Larry Niemi, Glide High School, Glide, OR

DATA GATHERING:  VIETNAM

Appropriate for grades 8-12.

OVERVIEW:  This lesson is designed to give students experience in
gathering data on an issue, get a feeling for the emotional
climate during a stressful time, and to stimulate critical
thinking.  It is a great device for an inquiry lesson on Vietnam.

PURPOSE:  This will further students' knowledge of the Vietnam era
from many different points of view through personal contact with
those directly involved in the Vietnam Era.  It will further
develop data gathering skills by giving them experience in
developing a questionnaire, interviewing, collecting and
evaluating data and presenting findings on that data.

OBJECTIVES:  Students will be able to:

 1.  Interview at least ten people who were over the age of 15 in
     1970.

 2.  Write a questionnaire to gather data on the attitudes,
     feeling, and/or experiences of the interviewee during the
     Vietnam Era.

ACTIVITIES:

 1.  Film, video or other balanced or unbiased presentation of
     facts about the American Vietnam experience.

 2.  Develop and give a questionnaire of a minimum of five
     questions to at least ten people who were at least 15 years
     old in 1970.

 3.  Report the result of the questionnaire to the class and
     debrief with the teacher.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED:  The PBS series "Vietnam" and
"Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War" are both good but a bit long
unless edited.  Another good source is "Vietnam: A Case Study for
Critical Thinking" from EAV (Educational Audio-Visual, Inc.)

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:  This is a rough outline of one of the best
activities I have ever used and has never been unsuccessful.  You
can modify how you debrief and use other questioning strategies,
but the students will always reach a similar conclusion.  That
being this period was a very unhappy, stressful time for nearly
everyone in this country.  It really helps them understand many
things including the American view of war in Central America,
adults' reluctance to talk about Vietnam, the peace movement, and
the issues of the Vietnam Vets.  This same strategy could also be
used with Watergate, the Kennedy assassination, and in ten years
or so, abortion.

I have included most of the original on the next page.  I think it
makes it a better explanation of the lesson.  Use it as you wish
or ask me to clarify.

 1.  This lesson must come after the presentation of unbiased or
     an equal combination of biased information on the Vietnam
     War.  EAV called it "Vietnam: Two Views."  It is better to
     have as little input from the instructor as possible to avoid
     undue prejudgment by the student.

 2.  The assignment should be made on a Friday and due on a Monday
     or, at the latest, Tuesday.  The assignment is as follows:

     You are to make up a set of five questions about the Vietnam
     War and interview at least 10 people over the age of 15 in
     1970.  They should be a cross section of people and
     identified by age, sex, their role (soldier, housewife,
     anti-war protester, etc.) during the time.  Less than five
     questions or less than 10 interviews will result in no
     credit.  You are to keep notes on the interview in whatever
     way you wish.  The notes will be turned in and you will be
     required to report to the class on the interviews.
     Everyone who completes the assignment will receive an "A."
     Anyone who does not complete the assignment will receive a
     "0."

 3.  Student questions should be answered about the assignment but
     as briefly as possible since this is an inquiry assignment.

 4.  Students will be asked to report on their interviews in an
     objective manner, reporting only questions, responses and
     description of the respondee.

 5.  Students should be asked some or all of the following after
     everyone has completed their reports:

      a.  What was the emotional state of the respondee?
      b.  How did these people and their responses make you feel?
      c.  What can you conclude from the collective responses?

 6.  Without exception the response by students have been similar
     to the following:

     "They got really quiet!"
     "They cried."
     "They got really angry!"
     "They talked forever, like they had it pent-up inside."
     "It was really serious."
     "They were sad about how the soldiers were treated when they
     got back home."

 7.  Then the teacher should ask open-ended questions such as:

     "So why do you think they reacted the way they did?"
     "Why haven't you heard adults talk about Vietnam before?"
     "Why did people who had little direct involvement with the
     war react the way they did?"

 8.  Help students sum up their conclusions about this period of
     American history and write a short thought-reaction paper.