ABSTRACT
Hollywood films contain unique features that both add to and detract from their validity as secondary sources. This chapter presents one teacher's use of The Alamo as a secondary source. With many of the cases presented in this book, this teacher's lesson was not limited exclusively to the focus of this chapter. Mr. Hector also used The Alamo to develop students' historical empathy and to bring the past alive. However, his primary purpose was to teach students about the struggle for control of Texas with the movie as a secondary source. In this case, he successfully demonstrates film as a secondary source by choosing an appropriate film that is relatively true to the historical record, by carefully preparing his lessons with research on the time period and the film, and by developing activities with The Alamo that thoroughly support student learning about the fight for Texas and focus students on how to use film as a secondary source more broadly.
