Date:         Sun, 24 Nov 96 07:48:57 EST
From: "T R. Young" <34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Organization: Central Michigan University
Subject:      Only Make Believe: Movie Labs and Sociological Concepts
To: GRADUATE STUDENTS IN SOCIOLOGY <SOCGRAD@CSF.COLORADO.EDU>
Message-Id:   <961124.091512.EST.34LPF6T@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
This is Part III of a three part series on teaching and learning.  These
mini-lectures are brought to graduate students in sociology through
the good offices of Robert Newby, Chair of the Sociology Department,
Central Michigan University and by the managers of the Socgrad Network.
The Red Feather Institute is solely responsible for the content of the
lectures.
                             *********

Movie Labs and Engaged Learning.  I have found movie labs to be very
helpful to the teaching and learning of sociological concepts for a
wide variety of undergraduate courses: criminology, social problems,
social psychology, stratification and of course, Introduction to
Sociology.  Well done, they can help the student develop the kind of
sociological imagination so necessary to a good understanding of her/his
past, present and perchance, future.

But there are problems.  First a brief warning then on with a guide to
how I use them.

1.  Many colleagues, chairs, Deans as well as students view the showing
    of movies in class as both a default on the part of the teacher and
    a vacation for the student...it takes a lot of good work to meet
    that criticism responsibly...my best advice is to do the necessary
    labor to make each movie lab an honest venture in teaching and
    learning.

2.  There are copy-right laws.  Generally, one must pay a fee to use
    the intellectual capital invested in movies.  I meet this problem
    in four ways.

    a.  I buy used copies from my local video store...and edit them
        down for the scenes I want to use.
    b.  Of those I take from satellite or local stations, I use only
        fragments...under Section C, paragraph 16, the Fair Use portion
        of copyright law.
    c.  I never use any video which has an FBI warning on it unless I
        have purchased it new or used...
    d.  I often use university copies of feature films...still editing
        them heavily to make them fit the time period available.

If you do any one of these, you are probably safe enough.

3.  Each showing of each film must be tailored to your own special
    style/understanding/syllabus.  You cannot use my movie labs since
    you use other texts; emphasize other concepts; have students with
    other information needs and since you are the person responsible
    for success or not.  Having said this, you are free to use any thing
    I have as guide...repeat...guide for your own teaching...'tis well
    worth the effort.  Students love them and you can easily modify them
    semester after semester once you have them on disk.

                      ***********
Movie Labs: How to Use Make-Believe and Just-Pretend in the Teaching and
            Learning of Sociological Ideas.

1.  In my own syllabi, I use movie labs as one of some 8 or 10 items on
    a point menu...the menu allows the student to tailor his/her own
    learning process.  Some students do better on some menu items than
    other items...I always found tests a snap...some don't do well even
    though they want to learn and do well in a class...hence the menu.

2.  I set the points for each movie lab at about 5% of the total possible
    points for the class...about the same weight as items on an in-class
    exam...more creative items get more weight.

3.  I schedule a special time and place for the movie lab; usually two
    hours in a room that holds no more than 60 students.

4.  I spend about six hours on each movie lab: first I view the film
    and take notes; then I use two VCR's to edit the scenes I want.

5.  Then I create a hand-out with between 20 and 25 terms on them for
    a mini-lecture in the first 20 minutes or so of the lab.  In this
    way, I refresh the memory of students about material in text or
    lectures...I very seldom include a term not already presented.  But
    If I do, I make special mention of it...

6.  I make out a Work-Sheet with some 20 items for students to connect
    with the action in the movie at hand.

7.  After the mini-lecture, I ask for questions.  After further explan-
    ation, I hand out the worksheets, caution students that they are to
    raise their hand if they need any help, start the edited version
    and monitor the class.  In this menu item, each student works alone.

    In other menu items, for example, the soaps or special projects,
    collective work is possible...but not here.

8.  Each student fills out a pre-coded, electronically scanned answer
    sheet...the answer sheets are collected, graded and entered into
    the class records and the number of points the student used to
    'buy' the movie lab is deducted from her/his remaining points.
    See the mini-lecture on The Great Flying Chaos Learning Circus
    for explanation of the point menu and how points are used.

WORKSHEETS.  Below are Excerpts from several movie-lab worksheets.  If
you want the whole set, give me an address and I'll mail you a disk
with every thing I have...but you have to promise to do the necessary
work to make them your own honest labor.

Movie Lab #1: My Fair Lady.

Characters: Henry Higgins= socio-linguist.  Eliza = Flower Girl.
Pickering= Colonel from India.  Freddy= Eliza's suitor.  Doolittle=
Eliza's father.  Ms. Pierce= house-keeper.  Zoltan= Hungarian linguist

Sample items...with the basic concept at hand in UPPER CASE LETTERS.

1.  Which system of inequality was the prime focus of the movie:
    a.  ethnicity  b. class  c. race   d. GENDER

2.  What was, to Higgins, the most crucial indicator of social status:
    a. occupation  b. education  c. SPEECH and dress   d. wealth

3.  In the song, 'Wouldn't it be loverlie,' Eliza aspired to what kind
    of mobility:
    a. vertical    b. horizontal   c. inter-generational   d. LIFE-STYLE

4.  In which scene did Eliza exhibit STATUS PANIC:
    a. when she wept after the Ball     c. when she returned to Covent
    b. When she asked Higgins to teach     garden with Freddy.
       her how to speak.                d. When she refused to bathe.

5.  Into which class would Marx place Doolittle:
    a. Proletariat  b. petite bourgeosie  c. LUMPEN-PROLETARIAT
    d. the bourgeosie.

6.  Eliza was treated as a NON-PERSON several times in the movie;
    in which scene below was that most obvious:
    a. When she asked the king to behead Higgins
    b. When Higgins and Pickering congratulated each other after
       the ball.
    c. When her father offered to sell her to Higgins for L5 English.
    d. All of the above.

Movie Lab #2: Beverly Hills Cops: Characters: Alex Foley= smart ass
Detroit cop.  Mikie= Alex old friend.  Jennie= old friend of both.
Maitland= bad guy art dealer.  Rosewood= nice cop.  Taggart= older,
careful cop.  Bogenmeihl = BHPD Lieutenant.  Serge=artsy art clerk.
Jack= killer.

1.  Which scene best illustrates a SOCIO-BIOLOGICAL view of behavior.
    a. The pleasure Jack took in killing Mikie.
    b. the behavior of men in the strip joint.
    c. the behavior of 'Ramon' in the fancy restaurant.
    d. All of the above.

2.  Which of the four sets of SYMBOLS people use to create social
    reality marked the difference between Detroit Cops and BH Cops:
    a.  Clothing  b. Body Talk  c. Voice/talk  d. Lines of Behavior

3.  When did Bogenmiehl first take Alex seriously as a REAL police
    officer:
    1.  When his boss in Detroit said Alex was a good police officer.
    2.  When Alex told B. that Maitland had killed Jackie.
    3.  When Alex told B. that he had found ground coffee in the
        warehouse of the art gallery.

4.  Which theory in Social Psychology best explains why Alex when
    to California:
    1.  Exchange theory: Alex weighed the costs and rewards of the
        trip carefully.
    2.  Socio-biology: Alex was a born rebel
    3.  Freudian theory: Alex had doubts about his essential masculin-
        ity and went to California to prove himself a man.
    4.  Symbolic Interactional Theory: Mikie was a SIGNIFICANT OTHER
        to Alex.

Movie Lab #3: Boyz'ntheHood.  Characters  (you know them)

1.  Which STATUS OFFENSE did Trey embody in the school-room scene:
    a. Skipping School  b. Profanity  c. Smoking  d. Dis-respect.

2.   What kind of power did Trey use to get Brandi in bed:
    a. moral power  b. physical power  c. SOCIAL POWER  d. economic.

3.  Which term below best fits the treatment of women by the men
    in the back-yard bar-b-cue scene:
    a. OBJECTIFICATION  c. commodification
    b. Stratification   d. differentiation

4.  Of those listed below, which one embodied RACISM most vividly:
    a. The White Teacher  b. The White Cop  c. The Black cop.  d. You

Movie Lab #4: Breakfast Club: Characters:  Alison= basket case.
Andrew= jock.  Bender= hood.  Brian= brain.  Claire= princess.
Carl= janitor.  Vernon= principle.

1.  For which student was mind, self and the social order of the
    school most closely TWIN-BORN:
    a. Claire  b. Brian  C. Allison  D. Bender

2.  Bender used profanity toward the others.  Goffman would say that
    he is embodying:
    a. A form of away  b. ROLE-DISTANCE  c. safe supplies.

3.  Which character was most involved in the UNDERLIFE of the school.
    a. Bender  b. Vernon  C. Allison  D. Carl
                              **************

Again...use of movie labs have to be tailored to your own lectures/
students/texts and graduate education.  Mine is/were different.  But
do do the basic work and you will find movie labs a wonderful teaching
experience for the students and most helpful to a SOCIOLOGICAL
IMAGINATION...or what's a teacher for???
                                                            TR