Transcript Facilitation Activities - Michigan State University

CROSSING BORDERS
Arnd Wächter
http://www.isp.msu.edu/cbe/
DOCUMENTARY FACILITATION
RESOURCE
Prepared by Safoi Babana-Hampton
Associate Professor of French
Romance and Classical Studies, Michigan State University (2012)
Table of Contents
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Previewing Activities - Strategies to Successful Intercultural
Communication:
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Thinking in Context
Complex Thinking
Cultural Self-awareness
Discerning between Fact and Fiction: Morocco Between Myth and Reality
Postviewing Activities – Strategies to Successful Assessment of What we
Learned:
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Consider all the experiences and views that make Moroccan and American
students in the documentary different.
Consider all the experiences and views that Moroccan and American students in
the documentary share in common.
Consider all the obstacles to successful intercultural communication, encountered
by both groups .
Consider the ways in which the encounter of both groups changed their
perceptions of each other and enriched their understanding of each other’s
cultures.
Strategies to Successful Intercultural Communication:
1. Thinking in Context
What does it mean to know Morocco in context?
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To know Morocco in relation to different spaces, societies and cultures it is in
contact with.
To understand Morocco from multiple perspectives.
To recognize that its culture is the sum of all these relations, that its culture is
not homogenous.
Activity: Observe the maps below, and discuss how they illustrate the ideas above.
C
Morocco in North
Africa
Morocco in African
Continent
Morocco in the World
Strategies to Successful Intercultural Communication:
2. Complex Thinking
Definition of « complex »:
A whole made up of complicated or interrelated parts.
Definition of « thinking »:
Judgment, opinion; the action of using one's mind to produce thoughts .
Q. From the above definitions, how can we define « complex thinking »?
Activity:
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With a partner, describe the contents of the brown bag below:
Discuss whether the items contained in this bag share
something in common or not.
Can you describe the contents of this bag by using one
single word or criterion? What are the advantages but also
the challenges of doing so?
How can you describe the contents of this same bag using one
criterion, if you also add to it your cell phone, your flu
medicine, house cleaning products, yard tools, a basketball,
your desk lamp and a baseball bat? Are these items usually
grouped or stored together in the same bag? Comment on this idea.
Strategies to Successful Intercultural Communication:
2. Complex Thinking (continued)
How can we use complex thinking in order to understand our identities,
our histories and those of others?
Activity:
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With a partner, discuss the differences between a blanket and a quilt.
Use the pictures of a « blanket » and a « quilt » below as visual metaphors in order to
develop your own view of the following:
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Is our cultural identity (who we are as a society) a blanket or a quilt? Explain how
and justify your view with examples and arguments.
Is our history (our collective heritage and our collective past) a blanket or a quilt?
Explain how and justify your
view with examples and arguments.
Strategies to Successful Intercultural Communication:
3. Cultural Self-Awareness
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Morocco is considered as an Arab and Muslim country. Reflect on how Arab and
Muslim Americans are typically perceived in American society, by observing the first row
of images below.
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The pictures on the bottom row represent different American public personalities with
an Arab heritage. How do those images contradict clichés and dominant stereotypes of
Arabs. What do they confirm about our own identity as an American society and culture.
Strategies to Successful Intercultural
Communication:
3. Cultural Self-Awareness (continued)
Watch the documentary below produced by Jack Shaheen, an Arab-American
Professor, in which he examines images of Arabs in Hollywood films.
Video of Documentary Reel Bad Arabs - How Hollywood Vilifies a People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmVoSZk_fvo
Activity:
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Make a list of the dominant clichés and stereotypes identified by Jack Shaheen
and compare them to the reactions and observations you made in the
previous activity regarding images of real Arab-Americans.
Discuss how stereotypes such as those presented in this
documentary can obstruct intercultural communication
and obscure our understanding of other cultures.
Reflect on how this documentary challenges us to rethink
our assumptions about ourselves and the world.
Strategies to Successful Intercultural Communication:
4. Discerning between Fact and Fiction:
Morocco between Myth and Reality
The classic Hollywood film Casablanca has for a long time evoked a mostly vague and mythical
picture of Morocco. Though considered generally today as an Arab and Muslim cCountry,
Morocco is a richly diverse society:
• Religious diversity: Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
• Linguistic diversity: Arabic, Berber, French.
• Ethnic diversity: Arab, Berber, African.
• Geographical diversity: Atlas mountains, Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, the Sahara desert.
• Complex history: Phoenician, Roman, Arab and French civilizations and conquests.
Observe the images below and how they relate to the above points.
Why is it important to recognize these facts?
Strategies to Successful Assessment of What We
Learned: Crossing Borders
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Consider all experiences and views that make Moroccan and
American students in the documentary Crossing Borders
different:
1.
Think of examples illustrating each group’s awareness of
perceptions held about their own culture by others: What do
American students know about the perceptions formed about
their own culture by others. How does this cultural selfawareness prepare them to engage in a constructive dialogue
about who they really are?
2.
How do American students perceive and express their cultural
difference to their Moroccan peers?
3.
How do Moroccan students perceive and express their
cultural difference to their American peers.
Strategies to Successful Assessment of What We
Learned: Crossing Borders

Consider all the obstacles to successful intercultural
communication, encountered by both groups in the
documentary Crossing Borders:
1.
Cite the examples that each side gives in order to express
what contributes to the failure of intercultural
communication, intercultural misunderstanding, and to
creating more barriers among cultures. What is the main
source of these obstacles?
2.
What specific choices and personal attitudes do various
members of each group adopt in order to successfully and
thoughtfully face the dilemmas and challenges to
intercultural communication?
Strategies to Successful Assessment of What
We Learned: Crossing Borders

Consider all the experiences and views that Moroccan and
American students in the documentary Crossing Borders share
in common:
1.
2.
3.
4.
How does living and traveling together in Morocco highlight the
experiences and beliefs that both American and Moroccan
students share in common?
What personal adjustments do various members of each group
make in order to open up to the other and engage in a
constructive dialogue and recognize their commonalities.
In your view, how has this experience of living and traveling
together transformed the students on both sides? How do you
think this new experience will shape their lives and their
thinking moving forward?
How has this documentary expanded or contributed to what
you already know?