unit lesson plans header
Creative Thinking & Making
Historical & Cultural Contexts
History & Memory
Critical Thinking
At a Glance:

Suggested Time Frame:

Intro                                   10 mins
Student Writing:          20 - 40 mins
Discussion:                         30 mins

Total time:                 1 to 2 classes

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Assessment:
Rubric in PDF format >

Learning Objectives and Cognitive Skills:

Comprehension:
Students will describe and discuss collective memory
Students will explain the effects of collective memory through national holiday celebrations
Students will differentiate between how events actually happen and how they are remembered

Identify and Interpret:
Students will explore personal memory to retell specific events
Students will identify attributes of events that define students’ generation

Analyze:
Students will analyze the impact of collective memory on culture.

PA State Standards:

History:
8.1.12 C Evaluate historical interpretation of events.
• Impact of opinion on the perception of facts.
• Issues and problems in the past.
• Multiple points of view.
• Illustrations of historical stories and sources.

Arts & Humanities:
9.2 Historical and Cultural Contexts.
9.2.D Students will analyze a work of art from its historical and cultural perspective.
9.2.E Students will analyze how historical events and culture impact forms, techniques, and purposes of works in the arts.

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Lesson 7


Collective Memory:
Jump to: Procedure | Image Gallery | At a Glance

Jackies detail  

Andy Warhol
detail, Jackies, 1963
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas,
20 x 16 in each
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts


Handouts needed
for Step 1:

The following handouts are
included in the Lesson PDF:

Collective Memory
Handout

Flashbulb Memory
Handout

Procedure:

1. Use the Collective Memory Handout to introduce and discuss a definition for collective memory.

2. Discuss the questions on the handout together in class.

3. Write the following question posed by historian David Thelan on the blackboard.

“What do and should Americans remember from the nation’s past as the defining experiences that shape our present?”
David Thelan, Memory and American History, 1989.
Using the example of Thanksgiving or another national holiday, discuss the difference between what we do remember and what we should remember.

4. Use the Flashbulb Memory Activity (pages 4-5 of the Lesson PDF) as homework for your students.

5. Review the students’ homework.

6. Brainstorm and list your ideas of what criteria must be met to make a “defining event.”
Use the following questions to guide the creation of the criteria list:

a) When the event occurred, did it impact culture and/or people's lives?
b) Does it impact peoples’ lives still?
c) Does the event teach powerful lessons?
d) Does it shape future actions?
e) How does it reflect national values?

7. Discuss and create a class “Top Five” list of defining events for your students’ generation.

8. Choose one defining event to discuss. Imagine 40 years into the future. Have students speculate:

a) What will be remembered about this defining event?
b) What will be forgotten?
c) What should be remembered, but perhaps won’t be?
d) How will this event impact culture?

 
List of defining events

Schenley High School class list of defining events which were photographed and repeated in the media.

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