Jessica L. Cormier
Day 1:
Rationale: In order for students to understand the historical and fictional story of Spartacus, they must first understand how to discern between primary and secondary sources.
Objective: Students will be able to distinguish primary from secondary sources.
Activity: First, the teacher will present a brief mini-lesson (15 minutes approximately) on the definitions of and differences between primary and secondary historical documents. Students should follow along by taking notes and asking questions.
Before class, the teacher should set up the classroom into multiple different stations (6-10 depending on classroom size and number of students) in preparation for a gallery-walk activity to take place after the mini-lesson. At each station, the teacher should provide an un-labeled example of a primary or secondary source. This could be made more engaging by including a combination of quotes, physical books, images/photographs, video clips (shown on a laptop/computer), and/or songs (shown on a laptop/computer). Working in groups, students should circulate the room, examine the sources, and work together to identify them as primary or secondary. Once completed, students should share their answers and discuss their rationale with the entire class.
Day 2:
Rationale: Co-Op High School is conveniently located in downtown New Haven, giving our students access to the Beinecke Library—“One of the world's largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts.”
26
Teachers will be able to engage visual and kinesthetic learners by bringing students to visit the library and experience primary source documents in-person.
Objective: Students will be able to evaluate the reliability and credibility of sources.
Activity: At least three weeks before Day 2 of the unit, the teacher should call/email the library to book a tour and reserve a classroom within the Beinecke.
27
On Day 2, the students and teacher will then walk over to the Beinecke Library (121 Wall Street, New Haven, CT). The students and teacher will take a Yale-led tour of the building to view some of their famous primary source documents in person. After completion of the tour, students and teacher should meet in a reserved classroom within the library to debrief the experience.
28
First, to begin the discussion, the teacher should encourage students to share their interpretations, reactions, and general feedback from the experience. Once students become involved in the conversation, the teacher should begin to steer students towards discussing the role of reliability and bias in interpreting historical documents. Teachers may introduce the topic into the discussion by using the following questions:
What are some of the benefits associated with utilizing primary source documents to interpret history?
What are some of the challenges associated with relying on primary source documents to interpret history?
How might a writer’s personal beliefs, background, religion, ethnicity, political views, etc. change their perception of history? How might this affect a primary source?
Day 3:
Rationale: Now that students should be able to discern the differences between primary and secondary sources as well as assess their credibility, they are ready to begin exploring the historical background behind the story of Spartacus.
Objective: Students will be able to analyze the ancient historical documents chronicling the life of Spartacus.
Activity: First, the teacher will present a brief mini-lesson (15 minutes approximately) providing a background on ancient Roman life and the importance of slavery within the empire. Students should follow along by taking notes and asking questions.
Students should then be broken into small groups and each provided with a different historical document about the life of Spartacus. Excerpts may come from Plutarch, Appian, Sallust, Livy, Cicero, Paterculus, Florus, Frontinus, Athenaeus, and Orosius.
29
This activity lends itself to differentiation, as some documents are quite lengthy and challenging (Plutarch, Appian), while others are much more brief and straightforward (Paterculus and Frontinus). Within groups, students should read their assigned document together and complete a SOAP Chart based on their interpretations. They may also be permitted to refer to the notes they took earlier in the class, as well as smart phones if necessary, to gain a better understanding of the author of their assigned document. After completing the SOAP chart, students should be prepared to briefly present their documents and interpretations to the rest of the class. See below for example:
S
peaker: Who is writing this? How might his background affect the piece?
|
O
ccasion: Context, current events, date, time period...
|
A
udience: Who are the readers? How does the author target them?
|
P
urpose: Why was this written? What is the author’s thesis/main point?
|
|
|
|
|
Before the end of class, students should be provided a brief section of Howard Fast’s novel
Spartacus
to read for homework. This may include the book’s dedication and Parts I-III, which hint at the book’s communist undertones, introduce the role of slavery, and provide some foreshadowing for the end of the movie.
Day 4-6:
Rationale: Students have analyzed the recorded ancient historical sources concerning Spartacus, as well as read a small section of Howard Fast’s novel (upon which the movie
Spartacus
was based). They are now ready to actually begin watching the movie as a secondary source. Because the movie is 180 minutes long, and class periods at Co-Op last 80 minutes, two full classes and one partial class must be allocated to viewing the film. An anticipated 20-30 additional minutes should be added to the 180 minutes as a precaution, as students sometimes ask for a movie to be paused/rewound, and it occasionally takes a class a few minutes to settle down before beginning each class. In addition, it is suggested that teachers turn the English subtitles on while watching the movie for students who may struggle with auditory learning.
Objective: Students will be able to analyze the 1960 film
Spartacus
as a secondary source.
Activity: Before beginning the film, the teacher should pass out a list of discussion questions based on the film. These questions will be considered and debated during a class discussion on Day 7. As students view the 1960 film
Spartacus
in its entirety, they should jot down thoughts, examples, and evidence on the discussion questions list to be used during the future discussion. The following questions/quotes are included as a suggestion for teachers, but may be expanded/adapted based on personal preference:
-
What might the imagery in the film’s title sequence (pieces of sculptures and ultimately a cracking male bust) symbolize? Why might the filmmakers have chosen to begin with such imagery? Revisit this question again at the end of the film.
-
Consider the character Batiatus, the owner of the gladiatorial school. How does his character reflect the human condition? Is he a “good guy” or a “bad guy”? How are his actions marked by conflict? Is he “upper class” or is he a “slave”?
-
What does Spartacus mean when he says: “I'd rather be here, a free man among brothers, facing a long march and a hard fight, than the richest citizen in Rome, fat with food he didn't work for, and surrounded by slaves.” Do you agree with Spartacus? Why?
-
Observe the costumes worn throughout the film. Describe the colors/textures/materials of clothing worn by the senators and upper-class Romans versus the gladiators and slaves.
-
Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay for the movie
Spartacus
. His wife once described him, saying: “He recognized the evil in everyone, including himself.” Is this reflected in the film? If so, how?
-
Consider the character Draba. What was he wearing when he first met Spartacus? What might this symbolize? Describe the gladiatorial battle between Draba and Spartacus. How do they interact with each other before the fight? Who loses the fight? Who dies? What does the end of the fight foreshadow? What happens to Draba’s body after the fight, and what might this symbolize?
On Day 6, students will have extra time once the movie has ended to reflect on the movie as a whole and add more information to their discussion question sheets. They should be allowed to discuss any lingering questions with classmates/the teacher if needed. Students should also be asked to create at least one discussion question of their own on a topic they’d like to explore in the next class.
Day 7:
Rationale: Having watched the film and been given time in class and at home to reflect on and digest what they had seen, the students should be ready to discuss the work together as a class. Before the discussion, students should be made aware that they will be graded on their involvement in the activity. This discussion could be structured in the “fishbowl debate” format, or it could be more organic and spontaneous, depending on the mix of students/personalities within the class.
Objective: Students will be able to discuss and debate the film
Spartacus
as a secondary source, synthesizing what they learned from primary sources with what they perceived while watching the film.
Activity: Before class, the teacher should set up the desks in either a circular “fishbowl” configuration, or in a manner so that the students will be facing each other. Students should bring their discussion question lists with them and take them out at the beginning of class. Depending on class dynamic, the teacher may introduce different discussion questions and assign students to sit in the middle of the “fishbowl,” or allow students to carry the conversation themselves. Students should also be encouraged to bring up their own discussion questions which they should have created at the end of Day 6.
Day 8-10:
Rationale: Students should now be ready to consider the film adaptation of
Spartacus
as having a very different function—serving as a primary source itself. As students in this “History Through Film” class would have already learned about American political and social turmoil of the 1950’s-60’s in United States History during their Sophomore year, the historical background should already be familiar to them. A recap at the beginning of the class in the form of notes or a brief presentation will help students to recall what they already learned. However, it will be the job of the students to make the connections between assigned movie scenes and the historical background. By first modeling with the example of the film’s opening lines describing Rome as “stricken with a disease called human slavery”, students should then be able to analyze the scene of Spartacus and Draba’s gladiatorial fight, and the “I am Spartacus!” scene themselves.
Objective: Students will be able to describe the political/social turmoil which afflicted the United States throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Activity: First, the teacher should present a brief historical background on the 1950’s and 1960’s in the United States. This could easily be done through a mini-lesson at the beginning of class, and could be supplemented by the historical information found throughout the lesson plan. In addition, the YouTube channel
CrashCourse
has an excellent, succinct series of videos which could be used in conjunction with a mini lesson as an engaging summation, especially for more visual/auditory learners who tend to drift off while taking notes or listening to lectures.
30
Specifically, the videos “
Civil Rights and the 1950s: Crash Course US
”, “
The Cold War: Crash Course US
”, and “
The 1960s in America: Crash Course US
” could be used in portions or in their entirety, with subtitles
on
to ensure that students are able to follow along with the rapid delivery of information.
31
After the completion of the lesson, students should be divided into two groups: Political and Social. Each group should be provided with at least one laptop. The teacher should then model expectations of the class by providing an analysis of the film’s opening lines:
“In the last century before the birth of the new faith called Christianity… the Roman Republic stood at the very center of the civilized world. "Of all things fairest," sang the poet, "first among cities and home of the gods is golden Rome." Yet, even at the zenith of her pride and power, the Republic lay fatally stricken with a disease called human slavery. The age of the dictator was at hand, waiting in the shadows for the event to bring it forth. In that same century, in the conquered Greek province of Thrace, an illiterate slave woman added to her master's wealth by giving birth to a son whom she named Spartacus. A proud, rebellious son who was sold to living death in the mines of Libya before his thirteenth birthday. There, under whip and chain and sun, he lived out his youth and his young manhood dreaming the death of slavery two thousand years before it finally would die.”
The teacher should both replay the film clip for the students and provide a paper copy of the quote. After allowing the students a few moments to digest the quote, the teacher should then point out the status of civil rights in the United States in 1960, as well as mention the commonly-shared concept of the United States serving as a “global superpower” following WWII. With this in mind, the teacher should begin to illuminate the possible parallels between Rome in 100 BC and the United States in 1960. The teacher may ask questions such as:
Were both Rome and the USA great empires at the “zenith of…pride and power” which were “stricken with a disease called human slavery”?
Were the actions of Spartacus in the film in any way both reminiscent and foretelling of what would happen during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States? Consider the words and actions of leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King?
Why might a director/screenwriter start their film with such an allusion? How do you think this quote/allusion might have affected viewers in 1960?
The narrator states that Spartacus “lived out his youth and his young manhood dreaming the death of slavery two thousand years before it finally would die.” However, was slavery actually dead in 1960? How should we define slavery? Does slavery still exist today?
Depending on time restrictions/classroom dynamic, the teacher may have students answer these questions out loud as a large group, or brainstorm them in their small group and share out.
After modeling expectations, students in each group should first re-watch an assigned movie scene: the “Social” group should re-watch the scene in which Draba and Spartacus engage in forced gladiatorial combat, and the “Political” group should re-watch the scene in which the slaves refuse to betray Spartacus by revealing his identity to Crassus and instead shout “I am Spartacus!”
Each group should then be provided with a list of questions to answer together based on their assigned scene. Students should also be expected to consult with credible internet sources to successfully answer some of their questions. If preferred, the teacher may also present each group with printed primary source articles to provide further background information on topics such as Dalton Trumbo/ the Hollywood 10/ Kirk Douglas (for the Political group) or the Civil Rights Movement/ race relations/ actor and athlete Woody Strode (for the Social group). While students are discussing/answering presented questions in their assigned groups, they should also be made aware that they should prepare to discuss their answers to the
last question
(how does this scene serve as a primary source…) out loud with the other group. The following examples of questions, both quantitative and qualitative/hypothetical, may be modified based on teacher preference:
Social:
What is the outcome of the gladiatorial fight between Draba and Spartacus?
Why does Draba attack Crassus rather than Spartacus? What might Crassus represent?
If there is no historical basis for the character of Draba, why might the filmmakers have invented the character?
Why might the filmmakers have chosen to end the fight as they did?
Why might the filmmakers have specifically hired Woody Strode for the role of Draba?
How does this scene serve as a primary source in understanding the social turmoil of the United States during the 1950’s-1960?
Political:
Why does Crassus require the slaves to identify Spartacus in order to gain freedom?
How does Spartacus react to this demand?
How do the other slaves react to this demand?
Why do all of the slaves declare “I am Spartacus!”? Why were they unwilling to identify Spartacus? What might this collective resistance compare to during the Red Scare in the 1950’s?
Why might the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo have included this scene? How does it compare to his experiences as one of the Hollywood 10?
How does this scene serve as a primary source in understanding the political turmoil of the United States during the 1950’s-1960?
After students have been given sufficient time to answer all of the questions, the groups should present an abbreviated presentation of their findings aloud to the other group. The groups should specifically focus on how the film clip can be used as a primary source. This could include a brief discussion on the personal experiences of Woody Strode and Dalton Trumbo.
Day 11-13:
Rationale: Days 11-13 serve as the culmination to the unit on Spartacus. Students have thus far distinguished primary from secondary source, scrutinized credibility, and considered a film for both what it reveals as a primary and secondary source in history. Therefore, students should at this point have the proper skills and experience to analyze a film as both a primary and secondary source for themselves.
Objective: Students will be able to synthesize what was learned throughout the unit to individually interpret a film as a primary and secondary source document.
Activity: Working either alone or with a single partner, students should either choose or be assigned a historically-based film to analyze and present to the whole class as a unit assessment. Because I plan to base the entirety of my History Through Film class on the topic of slavery, the following list of movies is based on that theme. However, based on personal preference and course direction, this list could be easily modified to include films from any era or topic of history:
Birth of a Nation
, 1915
Gone with the Wind
, 1939
The Ten Commandments
, 1956
The Searchers
, 1956
Return of the Jedi
, 1983
Glory
, 1989
Malcolm X
, 1992
Amistad
, 1997
The Prince of Egypt
, 1998
Bicentennial Man
, 1999
Django Unchained
, 2012
12 Years a Slave
, 2013
Selma
, 2014
The Birth of a Nation
, 2016
Students should be given two full class periods to research their movie and the time period in which it was created, view the movie, and create a visual aid for their presentations. It is expected that some of the work for the presentations must be done at home.
Presentations should include both an oral and visual component. Students should be prepared to describe aloud the film they chose, as well as both the time period it depicted and the time period in which it was created. Because Co-Op is a performing and creative arts high school, I plan to allow students to interpret the visual aspect of the presentation organically and leave the decision of media up to student preference—posters, performances, art pieces, PowerPoints, etc. However, I will include the following expectations that presentations must include:
-A defining scene in the film (no more than eight minutes) to analyze and show to the class
-A brief historical overview of the time period depicted, as well as how historically successful the film was in depicting the time period
-A brief historical overview of the time period in which the film was created, as well as an analysis of how the film serves as a primary source in understanding this time period
-An answer to the questions: Who were the slaves in this film? To whom/what were they slaves?
-Two discussion questions to ask the class during/after the presentation
On Day 13, students should be prepared to present their projects to the entire class, as well as listen and respond to the presentations of their classmates.
As a variation to this schedule for the final project, teachers may instead schedule films for the rest of the semester to show in their entirety during class, and assign specific groups of students to present on each film. With this variation, the unit on Spartacus would serve as the initial unit to model and scaffold historical and film analysis. The analysis of all following units and films would then be more student-driven, as students would have more time to work on their projects, and presentations would be spread evenly throughout the duration of the semester. For example:
Unit 2:
The Ten Commandments
and
The Prince of Egypt
—Students A, B, C present
Unit 3:
Glory
—Students D, E, F present