about visual learning. It allows
students to be engaged that way because I think we have generations of kids coming up
now that want a visual, are more visual learners.
-The lesson plans are really critical because they do get into sort of like the critical
thinking skills, you know, breaking down the story and, you know, asking students prompts
about it.
Students are also encouraged to do their own historical research.
-One of the things Retro Report does really well is gives the student the full picture.
And it even talks a little bit about like, you know, like, you get a nuclear disaster,
like Three Mile Island. How we got there in the first place.
-In March of 1979, Americans awoke to a nuclear nightmare.
-The potential is there for the ultimate risk of a meltdown at the Three Mile Island atomic
power plant outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. -They see the archival footage where people
are panicking and trying to get out of Dodge, essentially. Now that you've seen what could
happen with Three Mile Island, let's compare it now to Exxon Valdez. What's the greater
risk? -One of America’s most magnificent waterways
is blackened and befouled tonight by the biggest oil spill in American history.
-So it really can lead to deeper discussions and debates and allowing students to formulate
opinions and take sides. And if you're bringing in these people who've experienced it, these
stakeholders who've lived through it and had the time to digest it and process it, then
it's a way to connect to other people because they can see themselves in that or they can
see the challenges that these people face. Stories also allow students to explore the
research and reporting process.
-We would sit back and talk about the issue. Did you need to read a bunch of news stories
that had been written about the particular topic? What were some of the questions that
you might have asked during the interviewing process?
Using case studies, students can critique the coverage by the press and gain
media literacy skills.
-An 81- year old woman has been awarded $2.9 million after she sued McDonald’s, claiming
their coffee was too hot.
-Once they watched the entire story and saw how it unfolded and what happened at the very
end, you know, they were they were actually horrified and they felt really bad about how
they had misjudged. And so as I continue to talk to the students about fake news that
really kind of gave them something to think about because they were able to say, oh, that's
how misinformation spreads.
-I want to be able to teach more empathetic reactions to things. And the videos allow
for students then to be like kind of like, oh, OK, I need to think differently about
this situation, kind of empathize more.
-Retro Report does a great job of just sort of setting the stage up, giving you the essentials,
but in a very visually stimulating way and then closing it out, as with lessons learned.