Teaching The Civil Rights Movement to 9th Graders Using Multimedia by Michael A Candela A Master s Project for ED 7999 In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching 2005 Major Social Studies Education Approved by Dr Bob Pettapiece Date 0 Table of Contents Page Chapter One Introduction to the Project The Project Significance Purpose Hypothesis Summary Chapter Two Review of Related Material Introduction Research Practice Theory Summary Chapter Three 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 5 Methodology Introduction Procedure Data Collection 6 6 6 Summary 7 Chapter Four Results Introduction Hypothesis 1 Pre Test and Post Test Score Averages Table 1 Hypothesis 2 Survey Results Table 2 Summary 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 Chapter Five Conclusions and Recommendations Conclusions Recommendations Personal Observations 13 13 13 13 7 References Appendix A Appendix B 16 Pre test and Post test Attitude Survey 17 22 1 Chapter One Introduction to the Project Introduction There are so many disturbing and uplifting images from the Civil Rights era that need to be seen by students today For instance the images of lynchings bring to life the horrors faced by blacks in the south whereas the March on Washington shows the positive effect of people working together to accomplish a goal Once these images are shown to students along with many others they will be able to see the experiences of the people involved and the pain they endured With the introduction of television channels such as The History Channel it has become apparent that people like to watch and see history rather than just hear history A growing number of students say they like to watch television shows about history but still do not like to sit and listen to a teacher talk about history This is one reason that media needs to be brought into the classroom to help students learning while keeping their interest in the subject Many teachers just lecture to their students traditional format about history This form of teaching can lead to history being uninteresting Bringing in new forms of media has shown to help engage the students and heighten their interest levels so that history is no longer boring The Project This project intended to show the importance and benefits of using two different forms of multimedia films and music in teaching the topic of the Civil Rights Movement The benefits were measured by teaching two classes in the multimedia format and teaching one class in the traditional format 2 In this project class discussions of the multimedia were used in order to clarify ideas and events Most of the content came from documentary films Hollywood films and professional music from that era Emphasis was placed on documentary films due to their use of primary sources and more accuracy to historical events Each student had access to the movies and music if he she missed a day of class Hypotheses This project used the following two hypotheses to show the effectiveness of using multimedia in the classroom Hypothesis 1 Students in a 9th grade United States History class will learn more about the Civil Rights Movement than a traditional class through the use of multimedia instead of the traditional method of lecture as measured by a pre test and posttest Hypothesis 2 Students in a 9th grade United States History class using multimedia will appreciate social studies more than a traditional class as measured by a survey given before and after the unit Summary This project was intended to show the effects that multimedia had on students as opposed to the traditional style of teaching Due to the increase of stimuli that a student receives on an average day through television and video games it is necessary to add visuals and auditory stimuli to the classroom to keep their interest This project tested if the use of multimedia would show an increase in interest and knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement 3 Chapter Two A Review of Related Literature Introduction This type of project has been attempted many times with success So much so that many instructors use a multimedia more than lecture in their classrooms so as to not bore but stimulate their students Research Wanda Jones states One of the most successful techniques I have discovered in teaching history has been the use of music and dance 2005 p 1 Jones uses both music and dance but states how successful the students become once they are kept interested by the music since music is such an engrained part of our culture She concludes that the number of students participating in class has grown significantly due to this new method of presentation Woodcraft states Photographs portraits and pictures are obviously great for more visual learners but for any student they can be used to develop inferential skills and to engender real empathy and historical understanding creating a community of enquiry 2004 p 12 It is important for students to visually see the images being taught instead of just hearing it and trying to picture a scene in their minds Before showing the photos to the students Woodcraft would play a piece of music to help set the mood and get the students ready and in the proper state of mind which brought about the emotions that the teacher desired He states how engaged students are due to the interest in music and image and that it helped to increase their emotional level so that the thoughts would more clearly stay in their memories He summarizes his observations with noting how powerful the use of images and modern parallels further engaged the 4 students interest and caused the topic to become more relevant to their own lives Also he demonstrates through unit test scores how the coupling of music and images caused students to engage the material more which thus increases retention Practice Lindley 2001 uses the film Dr Strangelove to teach the Cold War and states that he can use it to teach not only deterrence but the Cold War paranoia and the similarity to actual happenings and thoughts throughout the world Since most people who learn about the Cold War today were not alive during this time period the film helps to show the paranoia that was common during this time period Since most students were not alive during the events taught in history classes the use of media helps bring the topic to life especially when it is a primary source of media such as documentaries As Joseph states Let the voices of the past speak to our students in a way that will give them a