High Tech High - Project Based Learning

The Vietnam Experience

Overview

The Vietnam Experience is an eight week English and History integrated endeavor. The project is designed so that over the course of two months students will individually research a topic from the Vietnam War (or Vietnam era United States). This topic will then be transformed into a dramatic script complete with characters, setting and dialogue. These scripts will be critiqued, revised and for the best of both classes, actually performed with authentic settings and props in front of a live audience of peers, parents, professionals, and community members.

Certain essential questions will be addressed including the following: Was the conflict in Vietnam a selfish, colonial move on the part of the United States or was it a general effort to make the world safe from Communism or something in between? What are the essential elements of effective drama? What are the fundamentals of successfully putting on a play? Also, students will create their own specific essential questions for investigation, according to their personal historical interests.

Products

Students will produce each of the following:

  1. Well-developed characters
  2. Professional one act scripts
  3. Historian poster
  4. Several journal entries
  5. Costumes and props
  6. Stage settings

Learning Goals

Students will understand:

  • The social, political and economic nature of the conflict in Vietnam.
  • The history and people of Vietnam
  • Vietnam's role in the Cold War
  • The complexities of U.S. diplomacy during the Vietnam era
  • Dramatic elements by reading and analyzing various classical and contemporary plays

Students will be able to:

  • Transfer this knowledge to their own plays by developing complex characters who use realistic dialogue and by establishing conflict that eventually comes to some resolution.
  • Take part in the production of a few selected plays by acting, managing, directing, or marketing the plays.
  • Take part in acting exercises so that even those with the smallest lines will say them with confidence and poise.

Content: Topics Addressed

Throughout the project, students learn about:

  1. The History of Vietnam
    1. General history of their culture and relations with other nations, especially China, France, Japan, and the United States.
    2. The life and rise of Ho Chi Minh
    3. The imperial role of France
  2. American Intervention
    1. The Geneva Accords of 1954
    2. Ngo Dinh Diem and "Buddhist Barbeques"
    3. American "Advisors"
    4. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
  3. The War
    1. Origins
    2. The Tet Offensive
    3. Carpet Bombing
    4. Soldiers' experiences from both sides
    5. Withdrawal and Geneva Accords
  4. Writing
    1. Developing characters
    2. Writing scripts
  5. Analyzing
    1. Literature
    2. Primary document

Standards Addressed in The Vietnam Experience Project

Reading:

1.1 Trace the etymology of significant terms used in political science and history.

  1. Truman Doctrine
  2. Domino Theory
  3. Assassination
  4. Coup d'etat
  5. Declaration of War
  6. Resolution (Golf of Tonkin)

2.1 - 2.3, 2.6 Analyze various grade level appropriate texts

  1. Reading novels, newspaper accounts, and government documents, students will analyze the authors' meanings; compare and contrast their arguments; note tone and bias
  2. Students will identify the intended audience and appeal to pathos, logos, and ethos
    1. Various speeches by LBJ, Kennedy, Nixon, and Ho Chi Minh

3.1 Structural Features of Literature

  1. Students will read short stories, essays, plays, and novels
  2. Students will analyze them for sub-genres including satire and parody

3.3 Importance of Language

  1. Students will learn the importance of language dynamics, especially tone, irony, volume, and pace
    1. The students will then incorporate these dynamics into the writing of their own plays

3.5 Social Influences

  1. Students will read a variety of perspectives on the Vietnam War
    1. An African American's Perspective on Service in Vietnam

Writing:

1.1, 1.2, 1.5 Organization and Focus

  1. Students will incorporate elements of characterization while writing descriptively and vividly in an effort to make their plays more realistic.
    1. Students will be instructed to write as they speak, embracing contractions, colloquialisms, and speech appropriate to the time period

1.6 Research and Technology

  1. Students will base their plays on primary documents, thus the necessity for research (oral histories from veterans will be given extra credit)
  2. Their essential questions should drive this research

1.9 Evaluation and Revision

  1. With eminent educator Ron Berger in mind, students will revise their plays several times. In addition they will receive feedback from both peers and teachers.
  2. Students will embrace such revision as a time to corroborate with peers of the culture represented in their plays (e.g., a transfer student from the south can assist a peer with a character from Mississippi).

2.1 Narratives

  1. Students will incorporate at least one monologue in their plays in an effort to express the feelings (usually political) of their characters. As with other portions, drama will drive the mood of the monologue, lending it greater impact on the audience.

2.3 Reflection

  1. Students will reflect on their experience as an actor, stagehand, and author of their own plays. Moreover they will persuade the instructor that their experience was successful and that their contributions and attitudes assisted in making the overall production a triumph.

2.4 Historical Investigation

  1. Students will examine various records and differing accounts of a single event.
    1. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: LBJ vs. the men of the C. Turner Joy
  2. A formal bibliography is required

Listening & Speaking:

1.2, 1.3 Comprehension of Media's Impact

  1. Students will examine the Tet Offensive's impact on the American public with special attention given to media's role during the battle.
  2. Students will appreciate the power and influence of non-edited images (e.g., dead American soldiers; American soldiers committing atrocities against civilians; wounded children, etc.)

1.8, 2.5 Delivery of Oral Communication

  1. Students will identify interesting and effective language, especially during the revision process when they hear their words read aloud.
  2. Performance details will be given special attention

Grade Eleven United States History and Geography Content Standards:

11.9 U.S Foreign Policy Since WWII

  1. Communism at home and abroad: America's Response
    1. Students will examine the Truman Doctrine, especially as it relates to South East Asia.
  2. Foreign Policy vs. Domestic Issues: the War at Home
    1. Students will listen to a personal account from a Vietnam War protestor as well as reading, listening, and watching several accounts of the protests.
  3. The Geneva Convention as it relates both to the United States, Vietnam, and France

Grade Nine through Twelve Visual and Perfoming Arts Standards:

1.1-1.3 Artistic Perception

  1. Students will learn new vocabulary and roles so as to enhance their overall theatrical experience.
    1. E.g., genre, theme, design, director, stage manager, down stage, up stage, stage left, stage right, blocking out, etc.

2.1-2.3 Creative Expression

  1. Students will learn skills specific to theate
    1. Creating characters from their own imagination as well as from real people in history.
    2. Write dialogue and action sequences including staging while honoring drama, climax, and resolution of the play.
    3. Group work is an essential component of performing a successful play. Set designers, actors, directors, and stage hands must all communicate and work together.

3.1 Historical and Cultural Context

  1. Students will add elements of Vietnamese culture to their plays
    1. Both physical and linguistic accuracy will be a priority. Avoid donning accents that will take away from the meaning of the dialogue.

5.1 Connections, Relationships, and Applications

  1. Students will connect their knowledge of theater with history, English, math, biology, engineering and even internship (see below).
  2. Career skills will also be enhanced by setting deadlines; creating rehearsal schedules; organize priorities, etc.

Materials/Texts/Resources

Clearly this project demands copious materials, but many of them can be donated or easily created. Of greatest import is the stage or other performance area (building one's own stage is a fun and useful way to engage kinesthetic learners), props, rudimentary costumes, poster board for historian posters, computers for research (trip to the library?), list of suggested online resources. We list helpful print texts below.

History in Print

  • Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States
    • In his eighteenth chapter, "The Impossible Victory: Vietnam" Zinn provided copious primary accounts of the Vietnam War. While arduous to read for many students, it lends your play ample rigor.
  • George C Herring's America's Longest War
    • While the entire book is useful, chapters five and six deal with especially poignant content. This work moves away from the military issue and deals more with diplomacy, an oft overlooked aspect of this terrible conflict.
  • Fredrick Logevall's Choosing War
    • Perhaps the most challenging text, Logevall's masterpiece contends that the government of the United states had many opportunities to end their role in Vietnam, but chose not to do so. In an effort to never set the ceiling, this work is most appropriate for those students requiring added challenges.
  • Jack Woodis' Ho Chi Minh: Selected Articles and Speeches
    • Overflowing with primary resources, this book will gives students the rarely told story of the Vietnamese perspective on Vietnam. By reading "Uncle Ho's" words, they will gain a valuable perspective as objective historians. In particular, the speeches are very moving. Ask them to compare his language to that of the Founders.

Literature on Vietnam

  • Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War
    • Caputo offers an exceptionally well written account of his time in Vietnam from an officer's perspective. Resplendent with detail, this is a must read for students hoping to get a personal experience of Vietnam.
  • Tim O'Brian's The Things They Carried
    • Arguably the most famous author to come out of Vietnam, this is O'Brian at his best. His symbolism and attention to detail, especially with regard to his thought process, are helpful ways to engage students while providing them with a human element of the war.

Plays about Vietnam

  • David Rabe's Sticks and Bones
    • Reading this short play will help students acclimate to the otherwise foreign manner in which one writes a play. Plus, it deals with Vietnam.
  • David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
    • Neither anti war nor pro Vietnam, this play examines the psyche of a soldier during the war. It first staged during the war and is therefore all the more valuable as a resource for teaching.
  • Tom Cole's Medal of Honor Rag
    • This brilliant work examines life after war and the arduous transitions soldiers are forced to make. Students learn about post traumatic stress disorder and other ailments that afflict veterans.

Staging/Acting Texts

  • Louis E. Catron's The Elements of the Play Writing
  • Jeffrey Sweet's Solving Your Script: Tools and Techniques for the Playwright
  • An excellent resource, as it has plenty of excerpts from notable plays and great visuals.
  • Jeffrey Hatcher's The Art and Craft of Playwrighting
  • This essential text has brilliant exercises that are sure to keep your kids engaged, challenged, and entertained!
  • Jeffrey Sweet's The Dramatists Toolkit: The Credit of the Working Playwright
  • Lenka Peterson's and Dan O'Connor's Kids Take the Stage: Helping Young People Discover the Creative Outlet of Theater
  • An excellent resource for teachers with little background in theater. It provides many entertaining activities and improvisations that the kids are sure to love.