Should I have introduced this text earlier in the course?
Every time I teach this course I end up moving this slideshow around looking for the proper position (I always re-arrange the order of the texts based on the feedback I get through your assignments).
COMMENT
Should it appear earlier or is this the right spot?
Would it have the same impact?
How did you feel after watching it?
REPLY choose a comment that makes you want to discuss the issue further.
I believe this video should have accompanied "Son of Italy." L'Emigrante was a very comical movie, so I felt it hard to transition from that movie to seeing those pictures. I feel if it was taught with "Son of Italy," the combined effect would leave a larger impression on the student. We would be challenged through literature and through art to put how we envision the experience together. Although sad, I felt satisfied that we were shown this video. It was the rawness that I've been missing since reading "Son of Italy." It felt real, unlike The Italian and L'Emigrante, which were fiction.
ReplyDeleteGreat point. The later films make light of a serious situation. Having read Son of Italy, the later films didn't capture the day-to-day struggle too well. So "The Way They Were" felt a little out of place and caught me off guard. I actually teared up watching the video and was really upset afterwards.
DeleteThe slideshow also caught me off guard. I definitely think it would be best to place it with D'Angelo's autobiography because when I was watching the slideshow, I kept thinking back, "Oh, so this is what D'Angelo's conditions must have been like."
DeleteThe video should have been presented right before reading "Son of Italy". That way, readers can have a better appreciation for the horrid conditions and sacrifices that they endured. Especially for those that are visual learners.
ReplyDelete"The Way They Were" came at the right time in the course. At this point we have already developed a picture in our minds about the treatment and the conditions of Italian Italian immigrants. The Way They Were is a reinforcer of the content of the texts and lectures. The images will either verify the readers understanding or, if the content wasn't obvious enough, will give a better understanding of the conditions Italian immigrants endured
ReplyDeleteI can see why you are saying that it came at the right time in the course because it just reinforces what we already have learned happened to the immigrants, but maybe our images in our heads would have been more accurate from the beginning if we watched this earlier in the course. Just a thought!
DeleteWhat Nicoletta says is true. Yes, we already have an image in mind, but that image was blurry and confusing until I saw the slideshow. I definitely think pairing the slideshow with "Son of Italy" would have been most beneficial for us.
DeleteI would have to say that I think it should have been introduced right before reading "Son of Italy" because then we would have been able to better picture the horrible conditions and issues that these immigrants had to deal with. It would have allowed us to visually picture what Pascal was trying to explain to us easier.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be better to introduce it with the second assignment of "Son of Italy." I feel like the two go hand in hand so it doesn't make sense to me to put the slideshow before or after the book rather than with.
DeletePascal explained vividly the shack that he lived in in Itlali, very small, crumbing to the point water from the rain seeps in through holes and cracks in the ceiling. The room he rented in New York was inhabitable, flooded like a cesspool from the pipes of the toilet, very cold that he had to sleep in his overcoat and a bed that was very uncomfortable. The cartoon of Italians men crammed in rooms living together and sleeping together was also indicative of the living conditions they were subjected to live. It was clear to me from the beginning that immigrants were in a unfavorable position. The actual images were an excellent way to drive it home and came at a good time in the course.
DeleteFor viewers to have acknowledge the horrible conditions and struggles that immigrants had to endure, I think the video should have come before "Son of Italy". It would have prepared us for what they went through and it would have gave us a better understanding of Pascal's story.
ReplyDeleteBefore the reading of Son Italy makes sense but now isn't bad because it contributes to the history of the struggles of Italians that we already learned about. But parts of it could help us to better imagintion what Pascal from Son of Italy meant in some of his struggles. But nonetheless I think it comes appropriate at any time in the course.
ReplyDeleteI think this was shared at just the right moment. I feel like The Way They Were is too blunt and straightforward. If you didn't read Son of Italy and the other texts before this, it wouldn't have had the same impact. After watching it, I have a deeper appreciation and understanding of D'Angelo's struggles in Son of Italy.
ReplyDeleteI think this video should have be apart of an earlier lecture. It plays well into the cartoons, the articles, and The Son of Italy. I think it would accompany those lectures better. It was a good refresher to have in this lecture as a reminder of how hard life was, but it did not really flow with the other videos/film.
ReplyDeleteI feel that it should have appeared earlier. I think it would have fit well before reading Sons to give students an idea of what he was describing in the text and get a serious picture of what his settings were like. I also feel that it would have fit well right after Sons so it can allow students to pay attention to the text and paint their own mental pictures based off of the text. Then, the student will be able to compare what they thought it would have looked like to what it really looked like, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of living situations and even a deeper emotional connection.
ReplyDeleteI think the text should have been introduced near the beginning of the course when we we first began learning about Italian Immigration. I say this because this text allowed me to see real images of what life was life for immigrants. Imagining the conditions is one thing, seeing it in photos is fomenting completely different . It's more intense. If the text was introduced earlier, I think it would have been much more shocking and had an even strong impact .
ReplyDeleteI see most of my classmates believe it would have been best to share the slideshow before "Son of Italy," but I believe the two go so well together that they should be assigned together. The slideshow really helps visualize the living conditions that D'Angelo describes, and thus, it would be more impactful when placed in the assignment in which we read the part of the autobiography after immigration. The images in the slideshow were not surprising because this was not the first we were learning about the poor living conditions Italian-Americans endured after immigration. We had learned of these conditions many times before viewing these images.
ReplyDelete