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Teaching And Learning History Using Videos
OK every history teacher has moments when we throw a video in the machine. Half the class is on a school trip or having a jab. No need to feel guilty, so long as it’s not a cartoon to fill the time. Students learn from seeing. We all take in much more information through our eyes than our ears, and some of us very heavily so. BBC’s American Voices is superb on USA 1919-41. Jeremy Isaacs’ old Cold War is irreplaceable. But history teachers should not be showing videos as part of everyday teaching and learning without doing it properly. Turn on the screen and they slump. In their heads they’re at home on a sofa, brains turned off, eyes glazed. It’s hard to get them back on line when you switch off. Whatever value you tell yourself comes from a history video, they’ll only have vague, disconnected impressions of it when the examination arrives. We need better teaching strategies than this. The first rule for good teaching and learning is always to give them a sheet of questions to answer while they’re watching. There are four good reasons. First it makes you watch the film properly first, noticing the details and the possibilities for learning. Second it encourages them to watch attentively. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that young people can’t watch and write at the same time. I’ve seen hundreds of classes do it without any problem at all. Your questions should come steadily and get them to think, building the bigger picture as they go along. Too many questions or too difficult and they get discouraged. Too few and they stop bothering. Roughly one every 60-90 seconds is a good rule – that’s 20-30 questions in a 30 minute film. Judge your questions according to their ability. Vary, if necessary, according to class. The less able, the fewer questions. Third it gives them a record of what they’ve seen that they can use in exercises that follow and in revision. Fourth, films are much more complicated than they look. They have a lot of value you miss if you watch them superficially. I know. Before I went into teaching I made history films for 15 years. The second rule is that you don’t have to show whole films. It’s often better not to. Show them a sequence or two with just a couple of questions to think about. YouTube is an excellent resource. Here you can show them not edited documentaries but contemporary footage, evidence from the time. I have used YouTube extensively in teaching American Civil Rights at A Level. There’s nothing to compare with seeing news footage of Little Rock, the reporters crowding 15 year-old Elizabeth Eckford as she arrives, Bejamin Fine from the NY Times comforting her. Discuss it. What difference does it make that some of the pictures are a retake staged by CBS? What viewpoint does the 1957 commentary give? Kids love movies and they’ll plead with you to show them more. The third rule is little and often. Do it properly and history will be both challenging and fun. And that’s the aim. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Get more great ideas and free teacher resources at www.brillianthistory.co.uk/history-teacher-resources.php |
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