Resources

Supplemental Discussion Questions

The following questions provide a few other approaches to the topics that are not specific to any one story. They are intended to be more general discussion prompts that can help you look at “the big picture.”

Covid-19 and American Identity

What do you think are the most significant social impacts of Covid-19?
What are some specific ways young people have been affected by the pandemic?
Do you think the pandemic changed us as a community? As a nation?
What do you think the pandemic’s economic impact has been on the U.S.? Who has been most affected? How do you think one’s living and working conditions prior to the pandemic affected one’s experience?
What should the government’s role be as we near the end of the health emergency? How do we prepare for the future?
According to the World Health Organization, February 1, 2023, “As of 29 January 2023, over 753 million confirmed cases and over 6.8 million deaths have been reported globally.” People are still getting Covid-19, and dying from it, but it appears that most people have resumed something closer to “normal” daily lives. Is the American public already forgetting the crisis? What is most important to remember? What have we learned?

Storytelling and Communication

The common theme of the stories relates to the pandemic, but each story focuses on a unique problem. What was the problem in the video you watched? How did the person solve it?
Think about the way a story unfolds in the video. How did the person build their story? How does it compare to a story you might read? What images and/or words stand out from the video. What makes these most memorable?
How can personal, family and community storytelling influence the way people think about themselves or a situation? If stories aren’t told, they are lost. Why do our stories matter to future generations?
Videos are everywhere today; they are increasingly the way we receive information, but what does the story you watched teach you about listening?
Media messages are everywhere–television news stories, newspaper accounts, social media, VIDEOS! How do I know what to believe in what I see, hear and read?

Paired Video Activities

Watch two videos closely; think about the main themes and ideas expressed in each. Afterwards, compare and contrast the videos using the following guiding questions:

What do the videos have in common? What visual and/or narrative details do they share?
How do the videos differ? What visual and/or narrative details are different in the videos?
How do the videos complement each other? Are they “two sides of the same coin”? Could one be seen as building on the other? Think of other ways the videos relate to each other.

Suggested pairing:

“Behind Closed Doors,” and “Growing Up”

“Sueños, Planes y Realidad” and “The Real Voyage”

“Pandemic Rhythm” and “Silence and Light”

“A Call to Action” and “As the World Cracked”

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What difference do you think it makes that the stories are told in video? Which stories could be expressed as written narratives without losing their essential meaning? Which stories would lose much of their meaning without the visual element? Why?