SAMPLE CURRICULUM GUIDE



Sample Curriculum Guide for MCS 233 Assignment 2

NOTE: The format in which this guide is presented is a suggestion only. Feel free to use a different format PROVIDED you clearly identify:

1. the topic,

2. the target audience,

3. a summary of teaching strategy,

4. goals for the instructional unit,

5. a summary of the major points you wish to make when teaching the unit (these can be in outline form, much like a first draft of a full curriculum guide; in a finished guide they would be spelled out in more detail).

6. an explanation (1 or 2 paragraphs) of why you chose this topic for this group of students; these choices should be clearly related to your teaching strategy and your goals.

7. a bibliography of the sources you used to carry out this assignment AND the sources you would use to fully develop the teaching unit.

The sample information is outlined in red

SAMPLE CURRICULUM GUIDE

For MC 233

Topic: Employing selected feature films to highlight cultural perceptions and misperceptions: using Mexican-Americans as a case study.

Target Audience: High school juniors or seniors in sociology, American history, or public policy (political science) classes. This unit could also be of use in literature or media classes that have selections by Mexican-American authors or selections that focus on Mexican-American, Latino, or Hispanic themes.

Brief summary of teaching strategy: Employment of two feature films in class, together with lectures and discussions, to focus on how Mexican-American culture has (and has not) been portrayed in feature films.

Goals for this unit (i.e. after this unit of study, students will be able to):

• Gain a greater understanding of Mexican-American history and culture.

• Connect the “visions” contained within a film to the social and cultural values that exist in the real American community.

• Recognize that feature films often contain confusing, even contradictory, images that often reflect differing cultural values.

• Understand better the various social forces that act upon Mexican-Americans as they attempt to achieve their individual and communal aspirations.

Major points to cover in topic (i.e. outline of the topic, the subject matter covered, the implementation, and any assessment or evaluation methods you have chosen):

This unit will be broken into three segments:

1. A segment consisting of lectures and assigned readings that focuses on a) the general facets of Latino culture, especially those elements concerning family, success, and problems in adapting Latino values to the more pervasive American popular culture; b) elements of the film industry, with special focus on how Latino film performers were either detached from their background or under-utilized in films. By presenting an overview of the contract system under which actors and actresses from the 1920s to the 1960s worked, one can show how these contracts generally gave the studio the right to “remake” the performer. An example of this would be Margarita Cansino -- reborn as Rita Hayworth; her life and career as an “anglicized actress.” By contrast, performers like Gilbert Roland and Cesar Romero, who were allowed to retain their Latin identities, were also relegated to supporting roles (often as villains for the film’s hero to overcome). In “Crisis” (1950), for example, Jose Ferrer, a talented Puerto Rican actor, was reduced to playing a stereotypical South American dictator, while Cary Grant was a noble American doctor. This example can be duplicated by numerous others in other films.

2. A segment presenting some of the earlier films in which Mexican-Americans were key main characters or Latino cultures were a major part of the film, can be utilized to demonstrate how these films distorted Latino cultures. For example, in Orson Welles’ production “Touch of Evil,” (1958) a Mexican policeman is cast as the hero – an unusual innovation for that time. However, Welles agreed to cast Charleton Heston, rather than a Latino, in this pivotal role. Similarly, Eli Wallach, a Jewish performer born in New York, and Charles Bronson, a Polish ethnic, became well known for their roles as Mexican bandits. Other films, including “Juarez,” (1939) and “Viva Villa,” (1934) would illustrate how Latino cultures were distorted in the presentation of the story lines.

3. The third segment will be focused on two specific films, both relatively recent – “The Milagro Beanfield War” (1988) and “La Bamba” (1987). Both of these films were well received by critics, but while they were improvements over most earlier films, neither escaped being subject to controversy. The Milagro Beanfield War, produced and directed by Robert Redford, was generally well received by critics, especially for using little-known Mexican-American actors in the main roles. But some critics and advocates for Latino rights complained that the plot – about a man who illegally diverts water away from corporate farms in order to sustain his small field of beans – was a serious subject and that the film should not have contained so much humor. Similarly, both film and scholarly critics chided La Bamba (a commercial and popular success) for taking the story of Ritchie Valens and turning it into “a typical American success story” that failed to sufficiently highlight the Latino culture from which Valens developed his music.

Students will watch both films in class, and after each film will discuss their merits and shortcomings. Each student will then be assigned a 5-7 page paper in which to comment on the merits and shortcomings of the films and suggest if and/or how each film should have been altered (with replacement scenes or additional scenes) to more accurately reflect Mexican-American culture.

Summary: explanation of why I chose this topic, this target audience, etc.

I chose the basic topic of Mexican-American culture because the population of Mexican-Americans has been growing in western Minnesota-North Dakota over the past decade. I decided to use feature films to teach a unit about Mexican-American culture because Hollywood continues to have an enormous impact upon people’s (particularly young people’s) perceptions of American culture. After some background reading concerning how feature films can be used in the classroom (see bibliography), I developed this unit.

By combining some selected readings with viewing of the films followed by discussions, students should have a clearer understanding of how cultural values can be portrayed in feature films, and that often these values can be subtly or overtly misrepresented. In some cases these misrepresentations have been the conscious decision of the filmmakers; in other cases, the misrepresentations have been the result of unconscious or unintentional bias present in the script, choice of performers, editing or other elements in the production of the film. Whatever the causes, controversies over films concerning Mexican-American culture have arisen in the past. What these controversies have occurred and what these debates tell us about cultural clashes in American society are the subjects of this teaching unit.

Appendix of working bibliography (be certain to include the materials you read in the course of doing this assignment):

Films :

“La Bamba” and “Milagro Beanfield War” (VHS and DVD formats available)

Readings:

* Avila, Alex. “Taken for a Ride: Hispanic Filmmakers Experience the Ups and Downs of Hollywood and ask, ‘What's next?’” Hispanic 10 (June 1997) pp. 34-38.

Hoffman, Donald. “Whose Home on the Range?: Finding Room for Native Americans, African-Americans and Latino-Americans in the Revisionist Western,” MELUS 22 (Summer 1997), pp. 45-59

Noreiga, Chon, ed. Chicanos and Film : Representation and Resistance (St. Paul: University of Minnesota Press, 1992).

Rodríguez, Clara E., editor. Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media (1997)

* Rose, Cynthia. “The Challenge of Latina Beauty,” Allure Magazine, 1994. -- short, insightful article about women celebrities of Hispanic ancestry; how some, like Rita Hayworth, were anglicized, while others, like Rita Moreno, became typecast.

Valdez, Avelardo. “Teaching Mexican American Experiences Through Film: Private Experiences and Public Problems,” Teaching Sociology 27 (July 1999) pp. 286-95.

* These two articles will be assigned readings and distributed in class.

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