Making healthy changes often requires extensive changes in other areas of our lives to help ensure that we are successful in meeting our goals. In this second installment of your course project, your focus will be on the factors that may help or hinder you in making a healthy behavior change.
Your journal should include the following components and address the issues/questions for each.
1) First complete the following self-report measures and include them in your submission:
- Goal Ownership Actions– do you feel that this is your goal or someone else’s goal?
- Situational temptations Actions– what elements in the environment could interfere with you staying on track?Links to an external site.
- Decisional balance questionsActions – What are the pros & cons associated with making this healthy change?Links to an external site.
- And one from Three WishesActions or Prefactual thoughts Actionsthat you did NOT previously complete for Part 1 of this assignment. So if you completed Three wishes for part 1 then complete Prefactuals for part 2, and vice versa.
2) Factors that hinder: In this section you will reflect on and discuss some of the anticipated problems that might be encountered when trying to make a healthy change. Some of the questions you should try to answer (if applicable) are:
- If you have tried to change this behavior before why do you believe you have had difficulty changing this behavior and why?
- If you have not tried to make this change before, what factors do you anticipate would give you difficulty and why?
- In other words, what are the difficulties and or obstacles that you perceive when trying to make this healthy change and why have they been a challenge for you? Are these factors that may be obstacles for anyone or just you? Explain.
- Are these obstacles that are easily removed or dealt with? why or why not?
Throughout this section of your reflection you should try to integrate your reactions/responses to the relevant sections of the self-report measures you completed. For example what sort of situational temptations do you expect and why?
3) Factors that help: In this section you will reflect on and discuss some of the factors that may help or support you as you make a healthy change. These factors can again be anything from situational influences, to social factors, to your own will power and motivation. Some of the questions you should consider as you write this section are:
- What types of changes in your life would make it easier for you to follow through and successfully make this healthy change?
- What types of resources would help you make this change? For example, social, financial, and/or time resources can sometimes help support changing health habits.
- Would your social network (friends or family) help support this change and why or why not?
- What sort of rewards or incentives might be useful to help you make this change and how would they help?
And again, throughout this section of your reflection you should try to integrate your reactions/responses to the relevant sections of the self-report measures you completed. For example what are the pros to making this change, that is what are the positive things that will result from making this change, both in the long and short term?
Please note that the forms do not count for page count. Please try to limit your journal entry (the narrative) to 1-2 pages single spaced.
Part 2
In this course, we’ve been reading and examining texts that guide and impact not only what/whose history we learn, but in what ways we learn it. Now, we will turn our attention to examining the ways popular films can also shape our historical learning. You will choose a film to watch from a provided list to analyze the historical content, points of view, and implications for historical thinking/historical memory. Your work with this film will also include some research and discussion around critical media/critical film literacy.
Films include, but are not limited to:
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Free State of Jones
- Zero Dark Thirty
- The Report
- Till
- Hidden Figures
- The Post
- Milk
- Windtalkers
- Oppenheimer
- Green Book
- Rustin
- Selma
- A Million Miles Away
Minimum length of essays = 4-pages, double-spaced
Essays must include a minimum of 4 sources (excluding class notes and textbook) to support your analysis of the film. Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable source and should not be used. You are encouraged to utilize the UW library’s online search engine to locate scholarly articles.
Papers must use APA-cited references. In-text and reference section formatting support can be found on the Purdue OWL: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.htmlLinks to an external site.
If you need writing support, you are encouraged to visit the UWB Writing Center and/or talk to Dr. Shear! https://www.uwb.edu/academic-support-programs/waccLinks to an external site.
Questions to guide your writing about the film:
- What are the messages this film presents about its central topic/issue?
- From whose perspective is the story told?
- What are you learning about U.S. history by watching this movie?
- In your research of the film’s central topic/issue, what additional information would someone need to have a fuller understanding of the historical event/context?
Questions to guide your writing about film as an educational tool:
- Why is critical media/critical film literacy important to consider when viewing films that present historical narratives?
- How can students and teachers use film as an additional text when learning history?
- Is the film you chose used in K-12 schools? If so, how? If not, what recommendations would you make for using the film as a text to help students learn history?
- What connections can you make between the film and your learning from both the Zinn book and other class notes and readings?
You are encouraged to use this writing space to challenge yourself in how you see/hear/feel films and the impact engagement with this medium has (or could have) on your life and our larger society. There is no “perfect answer,” but rather you are invited to see this project as a way to expand your viewing of films beyond mere enjoyment. Take chances! Go for it! Let yourself dive into the great debates about representation, accuracy, etc.
How will your essay be graded?
_____/2 Minimum requirement (Page Length)
_____/5 Incorporation of sources to support your writing and APA formatting
_____/10 Content of the essay in addressing the guiding questions
_____/5 Flow of the writing, use of transitions, grammar
