History and Memory
Driving Question: How does changing perspectives change our understanding of history?
History and memory are often intertwined, even though each serves different purposes and different perspectives. Your job as a historian-in-training is to decide how to assess historical narratives by analyzing evidence, but what happens when evidence is tied to a person’s memories of events or to our collective memory?
- Learn how historians gather and interpret evidence to create historical narratives.
- Understand how collective learning impacts our past, present, and future.
- Practice your informal writing skills by answering the Unit Problems.
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Guiding Questions
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Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios – Introduction activity.
Observe
Skim the full comic, paying attention to things like prominent colors, shapes, and types of text and fonts. How do you know where to start and which direction to read? What’s in the gutters (the space between panels)? Who is the focus of the comic? What big questions do you have?
Understand
- What factors may have influenced how Wayne and Daisy remembered the story of Zalman’s finger differently?
- What factors influence Trevor’s analysis of these stories?
- What evidence does Trevor cite for how Zalman may have lost his finger?
Connect
- What do you think the last line of the graphic biography means: “Memory and history often serve different purposes and have different perspectives”?
- If you had to decide which story about Zalman’s lost finger is most historically accurate, which version would you choose?
Collective Learning
Key Ideas
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Before you watch the video, it’s a good idea to open and skim the video transcript. And always read the questions below so you know what to look and listen for as you watch!
While you watch
- According to Craig Benjamin, what is collective learning?
- Why is the concept of collective learning introduced so early in the course?
- This video introduces the argument by David Christian and Yuval Harari that symbolic language was important to collective learning. Why is symbolic language important to collective learning?
- Bob Bain argues that collective learning can also lead to the spread of concepts that are a “virus” or “glitch,” and not really useful. Given the images on the screen and the things he is saying, what is one example of a glitch, and why?
- Where does Sharika Crawford see collective learning working in the world today?
After you watch
- What is one example of a place where you see collective learning operating in your life?
