High School Teachers
Film clips for social studies classes
 1  to  10  of  22
    KARL GRUBAUGH3/2/2007 7:21 AM    

Hey, it's been a while. Hope your holidays were restful. Mine were, and then I cranked up for the end of the semester, and now, here we are in the middle of January.

So, let's start off the new year with something pragmatic and practical. We all know the power of images for our students, and we all have favorite films or clips we like to use in our classrooms. So, let's share a few that others might be able to use. I'll go first.

For U.S. history, I show multiple clips from "Pearl Harbor." I know the film was panned by the critics, but I skip the love story entirely. I've got the film on DVD, and I have a list I've created of the exact timing of the historical scenes I like to show. It allows me to do a sort of visual discovery lesson on U.S. entry into WWII, with accompanying footage. It also allow me to discuss the revisionist views about how much FDR knew about the attack before it happened, which always sparks a lively discussion.

So, how about you? What films and/or clips are you using in World History? U.S. History? Government? Economics?

Happy New Year.

Karl Grubaugh 

    Neil Murphy1/17/2007 8:18 AM    

Karl,

To be honest with you, i take a contrarian view on this. I don't like showing films because I feel that students get bored with them and they usually fall asleep.

I show 1 film In US I. I show "All Quiet on the western front" and i give them questions to answer for a grade. i find it to be successful because students can relate to it.

I agree that visual images are important and I use them in my class. But movies i think have a tendency of geting abused and overused. It seems to much like babysitting.

I am open of  course to differing opinions

Neil

    Julie Cremin1/21/2007 4:59 AM    
Hi all,

I think that a lot of us teachers are hesitant to use films because of the problem Neil mentioned. Plus, a lot of us sat through a lot of really long, really boring films as students -- and we don't see a lot of value in putting our own students through that trauma.

However, as Karl mentions, I think we have a really great opportunity to show our students SHORT and INTERESTING clips from films. My personal feeling is that the ideal clip is about five minutes long (and almost never longer than ten minutes!).

Here are a couple of short U.S. history ideas:
- Born on the 4th of July: show a short clip from the beginning of the film, showing an ideal Ron heading off to the Marines, then contrast that with a clip from the anti-war protests, etc. later on (like any R-rated movie, you will need to adhere with your district's guidelines for showing films, and will have to make sure not to show certain inappropriate scenes)
- The Century: America's Time: this ABC series, narrated by Peter Jennings, has a lot of great, short clips you can use throughout a 20th century U.S. History course
- It's A Wonderful Life: you can use the scene of the Charleston early in the film for the section on the Roaring Twenties, and you can use the scene where he saves his family's S&L when you're covering the run on the banks in 1929.
- The Patriot: use a short segment to show guerilla warfare during the American Revolution.

One of the features that TCI has begun including in it's programs (starting with our new 20th century U.S. history program "Pursuing American Ideals" that will be released this summer) is a "Using Film" section. There, we're suggesting clips from films for each lesson. We hope it'll be really helpful!

So, in the interest of providing teachers with really useful information, PLEASE, if you have any film ideas for government or economics, post them here. I will make sure to check this message board for ideas and pass them on to other developers as we are working on these programs (we've already started developing Government Alive!, and Economics Alive! is not far off).

Thanks,

Julie Cremin
Curriculum Developer
Teachers' Curriculum Institute
jcremin@teachtci.com
    Nicole Boylan1/22/2007 8:27 AM    

I too remember straining to stay awake during some long and dull films in high school!   I tried to keep this in mind as I chose film clips for my own classroom.

Like Julie, I liked using short clips and interspersing them throughout the lesson and/or unit.  I found that such clips led to powerful discussions and great writing assignments.  Still, since so many movies tend to simplify history (and often contain historical inaccuracies), I had to be careful about what I showed OR make sure that we discussed any inaccuracies in our debrief.

Here are some of my favorite clips from my World History and Global Studies/Geography classes:

Chinese history: the Last Emperor - the students loved the young emperor and the movie parallels modern Chinese history well.   I showed a short clip from each time period. 

Logging in the Amazon:  The Burning Season:  the story of Chico Mendes.  I showed short clips of each of the following interest groups:  rubber tappers, politicians, ranchers, executives of logging company, local loggers

Conflict in the Middle East:  Jerusalem Stories - narrated by Peter Jennings.  This documentary is fantastic - Jennings moves through three sectors of Jerusalem (a Jewish, a Palestinian, and a Christian sector) and interviews individuals/families in each.  The stories are personal and touching.  I usually showed one segment each day I taught this unit.

Ethnic cleansing in Africa:  Hotel Rwanda.  This is the only film that I showed in its entirety.  Since critics have said that the movie is filmed from a Tutsi perspective, I also  had students read a reflection from a Hutu mother.

I look forward to learning about other films that you have used!

Nicole Boylan
Curriculum Developer
Teachers' Curriculum Institute
nboylan@teachtci.com

    Neil Murphy1/22/2007 10:26 AM    

Nicole and Julie

Thank you both for your suggestions. I also suffered from seeing AWFUL long movies in high school, so I admit that give em a bias against movies as a pedgagical tool. Here are some comments

I like the born on the 4th of july suggestion for Vietnam. Makes a lot of sense

I don't teach anything before the Civil war but the other films are a good idea.

I subscribed to a website called "Teaching with Movies" it's only $20.00 a year and it gives questions for almost any film. It's really good. Google teaching with movies and you will find it. I reccomend it.

Overall, I agree that showing SHORT film clips is the key.  That is worth trying

Open to comments

Neil

    KARL GRUBAUGH1/26/2007 1:23 PM    

Hi Neil,

I, too, agree that there are some dogs out there that should never be shown in their entirety.

That said, I do use lots of clips and some longer pieces, depending on the content I'm trying to teach. For example, I use an ABC News piece by John Stossel called "Is America No. 1" to help students better understand different systems in my economics classes. It's about 45 minutes long.

But what I also do, for anything that's not a clip, is require that my students complete a film guide as they watch a film. Otherwise, some students will zone out and be completely disengaged.

. I love the "Teaching with Movies" suggestion. I'll check that out when I'm preparing a guide in the future.

Karl

    Jesse Dancy2/13/2007 12:37 PM    
Hi-

How do you make your "film guides"?

What kind of response does it ask for? I'm curious if you ask your students to review the film, or rate actors performances or anything like that.

Thanks,
    Anthony Braxton2/15/2007 5:56 AM    
Hey.. what do you think of the film clip test?

That is.. as a  supplemental assessment ... after teaching.. say... the Cuban Missile Crisis... get a copy of JFK by Oliver Stone.. show a scene where they President and his advisers are sitting around in the oval office discussing a range of options, etc. and then have your students make a T chart.   On one side.. things they observe to be probably true.. things they observed to not be true.  I've done this (I am admittedly a middle school specialist) with middle school kids as an opener for a unit on Early Humans.  I show a 15 minute (the entire episode if I am feeling like I want to score some kids love the teacher points or it's one of my fave episodes) clip of The Flintstones and have my students complete a T chart with the headings "Yeah - Early Humans Had/Did That" and "Yeah - Right.. No Way".   After teaching the unit we go back and look at our lists and well as re-viewing the clip to see if there are any changes we want to make.   Did your mind get going with the possibilities....?
    KARL GRUBAUGH2/20/2007 3:25 PM    

Hi Jesse,

I try to have a mix of recall, evaluative and analytical questions from the films. Sometimes, I also ask for a film review/critique. The final question is often to pose a thoughtful analytical question of their own, and then answer it.

What I want to do is make sure kids engage instead of check out during a film.

Karl

 

 

    Katie Ross2/21/2007 4:55 PM    

Thank you for all the wonderful movie clip suggestions. 

I show one movie in its entirety in my class.  Uncle Toms Cabin. 

One clip I find very effective is a scene in the HBO series Band of Brothers.  Its an intense clip that shows the storming of the beaches of Normandy.  I had a hard time getting my principal to approve it for use in my class but he agreed it would leave a lasting image.