Application to Practice 1: The Power of Film

For a content area as vast, detailed and varied as World History, wherever a teacher can find a useful tool to enrich the content she should grab it! Film can be a powerful tool and create a more powerful image or complete picture of a subject that a typical classroom may not be able to. One area where i have found success with this is in teaching Western Imperialism in Japan in a a 9th grade World History class.
Japanese history played an important role in its eventual rise to power and understanding where Japan came from was essential for my students to be able to see just how remarkable their rise to power was. I used the video, Memoirs of a Secret Empire Episode 3 "Alien Barbarians" to provide the students with some more vivid background information. The entire episode was 40 minutes long, but I pulled only a fifteen minute segment from it. The students had a handout to follow along with, containing questions only necessary for its tie to imperialism (not too many questions and your students will not be able to watch the video). I stopped every five minutes or so to ask a check for understanding question. The video was excellent, it was narrated through letters written by visitors to the Tokogawa empire and also educated Japanese living under the empire as well. It was a great, engaging, and easy fifteen minute way to catch my students up on the long history of Japan.

In general, for a great film selection, including educational, documentary and traditional, having a netflix online account has ben an invaluable tool. You can access PBS, BBC,  and the History Channel videos. Another less thought of location to find great films for the classroom is your school's library or your local county library.

Film can be a great way to bring history to life but like anything has a time and a place in a classroom. Before you present a film to a class, be sure that you have watched it several times and know exactly where you will need to pause it, and where the answers to the questions on your organizer are. The film is not meant to trick the students, its meant to supplement and enrich their learning, so be helpful wherever you can.