Film in the Classroom: 'The Woman King' for the history of colonialism.

Mehreen Jamal I am also looking to add The Woman King to my AP World class this year. I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to have students do as an assignment to accompany the film, but I am consulting these notes from Emily at Anti-Social Studies. 

Is this film related to the Woman King book series in any way? I wonder if you can show clips and include a reading excerpt. Though I haven’t used this film, I did just use The Martian in BHP. I included clips and an excerpt from the classroom edition book to talk about the implications of humans becoming a multi planetary species. Though it is Sci-fi, it really enhanced our conversation. I think a short explanation about what historical fiction is would be ok. I bet the film will engage your students and will produce a fruitful conversation as a result! 

 Anne Koschmider Thanks for sharing these notes. My AP World History classes move so fast as we teach the same courses daily at our school for a semester. I am thinking of adding more examples from popular culture for the next year since they are more relatable for our kids. For this semester, in my WH class, I am adding a few discussion questions that I will assign before the screening and discuss the next day. I am adding a draft of my PowerPoint. Feel free to use it if you like and make any suggestions if I missed anything. :) 

PDF

 Adriane Musacchio Thanks, I appreciate your suggestions. I did not know about the book series; I just googled it, and it looks like they are fictional with a different plot or plots. Thank you for letting me know. Also, the Martian as an educational resource sounds fun to me. 

Glad this helped! The excerpt and movie clip combo is really a great one in my opinion! The clips get engagement up enough for students to get invested in reading the excerpt. You have a balance of visual and text based instruction- so it still feels very clearly academic.

& Yes! Definitely fun to use. We use it prior to conducting research for our Socratic seminar on what challenges humans would face if we became a multi planetary species on mars. I find engaging films tend to inspire students to learn more about the content being covered in class. 

 Adriane Musacchio Sorry if my last message was a bit unclear! This book series isn’t connected to The Woman King movie.

Also, I love your teaching ideas for bringing The Martian into your class!

Oh I see! I am sure the film is still worth viewing! :) 

Thank you! Adriane Musacchio  I think so too and as my students study West Africa and imperialism, they will have a case of the Kingdom of Dahomey to study and the unique perspective on African resistance to European powers. Also, as you said earlier about the limitations of historical fiction, I hope it will spark some conversation about how history is portrayed in this film.