Analysing different sources of information.

1. Rebuilding historical memory of the Colombian
armed conflict in the EFL classroom
María del Pilar Fernández Pedraza M.A.
Leidy Yisel Gómez-Vásquez M.A.
3. Analyzing Multiple Sources of Information

2. Initial Reflection!
Dear teacher,
What kind of resources would you use
to show your students different
perspectives of a violent event linked
to the armed conflict in Colombia?

3. Relevance and purpose of this work
Mass media plays an important role in education in order to
promote peace, justice, freedom, respect, human rights as well as
social and economic progress. Mass media also aims to provide
society with facts and opinions regarding events that take place in
our everyday life (Kolangui & Magaña, 2014).
One of the objectives in this lesson is to reflect upon the
situations that affected the population human rights in this
conflict. To achieve this, learners will develop analytical thinking
skills in order to critically compare information from different
sources.

4. Introducing the events:
Each member of the group has access to a different source
(written, audio, audiovisual) so that they read or listen to the
material and complete a graphic organizer.
Article: “Todas las guerras atacaron a San Carlos. Una historia de violencia”
bit.do/actorsreading
Audio: “Pieza Pedagógica 03 o 4”. Centro de Memoria Histórica
bit.do/actorsinconflict
Video: “San Carlos - Memories of war exodus” (from 3:00 to 9:10)
bit.do/actorsmemory

5. Understanding what happened:
Students complete the graphic organizer below using the
information provided in the source they selected and get ready to
socialize it within their groups.
Graphic organizers develop
cognitive skills such as retaining
and recalling concepts,
organizing and prioritizing
information, as well as critical
analysis.

6. Analyzing different sources
of information:
As a group, students analyze the three
sources by discussing the following
questions:
1. Do these sources tell different stories?
Why? How do perspectives differ?
2. How did your understanding of the
“actors and victims involved in the
conflict” change as you had access to
more sources?
IMPORTANT:
“Ensure that the analysis has
been conducted in its own
right before moving to the
creative output (which
students are often eager to
move on to). Experiences […]
showed that if the analysis
was poor, the creative output
became an exercise in
“telling the story of the
event”, rather than an
analysis…”
(Errazkin & Martinez in Coords, 2012)

7. Telling the story:
Finally, each group creates a podcast
where they report their analysis of
the actors and victims involved in the
conflict, their roles, motivation and
actions.
Products can be created in Audacity
or Garageband to share their
creative output.
VARIATION: Have your
groups create an
infographic or a poster
instead of a podcast.
Use infographic makers
such Picktochart,
Venngage or Canva.

8. Reflecting upon the events:
Invite your students to debate about the
following questions:
Why is it important to listen to different stories
when rebuilding the history of a particular
event?
What recommendations would you give to
your family, your friends or people from San
Carlos to avoid repeating mistakes?

9. Food for thought!
Dear teacher,
What pedagogical challenges would
you find to implement this lesson?
How would you meet them?