Tonight, I saw a news headline that read “Taliban Leader Tells ‘Invaders’ to Study History” and had to comment on some lessons I taught briefly covering the war. Last week, one of the topics we studied as a class is the Afghanistan War. Images and topics had a profound impact on the students in my US History II class. Perhaps it was the continuation of the story that began on 9/11 for them, or perhaps it was the reversal of chronology by studying history from the present to the past. In either case, learning about the nature of the conflict, its causes and its effects, has been a deep learning experience for my students. There’s always so much more that I was not able to cover in the time allowed – and so I’d like to add some of the web sources and lesson plans here that may allow others to get the depth I seek.
Frontline – The Roots of Terror http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/roots/ This is such a powerful set of links from the PBS, Frontline website. Lesson plans, discussion guides and other resources are plentiful on these incredibly well designed and well researched sites.
Frontline World – Pakistan, Children of the Taliban http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/pakistan802/ This is the website to a clip we did get to see in class. In this brief documentary in the Swat Region of Pakistan, a 10 year old girl tells her story, a teen boy explains why he wants to join the Taliban and become a suicide bomber, and more. It is incredibly moving and powerful to teens in New Bedford to see. So many questions were generated from these stories.
Frontline – War Briefing http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warbriefing/ Watching brief clips from this PBS documentary was also very powerful for students. They began not only to see average American teens in uniform fighting a war against the Taliban, they also got to see how and why the Taliban are feared in this region – and why the war is so difficult to win.
POV – Soldiers of Conscience http://www.pbs.org/pov/soldiersofconscience/ and http://www.soldiers-themovie.com/ This is one of the most thought-provoking and controversial documentaries I have ever used in the classroom. It challenges one of the most basic assumptions teens have about war – that it is both necessary and easy to kill another human being. Everything about video games that makes violence necessary to win a game is removed by the real stories of American soldiers who began to question the ethics and morality of killing the enemy. I have a lesson that goes along with this that I will post here soon as a PDF.
PBS Newshour – Afghanistan War http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/asia/afghanistan/ and http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/world/afghanistan_overview_10-06.html Because I am such a PBS dork, I have to include the Newshour. This page and lesson plan use a PowerPoint to provide background for students about the geography, people, religion, politics, economics, and the ‘war on terror’ so that students can better understand the issues around them concerning this powerful conflict. The lesson plan also suggests project topics and suggested project ideas as well. Students are also asked to review their prior knowledge and relate it to what they’ve learned. Well done.
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