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Using Documentaries In The
Classroom ©2006 Frank W. Baker |
see also
Scriptwriting In The Classroom;
Visual literacy; TV/Video Production |
Special note:
this webpage includes contributions from school library media
specialists in Ohio and South Carolina. Thanks for your suggestions and
recommendations! Frank Baker
INTRODUCTION
This page is for teachers who may already use documentaries in instruction,
or those who wish to begin using them in the classroom. Like all media,
documentary producers have a point-of-view and it is up to the audience
(our students) to be able to deconstruct it and understand all of the
techniques used which make docs believable.
Using docs in instruction can get your students
thinking critically and help
them better understand both "media literacy"
and "the
language of film."
If you are not already familiar, you should read/download:
- the
core concepts of media literacy
- the critical thinking/viewing questions
- more
questions from the curriculum "Know TV"
Some questions for your students to consider:
- what is a documentary?
- who creates them and for what purposes?
- what are the steps/stages to getting docs written/produced?
- how are they distributed; where might you find them?
- how do docs differ from other films?
- what techniques are used in documentaries that may not be used elsewhere?
- who are the audiences for docs?
- where can you go to see them?
Recommended resources:
NEW:
Teacher guide to PBS "Documenting the
Face of America'"
SnagFilms gives documentaries an online outlet
Using Documentary Film as An
Introduction to Rhetoric
Looking at Ken
Burns' THE
WAR through a media literacy lens
Teaching Film and TV Documentary (BFI, 2007)
Documentary Filmmakers’
Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use
Making Television
Matter: How Documentaries Can Engage and Mobilize Communities
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The Documentary Makers: Interviews with 15 of the Best in the Business |
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KNOW TV
(documentary and non-fiction TV)
Documentary, a
History of the Non-Fiction Film (2nd revised edition, 1993)
Documentary in American Television-
Form, Function, Method (Communication Arts Books) (1979)
Some popular TV networks which feature documentaries:
 A&E/Biography |
 Current TV |
 Discovery Channel & related networks |
 The Documentary Channel (US) |
 Documentary Channel (Canada) |
 HBO Watch It & Learn |
 History Channel (US) |
History TV (Canada) |
 Ind Film Channel |
 National Geographic Channel |
 Sundance Channel |
PBS: American Masters FRONTLINE Independent Lens Nature NOVA POV |
Some recent docs that teachers report using with students:
Lesson plans:
Documentaries:
Searching for Truth
Digital Kids:
Have
your students become recorders of reality and create documentaries
Recommended websites:
Website:
Documentary Filmmaking for Teens (UnderstandMedia.com)
Website: Center for Documentary Studies
Essay:
Documentaries: Another Way to Read
Website: Documentary Is
Never Neutral
List of
previous
Oscar Winning Documentaries
Website:
History of documentaries (Museum of Broadcast Communications)
Wikipedia's page on
documentaries
Resources for acquiring
documentaries:
A&E/Biography/History
BFI (British Film
Institute)
California
Newsreel
Cambridge
Discovery Channel
(US)
Documentary Channel (US)
Docurama
Films for the
Humanities & Sciences
Independent Film
Channel
Media
That Matters
MEF (Media Education Foundation)
National Film Board
of Canada
PBS Video
Teaching Tolerance
WGBH
WNET/Thirteen
Recommended readings:
From Banished to
Brother Outsider, Miss Navajo to
An Inconvenient Truth: Documentary Films
as Perspective-Laden Narratives
Exemplary Introductory Critical Media Literacy Documentaries
Recommended periodicals:
International
Documentary Magazine
Filmmaker
IFQ Independent Film
Quarterly
Indie Slate
Real Screen
Vertigo
