Ken

This video segment from Wide Angle features Ken, a third grade student in Japan.

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Abraham Lincoln: A Good Man? or A Good Man!

In this lesson, students use video from American Masters: Bill T. Jones: A Good Man along with primary sources to investigate the life of Lincoln and write a one page argument essay on whether Lincoln was "a good man."

Agony of Defeat

Students are asked to explain how forces and motion affect the skier in the film.

American Stories: Teens and Immigration

In this lesson designed to enhance literary skills, students explore the experience of four teen immigrants to the United States.

Analyzing and Comparing Perspectives on Issues - Gorillas

Students compare and contrast their perspectives on raising gorillas in captivity with their peers and with scientists. They summarize their perspectives and the perspectives of others.

Analyzing an Issue From Three Perspectives - Smoking in Public Places

Students note various perspectives on the debate about smoking in public places in NYC and create an interview to research the perspectives of peers and community members. They write a report to present their findings and opinion on the issue.

Animal Shelter Photographer

In this WILD TV segment, a photographer helps find homes for animals up for adoption.  

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Bamboo Mountain

In this video segment from Nature, researchers study pandas in an effort to halt their decline in population.

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Baseball and Social Change: The Story of Roberto Clemente

In this lesson designed to enhance literary skills, students explore how a culture changes as new groups of people enter it, focusing on the experiences of baseball player Roberto Clemente and the influence of Latino culture in the United States.

Bees

In this video segment from WILD TV, learn about bees and the different techniques for handling them.  

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Building the Erie Canal

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students look at how the construction of the Erie Canal brought about major changes within United States, particularly in New York City, upstate New York, and the Midwest.

Building the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the pyramids of ancient Egypt, the pyramids' role in Egyptian society, and historians' theories about how the Egyptians were able to build these massive structures.

Bullying

In this lesson designed to enhance literary skills, students think about the impact of bullying on individuals' rights in a democratic society.

Cancer - A New Treatment

In this segment from Curious, Mark Davis is motivated to develop a new, less debilitating treatment for his wife's cancer.

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Cats - Yesterday and Today

In this video segment from Nature, discover the various roles the cat has played in our history.

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Cause and Effect Relationships - Silence of the Bees

Students write an essay that synthesizes the cause and effect relationship the disappearance of bees will cause.

A Character's Perspective - Colonial House

Students watch a video segment that shows the reactions of colonists and native people when they encounter one another for the first time during a colony settlement reenactment. Students then select a character and write a letter from that character’s point of view that describes the meeting.

Character Change: The Diary of Anne Frank

In this lesson designed to enhance literary skills, students examine how Anne Frank's character changed while she was in hiding from the Nazis in World War II.

Character Conflict: Language Immersion

In this lesson designed to enhance literary skills, students explore conflict as a plot device through the story of Moises, a fictional young immigrant to the United States.

Character Development: Cancer - A New Treatment

Students will answer questions about what motivated chemical engineer Mark Davis to search for a better treatment for his wife's cancer. They then complete a journal entry in which they compare his motivations and goals to those they’ve established for themselves.

Character Motivation - Sapelo Island Culture

Students write a poem (using simile and flashback) about the culture of Sapelo Island. They read their poems for an audience.

City Horses Part II

In this video segment from Wild TV, riders discuss the benefits of coming to the Cedar Lane Stables in New York City.

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Collecting and Organizing Facts From Multiple Sources - Flowering Plants

Students take notes on two videos about flowering plants and organize the information to write a cohesive essay about the topic.

Collective Improvisation

In this video segment from Jazz at Lincoln Center, jazz musicians perform an example of collective improvisation.

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The Columbian Exchange

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students explore the movement of plants, animals, and diseases that characterized the Columbian Exchange and learn how it changed the world.

Community Garden

Orville Edwards describes how community gardens help improve the quality of life in the city in this video segment from WILD TV.

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A Community of People Now

In this video segment from the documentary American Masters: Bill T. Jones: A Good Man, Bill T. Jones struggles to find meaning and relevancy for the life of Abraham Lincoln in today’s social and political landscape.

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Compare and Contrast Information from Multiple Sources - Wolong's Pandas

Students compare and contrast information from three sources to determine the reasons that contributed to panda population decline.  They draw conclusions from these sources by writing their own paragraphs.

Comparing and Contrasting - Explorers of Yesterday and Today

Students write essays that compare and contrast two explorers of Yellowstone National Park, Tom Murphy, a modern day explorer and photographer and John Colter, an explorer who traveled across the same area almost 200 years ago.

Comparing and Contrasting Information and Forming an Opinion - Santiago and Morris

Students use a T-Chart to take notes and then write a compare/contrast paragraph about a therapy dog.

Condense, Combine or Categorize New Information - Your Brain and Moral Decision-Making

Students watch a video showing an experiment on how the brain responds when making moral decisions. They then synthesize information to create a summary paragraph that describes the experiment and the conclusions presented.

Conflict Over Western Lands

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students explore how the differing worldviews of white settlers and Native Americans led to conflicts over land when Americans surged westward in the 1860s.

Connections Between Texts - Maya Lin and Jane Jacobs

Students write and perform a Readers’ Theater script in which two characters, Maya Lin and Jane Jacobs, talk to each other about their ideas about architecture and life.

Connections to Personal Experiences - Bees? Yikes!

Students make connections between a video about bees and their own personal experiences through a poem written for two voices.

Continental Drift: What's the Big Idea?

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn how the theory that explains the position of Earth's continents was established and later modified, and gain important insights into how science and the scientific community operate.

Creating a Hypothesis - The Intelligent Robot

Students watch a video segment that discusses developing intelligent robots, and then write paragraphs that provide detailed hypotheses of results that could come from this endeavor.

Creating Literary Texts - Finding Homes for Pets

Students write and illustrate a persuasive book to convince readers to adopt a pet.

The Cuban Crab Migration

In this video segment from Nature, crabs face numerous obstacles in their migration from their forest home to the Caribbean Sea.

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Debate Begins

A third grade class in Wuhan province, China holds debates for the election of class monitor in this segment from Independent Lens. 

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Describing Characters - Cloud Grows

Students learn about characterization by studying and taking notes on the growth of a white stallion.

Designing a Poster to Communicate Information: Yellowstone National Park

While watching a short video segment about Yellowstone National Park, students take notes they later use to create an interesting and infomative poster.

Determining Main Idea and Supporting Details - Wild in the City

Students use a graphic organizer to record important details and determine the main idea of a video segment. They use the organizer to write an informational paragraph about parakeets in the city.

Developing Supporting Ideas - A Garden Grows in Brooklyn

Students design and draw a garden and give reasons to support why their garden is important to the neighborhood.

A Different Kind of Fuel

In this segment from Curious, learn about creating energy from solar rays to meet the growing energy needs of the world.

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The Dogon and the Dama

n this video segment from Africa, learn about the Dama, a rare event and rite of passage for the Dogon in Mali.

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Domesticated Pigeons

This video segment from WILD TV features a man who raises pigeons as a hobby.

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Drawing Conclusions - Miss Navajo

Students watch a video documenting the Navajo language portion of the Miss Navajo Nation beauty contest, determine the main responsibilities of the winner of Miss Navajo Nation and complete graphic organizers to write paragraphs that highlight these details and explain their inferences.

Drawing Conclusions and Comparing/Contrasting - The Everglades

Students take notes to determine the most important information given in a video segment and written text. They compare the information and draw written conclusions about the importance of studying the pig frog and the Everglades.

Energy Transfer in a Roller Coaster

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students examine energy forms in moving objects and discover how changes from one form to another move cars through a roller coaster ride.

Fact and Opinion: Parents, Teens, and Texting

In this lesson designed to enhance literary skills, students explore the debate between parents and teens over texting and interpret facts to form and support their opinions.