Creative Visions Foundation
Production: Filming
After viewing and analyzing documentaries and working in groups to storyboard and prepare, your class should now be ready for the production stage of the documentary process. The eighth lesson in the series, this plan provides...
Creative Visions Foundation
Finalizing Films and Writing a Reflection
Wrap up a documentary creation project with the final lesson in this series. Class members reflect on their learning and compose responses to four questions relating to what they learned, whey they would do differently, and how the group...
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...
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Reality Film
Students propose and create documentary films depicting a slice of "ordinary" life that reveals something unique or surprising about its subject. They, in groups, make films and present them to the school.
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...
Creative Visions Foundation
Developing a Structure for Documentaries
Provide some group brainstorming and story-planning time with the fifth lesson in a series on examining and creating documentaries. After you've explained the purpose of each section of a documentary, groups meet to plan the beginning,...
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Reality Media?
Yeah, but is it real? Clips from the famous documentary film series 56 UP launches an examination of the differences between reality television and documentaries. After considering the characteristics of each format, class members...
Apple
A Curriculum for Digital Media Creation
Consumer technology has made it possible for filmmakers to create entire movies from the comfort of their home computer. Guide high school film buffs through the process of designing a documentary with an extensive unit published by...
Creative Visions Foundation
Writing and Developing Storyboards
Storyboarding is an essential part of planning a film. Introduce your class to storyboarding and allow groups time to plan out their documentaries in this sixth lesson in a series about creating documentaries. Class members review an...
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The Learning Network: Poetry Pairing July, 21, 2011
Although not a complete lesson plan, this set of emotionally powerful texts could be used in a variety of lessons. From The New York Times' Learning Network site, the resource includes a poem, an excerpt from a New York Times article and...
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Films That Make A Difference in History Lesson Plans
Showing films or other types of media in the classroom is a great way to bring history lesson plans alive.
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Looking for a Windshield Experience
Students identify American geography by participating in a national parks activity. In this road trip lesson, students view the Ken Burns documentary "National Parks" and identify the importance of automobiles in the park system....
Creative Visions Foundation
Introduction to Pre-production: Developing Ideas
Continue with creating documentaries with the fourth lesson in a series. After explaining the concept of preproduction, send groups off to make some decisions about their films. Groups can use the handout and the four provided questions...
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Growing up in Las Vegas; Memories of Childhood in the Neon City
Students investigate the history of Las Vegas through conducting interviews. In this oral history lesson, students locate and speak with older residents of Las Vegas in order to gain a better understanding of the city....
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Ballou High School Marching Band Documentary Lesson Plans
Students examine the journey of the Ballou Marching Band. In this America's Promise lesson, students read about Colin Powell and examine the history of America's Promise. Students explore the Five Points of the program and then watch a...
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Las Vegas: We Are Just Like You
Students practice making multimedia documentary films by investigating cities of America. In this U.S. geography lesson, students examine Las Vegas and compare the state of Nevada to 15 other states and discuss their main...
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Hollywood and Higher Learning
Students watch a varietry of films showing college life. In groups, they take different scenerios from the films and determine how they would have reacted. As a class, they discuss more in depth the issues they might face in college. ...
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Making Movie Storyboards
Young scholars explore the importance of images in telling a story in film, analyze movie clips and identify some visual cues that help them explain the story; students work collaboratively to storyboard a passage from a book and present...
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This is America
Students explore world geography by viewing a documentary film in class. In this national parks lesson, students view the Ken Burns documentary about the subject and identify the contributions of individuals in support of the parks...
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What Make Good Reality Television?
Young scholars brainstorm what they believe makes a good reality TV show. Students compile a set of attributes that they feel distinguishes the best of the reality TV shows from the others. Using the attributes that the class agrees...
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Facing Reality
Students explore social issues that are meaningful to them and create documentaries in which they share their information, thoughts and impressions.
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The Candid Camera
Students examine the influence of photographer Jerome Liebling on documentary films. They read and discuss an article, take photographs, and create an original photo essay and artist statement.
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The Fog of War
Students view the film Fog of War and discuss the most striking elements of the film. They focus on chosen lessons from robert McNamara's life such as: empathy, rationality and proportionality.