Help students gain a critical understanding of today’s pressing social issues using clips from POV’s award-winning documentaries from around the world. Whether engaging students in group research activities or helping them explore complex questions around media literacy through collaborative conversations, POV’s lesson plans offer rigorous entry-points to the study of critical social issues and put a personal face on social, historical, political and cultural topics.
Want to learn more about POV’s educational resources? Meet us in person at NCSS and NCTE! Come chat at our poster session at NCSS on Saturday, November 14 or our NCTE poster session on November 21 at 9:30am. Keep up with us on Twitter by following @povengage and using the hashtags #NCSS15 and #NCTE15.
We’ve highlighted some of our resources from this past season, specifically for teachers of English and Social Studies, below.
Lesson Plan: The Role of Storytelling in the Justice System
Features streaming clips from Out in the Night.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Know the legal definition of “self-defense” in their state.
- Understand that stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination influence the way the law is applied.
- See at least three different presentations of the same evidence and consider how each influences the way they think about guilt and innocence.
- Discuss the influence of media reporting on criminal prosecution.
- See an example of real-life consequences of homophobia, racism and sexism (including the common practice of men “cat-calling” or verbally harassing women on the street).
- Write short, persuasive essays.
- Practice note taking
GRADE LEVELS: 10-12
Lesson Plan: Evaluating Political Arguments with Community-based Evidence
Features streaming clips from The Overnighters.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Analyze the logic of the political proposal that government welfare programs should be replaced by private charity.
- Evaluate evidence supporting and undermining the proposal, including evidence from a real-life situation involving people in need.
- Evaluate a counterargument.
- Write well-documented pro and con statements about the proposal.
- Develop a basic understanding of the social problems that arise from the economic boom times that fracking has brought to North Dakota’s Bakken shale region.
GRADE LEVELS: 9-12, College
Lesson Plan: Child Welfare and the Assessment of “Good Parenting”
Features streaming clips from Tough Love.
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Examine how child welfare agencies make determinations about “good parenting”
- Compare and critique child welfare approaches to working with vulnerable families
- Formulate thoughts and ideas for supporting vulnerable parents and their children to maintain positive family structures
GRADE LEVELS: 10-12
Lesson Plan: Investigating Internet Addiction
Features streaming clips from Web Junkie.
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Examine claims of Internet addiction
- Conduct research about peer online time
- Reflect on the impact of their own online habits
GRADE LEVELS: 8-12
Lesson Plan: News Writing, Target Audience and the Syrian Conflict
Features streaming clips from Return to Homs.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Become familiar with the current conflict in Syria
- Write news stories for a particular target audience
- Analyze the ways that target audiences influence the content and style of news reports
- Research and read background information on modern-day Syria
GRADE LEVELS: 9-12
Lesson Plan: Tea Time as Ritual
Features streaming clips from Tea Time.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Determine the value and impact of traditions/rituals
- Compare and contrast a range of cultural/personal traditions with tea time rituals
- Describe similarities across a range of traditions and rituals
GRADE LEVELS: 6-12
Lesson Plan: Comparing Civil Wars
Features streaming clips from Beats of the Antonov.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Know the “backstory” and outcome of the recent civil war in Sudan
- Analyze a key event in U.S. history by comparing Sudan’s civil war with the U.S. Civil War
- Read informational text
- Practice listening skills by using documentary film clips as information sources
- Write analytical essays
GRADE LEVELS: 9-12
Lesson Plan: Building a New Foundation
Features streaming clips from Neuland.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Reflect on their perceptions of immigrants and refugees
- Identify the challenges immigrants and refugees face in their homelands and in their new lands
- Recognize the common circumstances international immigrants and refugees face
- Reflect on what influences the paths immigrants and refugees take in their new lands
- Discuss how to support immigrants and refugees as they try to make new lives in new places
GRADE LEVELS: 9-12
Lesson Plan: Why Is It Illegal to Sell People?: Examining Human Rights and Modern-Slavery
Features streaming clips from The Storm Makers.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Understand some of the causes and results of human trafficking in Cambodia
- Compare current human trafficking practices and consequences with the slave trade that brought Africans to the United States
- Write essays
GRADE LEVELS: 11-12, College
Lesson Plan: War News in the Digital World: Real, Staged, or Both?
Features streaming clips from Point and Shoot.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Take on the role of “news director” to evaluate the accuracy and value of a news report
- Understand the difference between journalism and other storytelling methods
- Consider the characteristics of a good journalist (especially one assigned to cover an armed conflict)
- Reflect on the effects that action/adventure movies and TV shows have on real-life war
- Write short reflection essays or diary entries summarizing what they learned
- Look at how people represent themselves online and reflect on their own digital identities [optional]
GRADE LEVELS: 8-12
Lesson Plan: The Proverbial Activist: A Profile
Features streaming clips from Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case.
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Characterize the attributes of an activist
- Cite how an activist can sustain efforts to effect change
- Demonstrate and put into action their proclivities for activism
GRADE LEVELS: 9-12
Lesson Plan: Mental Illness and the Moral Compass
Features streaming clips from Art and Craft.
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- Identify and deconstruct various myths/stigma associated with people living with mental illness.
- Explore concepts of mental illness and culpability.
- Formulate ways to educate others about mental illness stigma.
GRADE LEVELS: 9-12, College
Lesson Plan: Telling Personal Stories Through Art
Features streaming clips from Cutie and the Boxer.
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Determine how and when art can be used as a vehicle for self-expression
- Analyze the impact of art as personal storytelling on the artist and those viewing the art
- Recognize the merits and potential difficulties of presenting aspects of self in art that the public experiences
- Assess the need to present self in art and employ the most appropriate presentation medium
GRADE LEVELS: 10-12, College
Lesson Plan: Blogging, Civic Engagement and the DREAM Act
Features streaming clips from Don’t Tell Anyone (No Le Digas a Nadie).
By the end of this lesson, students will:
- write blog posts and short reflections
- participate in online dialogue
- know the content and purpose of the DREAM Act and understand its place in the context of immigration reform debates
- reflect on blogging as a form of civic engagement
GRADE LEVELS: 9-12, College
Visit our local events calendar for a full list of events happening across the country and join our Community Network to host a screening of your own!