All Ages History Videos for kids?

[missbee23]

History is a hard subject for kids who have trouble reading. I was always pretty good at studying through books, but I especially remember the times we watched video documentaries. We watched the entire Eyes on the Prize series about the American Civil Rights Movement in the 50's. It affected me profoundly, and I remember being moved to tears. I still remember those scenes to this day (20+ years later).

I think watching videos for history is a very important supplement to book learning. I would like my kids to learn about history, and I would like to know of other important historical documentaries that are worth watching. Thanks!

 

[shandrum]

I am a teacher for children with special needs at the K-5 level who are all academic. Many of my students are of normal intelligence, but have reading deficits. I am always looking for material to supplement my teaching since many science, social studies, and history text books are written a grade level or more above the actual grade. So, naturally struggling readers are not going to be successful reading the text, much less understanding it. So, I pull many leveled readers, in addition to many videos and supplemental material from Discovery Education. I also use Bill, The Science Guy, The Magic School Bus, Scholastic, and Brain Pop/Brain Pop Junior. I also do many web searches for Interactive Read Alouds. Discovery Education has many documentaries for grades K-12. I'm not sure what the cost is to gain access to this site. My school district has invested the funds for all educators to have access to Discovery Ed. But, if interested, it would be worth looking into the cost. You can find documentaries on any topic you want to present to your students. The site also breaks down material for all grade levels.

 

[toradrake]

Videos are great because they bring the subject to life, plus the student does not feel like they are learning. They feel like they are watching a movie. I learned more from watching videos then from my teachers most of the time when I was in class. I used to have a collection of history videos that I myself enjoyed but I lost them all when my computer decided to die on me.

 

[Susie]

The video that immediately comes to mind for teaching American history is "Liberty Kids". It used to be a Saturday morning cartoon years ago but it's now off the air. It's available via DVD and on occasion you can find it on Amazon for as low as $5.

Another one we have watched and enjoyed is "Dear America". This is a series that focuses on teenage girls who live in different periods of American history. It is a live action drama show and each episode was about 30 minutes.

 

[Krrizal]

History.com is a great place to start out, but I also highly recommend John Green's Crash Course videos on Youtube!

 

[hafiz93]

Yes, I also think video will help in learning history. The thing that make students almost allergic to learn history is because all the memorizing that needs to be done. All the dates, the names, the era, it's all not easy to keep tabs on. Granted, video will not make them immediately memorizes all of it, but it's more efficient in making them more interested in learning history.

 

[SirJoe]

I think documentaries are a great way for kids to learn, most people are visually orientated and if they can see the events unravel themselves in front of them they will remember them better. I don't know why many schools don't use this tool more.

 

[briannagodess]

I do think History videos can be a great way of teaching kids about history. From where I am, we have lots of documentary series that we can use whenever we want to teach our kids about the history of our country. Aside from that, there's a kids oriented show called "Hiraya Manawari" and although it's ended now, you can still buy the DVDs and let your kids watch them. It teaches a lot about history by telling the story of our heroes and how we came to independence. It's a great tool for teaching kids about our own history.

For other histories, I know of these:

• Smithsonianmag.com
• History.co.uk
• History.com
• Khan Academy
• Havefunwithhistory.com
• Ted lessons of history

Good luck!

 

[remnant]

As a matter of fact, I don't see a better method of teaching history than using videos. They expose students to the person and persona of the historical figures in the videos in three dimensions. This is a good memory aid and stimulates an interest to delve more into the subject. It reinforces what learners have viewed in videos when they revise. Video teaching is an emerging area of what I refer to as educational entertainment.

 

[fcuco]

There are a lot of good quality, well produced and well researched YouTube history videos, there is a lot of rubbish too, but some are amazing, I suggest you look into the Crash Course series, the World's History one in particular, here is the playlist:

You will quickly see that the production values are high and that it maintains a very academic and neutral tone while addressing controversial topics, and, trust me, they address those too with rigor.

There are ways to download youtube videos if you don't have internet access in your classroom.

 

[ElectorAlexander]

I learned most of my history from three sources, I am not a degree holding in history but I can proudly compete with anyone one who studied it as a course in the University, I started to learn history from my quest to uncover truth about human existence, I called it science history and my father who was an officer of the law was at my side to guide me, followed by my books reading and lastly videos which I give all credit to YouTube and other helping sources I can't remember right now. Learning history through videos is awesome.

 

[junrose123]

I learned history videos when I was in college because that was the time that our professor teach us on that way which I really find to be interesting and convenient because it really stick in my mind and very hard to forget. Unlike when I was in high school that our history subject was just more on theory and verbal speaking in class. I just realized that it was really good to study history if it has some film or video learning since it it is very easy to catch those things that happened in the past.

 

[ElectorAlexander]

Yeah i think if the professor can also take out time to give a more explanation on a video he asked his students to watch it will make a good interactive class.

 

[bravosi]

History videos are great! Myself I found that I learn history better from videos and videogames than actual lessons.

 

[Philip David]

I like history videos. It will make history class very easy for kids.

 

[ElectorAlexander]

Yeah well said, I will teach History and I will introduce what u have learnt from this forum so my students can excel well in class. Videos are great and beneficial for learning.

 

[gogxmagog]

there is a wealth of great documentary material online. YouTube has thousands of documentaries with new ones being uploaded every day. I regularly search "history documentary" on YouTube and my feed's homepage is suggesting dozens of docs all the time.

This is not to say everything they have is particularly engaging. There are plenty of poorly done ones as well, slide shows with computer voice narration and the likes, but a cursory look at what you find will usually enable you to weed out the junk.

Depending on the era and what the focus of your studies may be there are also many history videos that specialize on a particular aspect of an era. Many are very entertaining and suitable for a general audience. I have been watching "The Super Sizers go..." series recently. They are a couple who live and eat of a different era for a week, suffer the privations and wear the costumes and participate in the activities of the times then they see the effects of all this at a medical check up at the end. They have covered Roman Times, Medieval, Restoration, Victorian, French Revolution just to name a few.

They employ history experts and starred chefs to make sure everything is done accurately. They are both very charming and quite funny, the whole series is very entertaining and quite informative as well.

Mary Beard and Lucy Worsely also make good content. Look them up on YouTube, even if you find you cant use the films in class you will be entertained none the less.

 

[ElectorAlexander]

yeah, YouTube has a great content for history and most students should spend most of their browsing hours on them because it is educating and entertaining too.

 

[angeljpd06]

Audio-visual is good for the learners for them to learn easily. So I say that watching history will be effective to them.

 

[MelanthaKrasos]

Using videos as a means to catch student interest especially children are important. Younger children easily succumbed to the lure of videos since it is easily understood even for student who doesn't know how to read. One has to be careful though of the content allowed to watch since it might contain sensitive graphic and scenes.