"The (Re)presentation of History in Film and Video: Narrative and Media,"
	Beyond the Spectacle of Violence. Using Verbal and Visual Images of Hostility to Stimulate Critical Thinking - Heidi Cooley, Valley High School
	"Beyond the Spectacle of Violence: Using Verbal and Visual Images of Hostility to Stimulate Critical Thinking" addresses violence as it is represented and experienced in everyday life. The unit is composed of four parts. It begins with defining "violence" and determining the components which create violence as a spectacle to be watched (and lived). It continues by considering historical violence and its connections to the establishment and perpetuation of ideologies, as well as its possible origins in human nature. Then, the unit turns to the question of "real"-ity and representations of violence: whether "actual" images of violence are any more/less credible than "imagined" ones; and whether visual ones are more/less convincing than verbal ones. Finally, the unit concludes with an investigation into the power of such images in defining our literal existence. Ultimately, the unit seeks to engage students in an active and on-going dialogue (one that will extend beyond the unit itself) with the violent images that invade their lives so that they become more than passive recipients defined by the spectacle of violence which so fascinates them.