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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Watershed Documentary

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers research and produce an iMovie documentary about the human and natural history of a stream basin (watershed).
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Lesson Plan
Creative Visions Foundation

Studying Documentaries Like a Writer - Looking For Persuasive Techniques

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Creative Visions Foundation

Developing a Structure for Documentaries

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
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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Lesson Plan
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Smithsonian Institution

Students’ Response to 9/11—A Documentary Report

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young historians research the devastating attacks of 9/11 and use that information to script their own documentaries. The follow-up activity includes recording the documentary and conducting classmate interviews, 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

General Lesson Plan for Documentary Lens

For Teachers 7th - 12th
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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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Analyzing Documentary Videos: “Great Bear Rainforest Remote Camera Project” British Columbia, Canada

For Teachers 5th Standards
Lights, camera, action! Viewers discuss a video about the Great Bear Rainforest Remote Camera Project. As they watch, they find the gist, determine the meaning of unknown words, and analyze the features of a documentary as an...
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Lesson Plan
Creative Visions Foundation

Finalizing Films and Writing a Reflection

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Creative Visions Foundation

Writing and Developing Storyboards

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
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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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Reality Media?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Journalism in War Time: What Does the Public Need to Know?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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...
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Lesson Plan
Dream of a Nation

Read, Watch, Write for Pathos, Logos and Ethos

For Teachers 9th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Hot Docs

Docs for School: Viewing and Teaching Guide

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Teaching documentary in your class? Inform your instruction with a guide meant to support teachers as they begin with documentary. The resource includes information on what a documentary is as well as documentary modes, elements, and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Descending to the Challenge: Developing Documentaries About the Deep Ocean

For Teachers 7th - 12th
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 instructional activity on...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

War Story Documentary

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students research and create an aspect of a war. They practice on writing a bibliography and essays.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Documentary-Style Research Projects

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Show your pupils how to use guiding questions to help them focus their research into a topic. Using the framework provided by these questions, researchers explore a topic, collect interesting facts, and prepare a PowerPoint presentation...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Learning Network: Poetry Pairing July, 21, 2011

For Teachers 7th - 12th
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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Lesson Plan
1
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Dream of a Nation

Creating Awareness through Action Oriented Writing and Research

For Teachers 8th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

KS5 Film and Media Studies: Documentary

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Students generate their own definition of documetary. They watch and discusss a series of extracts that demonstrate the breadth of the documentary form. Students create a defintion of the term documentary that takes into account the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

People Behind the Parks

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Explore U.S. geography with your class by viewing a documentary. Show a portion of the Ken Burns documentary "The National Parks," and identify the individuals responsible for keeping the parks in order. Elementary and middle schoolers...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

United States Entry into World War I: A Documentary Chronology of World War I

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students identify several important events that led to U.S. involvement in World War I. They examine different explanations, form an opinion about the evidence for each rationale and then create a slideshow to present their findings.
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Lesson Plan
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PBS

Hemingway Educator Guide

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
A 17-page Educator Guide is designed to support classroom discussions of Ken Burns' documentary on Ernest Hemingway. The guide includes background information on Hemingway's life, the themes found in his works, essential and discussion...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Word Warriors: The Code Talkers of Oklahoma

For Teachers 9th Standards
The battle between code makers and code breakers has been going on for centuries and is a key tool of warfare. The contributions of the Native American Code Talkers of World Wars I and II are celebrated in a lesson that features a...
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Lesson Plan
BW Walch

Unexpected Family History

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The history of the northern states' involvement in the slave trade is not widely known. This resource uses the PBS documentary, Traces of the Trade, and the nonfiction book, Children of the New England Slave Trade, to examine this aspect...
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Lesson Plan
Agriculture in the Classroom

Farmland: GMOs and Organic Agriculture

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Learn more about genetic modification, organic farming, and the role of biotechnology in agriculture by watching a documentary that shows how newly gained knowledge can be applied to specific situations involving farmers and the choices...

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