Why should you read Tolstoy's "War and Peace"? (TED-Ed): A Design De-construction by Satrih
- Satrih
- Oct 12, 2020
- 11 min read
Objectives
“Why should you read Tolstoy's ‘War and Peace’?” is one of lesson videos that can be found on TED-Ed Lessons Worth Sharing website. It is created by three experts of three different areas of expertise, which are an educator (Brendan Pelsue), the director as well as the animator (Patrick Smith), and a composer (Cem Misirlioglu). Setting the “Subtitle/Close Caption” button on allows me to copy the video narration as in the following:
Why should you read Tolstoy's "War and Peace"? - Brendan Pelsue
"War and Peace." A tome. A slog. The sort of book you shouldn’t read in bed because if you fall asleep it could give you a concussion, right? Only partly. "War and Peace" is a long book, sure, but it’s also a thrilling examination of history populated with some of the deepest, most realistic characters you’ll find anywhere. And if its length intimidates you, just imagine how poor Tolstoy felt. In 1863, he set out to write a short novel about a political dissident returning from exile in Siberia. Five years later, he had produced a 1,200-page epic featuring love stories, battlefields, bankruptcies, firing squads, religious visions, the burning of Moscow, and a semi-domesticated bear but no exile and no political dissidents. Here is how it happened.
Tolstoy, a volcanic soul was born to a famously eccentric aristocratic family in 1828. By the time he was thirty, he had already dropped out of Kazan University, gambled away the family fortune, joined the army, written memoirs, and rejected the literary establishment to travel Europe. He then settled into Yasnaya Polyana, his ancestral mansion to write about the return of the Decembrists, a band of well-born revolutionaries pardoned in 1856 after thirty years in exile. But, Tolstoy thought, how could he tell the story of the Decembrists return from exile without telling the story of 1825, when they revolted against the conservative Tsar Nicholas I? And how could he do that without telling the story of 1812, when Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia helped triggered the authoritarianism the Decembrists were rebelling against? And how could he tell the story of 1812 without talking about 1805, when the Russians first learned of the threat Napoleon posed after their defeat at the battle of Austerlitz?
So, Tolstoy began writing, both about the big events of history and the small lives that inhabit those events. He focused on aristocrats, the class he knew best. The book only occasionally touches on the lives of the vast majority of the Russian population, who were peasants or even serfs, farmers bound to serve the owners of the land on which they lived.
“War and Peace” opens the eve of war between France and Russia. Aristocrats at a cocktail party fret about the looming violence, but then change the topic to those things aristocrats always seem to care about; money, sex, and death. This first scene is indicative of the way the book bounces between political and personal over an ever-widening canvas. There are no main characters in “War and Peace”. Instead, readers enter a vast interlocking web of relationships and questions. Will the hapless and illegitimate son of a count marry a beautiful but conniving princess? Will his only friend survive the battlefields of Austria? And what about that nice young girl falling in love with both men at once? Real historical figures mix and mingle with all this fictional folk, Napoleon appears several times, and one of Tolstoy’s ancestors plays a background part.
But while the characters and their psychologies are gripping, Tolstoy is not afraid to interrupt the narrative to pose insightful questions about history. Why do wars start? What are good battlefield tactics? Do nations rise and fall on the action of so-called great men like Napoleon? Or are there larger cultural and economic forces at play? These extended digressions are part of what makes “War and Peace” so panoramic in scope. But for some 19th century critics, this meant “War and Peace” barely felt like a novel at all. “It was a large, loose, baggy monster” in the word of Henry James. Tolstoy in fact, agreed. To him, novels were a Western European form. Russian writers had to write differently because Russian people lived differently. “What is ‘War and Peace’?” he asked, “it is not a novel, still less an epic poem, still less a historical chronicle. ‘War and Peace’ is what the author wanted and was able to express in the form in which it was expressed.” It is in other words, to sum total of Tolstoy’s imaginative powers and nothing less.
By the time “War and Peace” ends, Tolstoy has brought his characters to the year 1820, thirty-six years before the events he originally hoped to write about. In trying to understand his own times, he had become immersed in the years piled up behind him. The result is a grand interrogation into history, culture, philosophy, psychology, and the human response to war.
Based on my understanding as an English teacher, putting the video narration in a reading text, I would say the type of the text is a review. A review summarizes, analyzes and assesses the appeal of a novel, play or film, to a broader audience. Based on that, I would conclude that the objective of this lesson video is to summarize, analyze and assess the appeal of generally known-to-be a novel entitled “War and Peace”, written by a Russian writer named Leo Tolstoy.
Learners
TED-Ed Lessons website provides a ‘filter by’ feature to search for lesson videos based on certain categories to meet the visitors’ need. Driven by my personal ambition as a language teacher who wants to optimize the use of this educational website, I decided to filter the video display by first choosing the study area, which is ‘Literature & Language”. Then, as a language teacher in a senior high school, I chose ‘High School/Upper Secondary’ for the student level and ‘Under 12 minutes” for the video duration. So, that was how I found “Why should you read Tolstoy's ‘War and Peace’?” as one of the video lessons appeared on the display.
Based on the finding above, I would say that the intended learners of this lesson video are high school/upper secondary students, in particular.
Content
Referring to the re-written video narration shown in the objectives section of this design deconstruction, the content of the lesson video is a review of a literary work entitled “War and Peace” by a Russian writer named Leo Tolstoy. Putting the video narration in a reading text, I found it best separated into six paragraphs following the standard format of a review text, which are;
The style is often colorful and entertaining with interesting vocabulary, especially rich adjectives and adverbs.
The introductory paragraph aims to grab the reader's attention, provides background about the author and gives the writer's overall opinion.
The first body paragraphs give some information about the story/book to provide a context for an evaluation of the writer's success – never tell the whole story or give too much away.
The body paragraphs each discuss a few carefully selected aspects of the book or film such as plot, characterization, acting, effects, themes, quality of language and other literary devices.
There should be a balance between providing readers with background about the book and evaluating its success. Evaluation is the most important feature of a review.
The concluding paragraph contains a clear recommendation to readers of the review about whether the book is worth reading
Based on the format above, it appears to me that the introductory video narration is conveyed in paragraph one and two. Paragraph three, four and five are the body paragraphs in which the narrator or the reviewer provides a context to evaluate the Tolstoy’s success, to discuss selected aspects of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” that make it worth-reading, which include what critics said about the work. Finally, the sixth paragraph does conclude or summarize the review, it may not be a very explicit persuasive recommendation but it is clear that the reviewer shows why Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” should be read (see the re-written video narration in the objectives section for the whole paragraphs).
Pattern of use
As an online video, the pattern of use is started simply by clicking on the hyperlinked video preview that will lead us to its individual page for watching.
The ‘play’ button appears in the center of the video screen layout. Clicking on it will automatically load and play the video.
Moving your mouse pointer on the video screen will automatically make usable buttons show up, which include a single button for ‘play/stop’ or just ‘pause’ as can be seen in the bottom left corner of the video screen. Next to it is a button for adjusting the audio volume and another button that shows the minutes/seconds for every single scene of the video. To the very right corner, there are three other buttons (from the left) the subtitle/close caption button to show or hide the subtitle; the setting button by which we can set on/off the annotations, adjust the speed, subtitles and the quality (pixels resolution); and the full screen button. Above these six buttons, we can see the time line button. We can use it to rewind or fast forward the video by clicking on any points of it and the scene will show up.
Design process
Looking at the creators of the video, which include three experts of three different areas of expertise; an educator (Brendan Pelsue), the director as well as the animator (Patrick Smith), and a composer (Cem Misirlioglu), it is clear that the design is a result of a collaboration.
Referring to the previous sections of this design deconstruction, my best guess is that the design process may have followed an Instructional Design (ID) model known as ADDIE that stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. “While analysis stands for the description of what exists, design is a creative and constructive process leading to new ideas, concepts, and models as solutions. The output of the design stage should also be considered a working hypothesis which can be verified and validated (or adjusted) after each implementation and evaluation (Colpaert, 2006)”. Part of the Analysis may include:
1. Defining the problem, objectives and the intended learners
Having analyzed the objective(s), the content and the learners of this TED-Ed lesson video on “Why you should read Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’?”, I would say that the defined problem is how to create a lesson video containing a review on one of Tolstoy’s works entitled “War and Peace”. The main objective is to produce a review that summarizes, analyzes and assesses Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” to be learned by high school/upper secondary students.
2. Collecting information
Brendan Pelsue as the knowledgeable educator should be the person who created the lesson in the form of a spoken review text on the book of Leo Tolstoy entitled “War and Peace”. Referring to the content of the video narration, Pelsue should have worked on collecting information related to the essential aspects in writing the review, such as:
The historical background/events portrayed in the book, specifically about Russia and its people.
The life of Tolstoy (biography or autobiography that may include written as well as spoken version), which include his personal and social life, thoughts / ideas / concerns, and achievements as well as failures.
The structure and the content of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” itself.
What people, particularly critics, said about Tolstoy and his book. This may be included in his biography or autobiography.
Patrick Smith as the professional animator should be the person who created the animations for every single scene that illustrate, describe and explain more clearly about the words being spoken by the narrator. For this reason, I believe Smith collected sketches, took photographs and gathered data to get inspirations specifically related to the content of the review itself. The following table shows the examples of how the animation goes hand in hand with the narration.
Cem Misirlioglu, who is a composer, should have everything to do with the music that accompanies the lesson video. I believe that the selection of the music has something to do with both Misirlioglu’s personal intuition and the cultural/historical aspects of Tolstoy’s work.
3. Brainstorming and analyzing ideas
As a collaborative work, brainstorming and analyzing ideas must have been done in a much more solid collaboration between the three experts of different areas of expertise. Each could have done personal brainstorming as well as analysis prior to the collaborative one. In this stage, Pelsue, Smith and Misirlioglu worked together to combine ideas and perspectives related to the defined problem to produce a single fine design product, which would be a lesson video on “Why you should read Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’?”.
Pelsue began to work on the collected information to produce a clear and concise video narration in the form of a review. Smith began to sketch, and take other preparatory actions related to animation. While Misirlioglu began to think about the most appropriate soundtrack. In a word, the three experts began to make rough drafts/scaffolding and study things so they could start to understand how all the data and information they had collected may impact their design.
Part of the Design and Development would be designing and developing solutions for the problem. In this case, ideas should have been put into something more experiential. Multiple versions of the same lesson videos could have been created, which might include rough cuts and refined cuts. Again, all these should have been done collaboratively.
I believe as part of the Implementation and Evaluation is uploading the video on the TED-Ed Lessons website to be used for teaching and learning, and at the same time, allowing teachers to create and customize a lesson alone is a great opportunity to gather feedback (insightful comments) and reflect on all the feedback, and decide if or to what extent it should be incorporated for more improvements. In fact, TED-Ed Lessons website intends to support teachers and spark the curiosity of learners around the world (http://ed.ted.com/about).
Evaluation of the product
TED-Ed videos are downloadable from the website for curiosity fulfillment, for a personalized library or for using the lesson videos for teaching in the classroom. I found that the animation and the speaker’s light voice with its unique tone in every single lesson video show intellectual, professional and pedagogical ability. The narrative spoken in every single video is also composed to be as clear and concise as possible and it perfectly creates a not-boring audio visual learning multimedia. It comprehensively provides valuable information about a topic or an idea. “Video is a rich and powerful medium being used in e-learning. It can present information in an attractive and consistent manner” (Zhang, Zhou, Briggs, & Nunamaker Jr., 2006), this could be one of the reasons why this website use videos as its main tool for delivering lessons.
In particular, the lesson video on “Why you should read Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’?” as the focus of this design deconstruction appears to me as highly intellectual and praiseworthy. It is definitely an exemplary successful collaboration of a knowledgeable educator, a professional animator and a gifted composer. I also found it much more encouraging to continue the work on developing and implementing the teaching of English using TED-Ed Lessons videos, particularly in my home institution. In fact, I have downloaded hundreds of them from the website and now I am thinking of re-writing all the videos’ narrations. How the ‘subtitle/close caption’ button works is in fact a new finding during this design deconstruction process. According to Vanderplank in Zanón (2006), “many studies have suggested that ‘far from being a distraction and a source of laziness, subtitles might have a potential value in helping the learning acquisition process by providing learners with the key to massive quantities of authentic and comprehensible language input.”
Putting the video narration in a reading text and finding out the high relevance regarding the general features of reviews as a text type is absolutely exhilarating. It verifies and validates the lesson video for implementation in language classrooms. What is much more fascinating about it is the possibility to develop a language curriculum that authentically integrates the four language skills through the use of lesson videos from TED-Ed Lessons website. The combination of audio, visual (animated pictures/graphic), and text is highly relevant for language teaching to enhance students’ learning on the major four language skills (reading, writing, and listening that can be developed into speaking practice). “A great advantage of video is that it provides authentic language input (Cakir, 2006).
Work cited
Cakir, I. (2006). The use of video as an audio-visual material in foreign language teaching classroom. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 5(4).
Colpaert, J. (2006). Pedagogy-driven design for online language teaching and learning. CALICO journal, 477-497.
Zanón, N. T. (2006). Using subtitles to enhance foreign language learning. Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras, (6), 4.
Zhang, D., Zhou, L., Briggs, R. O., & Nunamaker, J. F. (2006). Instructional video in e-learning: Assessing the impact of interactive video on learning effectiveness. Information & management, 43(1), 15-27.
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