Curated OER
Film Festival: Documentaries for Hispanic Heritage Month
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, the New York Times provides links to five short documentary films depicting Hispanic themes and culture. Learners can click on each embedded link to view the films, then answer each set of related...
Creative Visions Foundation
Studying Documentaries Like a Writer - Looking For Persuasive Techniques
Revisit the documentaries viewed in the previous lesson in this series in order to take a look at the persuasive techniques employed by the documentary creators. Small groups watch the films a second time, taking notes on two provided...
Curated OER
General Lesson Plan for Documentary Lens
Use this general lesson guide to inform your instruction surrounding a documentary. The lesson is made up of five activities. The activities are intentionally general because they are designed to adapted for specific films. While the...
Teaching Tolerance
Film Festival
Everybody's a critic—even your pupils! Using the included resources as a guide, screen films related to social justice and ask film enthusiasts to critique them. Publish the reviews for your school community or develop a film festival...
Curated OER
Motion Picture Analysis Worksheet
In this motion picture analysis worksheet, students decipher what type of motion picture they viewed based on a complete list of criteria. Students then answer multiple questions based on their discoveries.
Curated OER
Picturing a Story: Photo Essay About a Community, Event, or Issue
Students research Dorothea Lange's documentary projects and create their own photo essay about a subject. In this photo essay lesson, students analyze examples of social-documentary photographs of Lange. Students define a social...
Curated OER
The Photographs of Dorothea Lange
Young scholars research social-documentary photography using Dorothea Lange’s documentary projects. In this photography analysis lesson, students analyze examples of photographs by Dorothea Lange and research one or more of Dorothea...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Picturing a Story: Photo Essay about a Community, Event or Issue
Picture this. Class members follow in the footsteps of W. Eugene Smith, Dorothea Lange, James Nachtwey, and Lewis Hine by creating their own photo essay about a local event or issue.
Curated OER
Race, Culture, And Identity in Daughter From Danang (Part 1)
Students examine cultural identity. They watch the PBS documentary, 'Daughter From Danang,' answer discussion questions, and write an essay regarding the characters ethnicities and stereotypes portrayed in the film.
Curated OER
Jazz and Math: The Beat Goes On
Students collect real data through listening, counting and timing jazz pieces.They use ratios, rates, and proportions to report collected data and demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of rhythm and tempo in music.
Curated OER
A Walk Through Time
Students investigate the types of footwear worn during ten periods of history. In this secondary, art/math/social studies lesson, students view documentaries and popular films to study the time periods. Students research the type of...
Curated OER
Cultural Representation in "Spellbound" Part 1
High schoolers watch the film "Spellbound". They analyze concepts of how the media represents race. They discuss how the movie depicts race after the film.
Curated OER
Race, Culture, And Identity in Daughter From Danang (Part 2)
Students examine cultural identity. They watch and discuss the second half of the PBS documentary, 'Daughter From Danang,' and write an essay addressing ethnic and cultural identity and how a film would portray their own cultural identity.
Curated OER
Culture Representation in "Spellbound" Part 2
Students watch the film "Spellbound". They examine how the film represents race. They analzye contemporary media to examine how they represent race as well.
Curated OER
Ivanov Goes to Moscow
Students complete a unit on the play, "Ivanov" by Chekhov. They read and analyze the play, write a short story, watch a film of the play, complete a data sheet, and conduct a debate.
University of Southern California
Coming to America After the War
As part of their exploration of the American dream, class members examine primary source materials to compare immigrant experiences of those arriving early in our country's history to those arriving in the US after World War II. To...
Curated OER
Jazz in America Lesson Plan 7
The student will explore free jazz, fusion, and contemporary jazz. They will listen to avant garde, fusion, and pop recordings. In addition, they participate in a class discussion regarding jazz's contribution to and reflection of...
Curated OER
"Jazz is About Freedom": Billie Holiday's Anti-lynching Song Strange Fruit
Working in small teams, learners analyze a variety of primary source materials related to lynching (news articles, letters written to or written by prominent Americans, pamphlets, broadsides, etc.) in order to assess the effectiveness of...