Michael Gilmore
Graduate Implementation Plan Reflection
My graduate implementation plan revolved around the use of film as a cultural tool for
understanding shifts in the way that the American public views war violence. This plan was designed to
demonstrate to students the value of films as a primary source and how to use such films to gain an
understanding of the culture in which they were created. According to research conducted by Ward
Mitchell Cates, it is wise to use films not as stand-alone instructional tools but as opportunities to
engage students in analyzing the perspective of a particular era in time (Cates, 1990). Therefore, film
clips were shown to the students with the accompaniment of brief discussions both before and after
their viewing. This served as an opportunity for students to work through the material within the movie
and determine what each represents about the culture in which they were made. Finally, students were
provided with a brief writing prompt at the end in which they describe what the changes in film over
time says about the cultures in which they were created.
Changes to Implementation
My initial plan was to show the students clips from two different films, The Sands of Iwo Jima
(1949) and The Pacific (2010). Doing so would allow the students to see how attitudes have shifted from
treating combat as glorious in 1949 to treating combat as harsh, brutal, and intense in 2010. However,
when implementing the plan, I made a few changes. Because the plan ended up being implemented in
between the World War II and Cold War units, I felt that including films from later in the Cold War as
well could help the students better understand the progression of how American society has treated
combat. First, I showed the trailer from Sands of Iwo Jima as well as the scene that depicts the flagraising on Iwo Jima. Next, I showed the students the trailers from Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and
Commando (1985) as these would show students the gung-ho attitude many Americans had toward
combat during the mid-1980s. The clips show Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger fighting
against countless enemies and defeating them with ease, thus demonstrating the late-Cold War attitude
towards combat. Finally, I showed two brief clips from The Pacific (2010); one in which men are
cowering on the beach at Iwo Jima and another in which one of the main characters comes within
inches of his life during a banzai charge while his wounded friend screams to him for help. Although
neither scene depicted a significant amount of blood or gore, it demonstrated the intensity and stress of
combat in ways that the other films did not. Additionally, to better assess student growth and
development over the course of this lesson, I placed a heavier emphasis on discussion prior to showing
the films than I had previously intended to. I asked students to think critically about how they expect to
see war portrayed in films made immediately after World War Two, near the end of the Cold War, and
within the past few years. Several students were able to immediately predict correctly that the films
would become more realistic in recent years; however, many of the students predicted that the films
made closer to the war would be more realistic depictions as they would have a fresher image of what
combat in the early 1940s was like.
When analyzing the data that was collected, I came to the conclusion that the students overall
were able to see the progression that the films were making and how this progression related to society.
For each of the three eras, students first hypothesized about what they expected to see in the films.
Then after showing the clip(s) students were asked to jot down some of the things they saw. Finally,
students were asked to hypothesize why they feel war was depicted in this manner.
For the Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), the students seemed to either predict that the war would be
depicted in a highly accurate manner since it was so close to the actual battle or that it would be
depicted in a highly unrealistic manner. Earlier in the semester, we had watched several clips from All
Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and many of the students scoffed at how “unrealistic” of a portrayal
of war it was. I feel that this caused many students to hypothesize correctly that the combat would be
depicted in a manner that was not true to form. However, only a few students were able to hypothesize
that war would be depicted in this manner because films made during this period were often used to
stimulate patriotic sentiment. Things students noticed about the film included “cheesy lines and music,”
“makes war look easy,” and “not very realistic.” When asked to hypothesize why it was portrayed in this
manner, the students had a bit of difficulty determining accurate responses. Many seemed to focus
more on the logistical side of making movies such as low caliber acting, lack of special effects, etc.
However, some students did suggest that the film looked like a propaganda movie and may have been
used for such a purpose.
Once we had finished the early-Cold War clips, the students seemed to gain a better
understanding of the objective of the lesson. When asked what they expected to see in Rambo: First
Blood Part II and Commando, the estimations seemed to be much more on point. Many students
suggested that the films are likely to contain more action, a gung-ho mentality, and unrealistic combat.
This may have been for one of two reasons. Either the students were growing in the lesson and
developing an ability to successfully predict what would be shown in the films based on the context of
the times or the students were at least somewhat familiar with these films and thus able to successfully
predict what would be in them. However, when I asked the class how many had seen either film, very
few raised their hands, which leads me to believe that the students were growing in the lesson and
developing the ability to understand film as a representation of its period’s culture.
When asked to describe what they saw in these two clips, many students said things such as:
“one guy taking out a bunch of guys,” “he (Rambo) seems invincible,” “cheesy one-liners,” “they can’t
die.” In guided discussion following this, I got the sense that students were beginning to understand
how the depiction of war in these films was symptomatic of America. When asked to hypothesize why
they feel as though war was portrayed in this manner, students began giving answers such as, “because
America saw itself as the best,” and “because America was unstoppable.” I feel that this shows
significant growth. During the first set of film clips, students seemed somewhat unsure of the purpose of
the activity and somewhat unsure of how films could demonstrate cultural tendencies within America.
However, during the second set of clips, students demonstrated an overall understanding of how the
films Rambo: First Blood Part II and Commando both demonstrated American culture during the mid1980s.
What I learned
By conducting this lesson, I gained valuable insight into how student thought can shift even over
the course of one lesson period. When holding the discussion prior to this lesson, I got the overall
impression that students had a very narrow-minded view of film. Students seemed to be unaware of
film’s utility as a cultural device and rather saw it entirely as a means of entertainment. This is evidenced
through their struggles to identify cultural elements within The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).
Additionally, this lesson demonstrated to me the value of discussion. Although every student
was required to respond to the films in the form of a written response, I feel as though those who
participated frequently in the verbal discussions provided higher quality responses than those who did
not. Although one may make the argument that these students were simply more attentive throughout
the assignment overall, I feel as though this is not necessarily the case. Many of those who did not
participate in discussion verbally were notably attentive and on task throughout the lesson yet still
provided accurate answers less frequently than those who participated verbally in discussion. This may
not be reflected in the scores as I did not take points off if students were providing thoughtful
responses. However, of those who participated verbally in discussion at least once, approximately 3/4
were able to accurately predict the progression of the depiction of war after viewing the clip from Sands
of Iwo Jima compared to approximately ½ of students who did not participate verbally in discussion at
some point.
Changes in the Future
In the future, I would like to plan more time to conduct this lesson. Because of time constraints
associated with lost time to snow days, I felt as though I was speeding through this lesson. Ideally, I
would like to devote an entire class period to implementing such a plan but was confined to about 30-40
minutes. I do not believe that this was sufficient time to allow the students to process what they were
seeing. For example, students only had approximately five minutes to discuss each of the three eras of
film. In the future, I would like to see this figure doubled to be at least ten minutes for each era, as well
as ten minutes at the start to hypothesize and ten minutes at the end to reflect on how their hypotheses
have changed. Doing so would allow both the students and myself to see the progression of their
learning and understanding in a clearer manner.
An additional change I would like to make to this lesson would be to incorporate a more globalminded way of studying film. Although I feel that this lesson helps students understand the use of film
as a cultural medium, it aligns itself more with the curriculum of a US History class than it does with a
World History II class. I would like to make changes that would incorporate foreign films as well as films
that focus on individuals other than Americans.
One interesting change that could be made would be to alter this lesson to cover two class
periods. During the first class period, the film choices would remain as they are. However, during the
second day of the lesson, the films would be of Soviet origin. The films would ideally cover the same
periods as those used in this lesson: early Cold War, late Cold War, and modern times. After learning
how films can be used as a cultural medium, the students would be able to directly compare how the
use of said medium differed or remained similar in the United States and Soviet Union.
One final change that I would like to make to this lesson would be to incorporate a formal,
round table discussion. This class is organized into groups of desks that provide for easy transition in and
out of various activities such as group work. However, in the case of this lesson, I would like to rearrange
the desks into a circle as the students watch the films. Although this may require that the students turn
their seats several times throughout the lesson to switch from viewing mode to discussion. I feel as
though this is particularly important because discussion has been an area of the class that needs
particular improvement. Many of the students have very limited discussion skills while others have
participated strongly in discussions. This has caused discussions to become dominated by a handful of
students while the others sit quietly. Although most students are attentive during discussion, I would
ideally like to see universal verbal participation to some degree. I feel the best way to do this would be
to change the physical environment of the classroom because it would give students a sense that
because the environment has changed, so have the expectations. By doing this in one class period, there
was simply not enough time for each student in the class to share something. Although the majority
(about 70%) of the class participated verbally at least once, I do not feel this is satisfactory toward
developing the discussion skills of the entire class.
Name:____________
WAR IN FILMS
War has been portrayed in film in many different manners over the years. In this activity, we will directly
compare depictions of war in films made immediately following WWII with depictions of war in more
recent films.
Films Immediately following WWII
1. How do you expect war to be depicted in The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)?
2. What were some of the things you noticed in the clips we saw from The Sands of Iwo Jima?
3. Why do you think war was portrayed in this manner?
Films made during the Cold War
1. How do you expect war to be depicted in Rambo II (1985) and Commando (1985)?
2. What were some of the things you noticed in the clips we saw?
3. Why do you think war was portrayed in this manner?
Modern Films about WWII
1. How do you expect war to be depicted in modern war films about World War II?
2. What were some of the things you noticed in the clip we saw from The Pacific (2010)?
3. Why do you think war was portrayed in this manner?
Sample Student Work