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 instructional activity in the series, this plan...
Creative Visions Foundation
Finalizing Films and Writing a Reflection
Wrap up a documentary creation project with the final lesson plan 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...
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...
Curated OER
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.
Creative Visions Foundation
Developing a Structure for Documentaries
Provide some group brainstorming and story-planning time with the fifth lesson plan 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...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Descending to the Challenge: Developing Documentaries About the Deep Ocean
The video clip that comprises the warm up is not available, but the related article from The New York Times and the movie trailer for Aliens of the Deep are, leaving enough material to make this a fascinating lesson on deep-sea...
Dream of a Nation
Read, Watch, Write for Pathos, Logos and Ethos
Encourage your young citizens to make a difference. Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America as a starting point, class members watch documentaries, investigate issues, and then write letters to...
Curated OER
Phineas Gage: The Teenage Brain and Connections: Free Choice Activity
During this lesson, which is all about making connections, learners watch a documentary about the teenage brain and connect it to Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, their own lives, and the world.
Dream of a Nation
Creating Awareness through Action Oriented Writing and Research
Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth graders...
Described and Captioned Media Program
Malcolm X: Make It Plain, Part II
Track the transformation of Malcolm Little into Malcolm X and then into El Jajj Malik El-Shabazz with the second part of Make it Plain, a documentary on the famous civil rights activist. Viewers consider not only how events shaped and...
Described and Captioned Media Program
Malcolm X: Make It Plain, Part I
Malcolm X was a complicated man that few in white America understood. After sharing what they know or think they know about this civil rights leader, about nationalism and Black Nationalism, class members view a two-part documentary...
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...
PBS
Journalism in War Time: What Does the Public Need to Know?
A viewing of the documentary War Feels Like War, launches an exploration of the importance of accurate and comprehensive war reporting. Groups investigate various news agencies and assess the factors that influence their stories. A...
Curated OER
Active Viewing: Savage Acts
Based on the documentary film Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs, and Empire, this activity explores concepts of National interests and imperialism. They view sections of the film and share which images exemplify the meaning of each vocabulary...
K20 LEARN
The Parched Plains: Weather And Climate
How do meteorologists differentiate between droughts and dry spells? Introduce the concepts of weather forecasting and prediction with an insightful research-based lesson from the K20 series. Partners synthesize individual research from...
Curated OER
Fish Stories
Students conduct background research about a Pacific Rim country to develop a premise for a documentary film about the fate of traditional fishing industries in the area.
Channel Islands Film
Arlington Springs Man: Lesson Plan 3
Imagine being part of a team of scientists that discover the oldest human remains in North America. Imagine being part of the crew that documents this discovery. Class members get a change to be part of such an exciting adventure in a...
Curated OER
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...
Facing History and Ourselves
Emmett Till: Examining the Choices People Made
The choices made by Roy Bryant and J.W. Millam, the men who murdered Emmett Till in 1955, are usually the ones people ponder when they examine the case. But other individuals made choices that contributed to the event and its subsequent...
Curated OER
Looking for a Windshield Experience
Learners identify American geography by participating in a national parks activity. In this road trip instructional activity, students view the Ken Burns documentary "National Parks" and identify the importance of automobiles in the park...
Curated OER
Entertaining Films: Vocabulary Skills
In this online interactive vocabulary skills worksheet, students answer 10 fill in the blank questions regarding entertaining films. Students may submit their answers to be scored.
Curated OER
Making Good Decisions
Students explore the consequences of their actions. In this personal choices lesson, students practice balancing different interests involved in compromise. This lesson includes downloadable materials and 2 extension activities.