Educational Videos and Full-Length Films

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The Media Center offers a variety of subscriptions to seamlessly integrate both video clips and full-length films into your teaching repertoire. These resources are available to support and enhance your curriculum with dynamic video content. Two additional resources are available for free with a Boston Public Library eCard.

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Classroom Video On Demand's Master Curriculum Video Collection serves the specific needs of students who are preparing for college by providing top-quality video across the entire secondary curriculum, including life skills and guidance.

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Feature Films for Education  “...offers hundreds of full-length feature films for educational instructional purposes. Brought to you in partnership with Global Eagle, this outstanding collection focuses on both current and hard-to-find titles, including dramas, literary adaptations, blockbusters, classics, science fiction, environmental titles, foreign films, social issues, animation studies, Academy Award® winners, and more."

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Swank Motion Pictures’ film streaming platform, Swank K-12 Streaming, offers exclusive access to the largest single library of feature films, documentaries and foreign films available to K-12 schools for instructional support.

Monday Medley: Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom

Good Morning and Happy Monday! 

Today's topic is...Graphic novels and/or comics and why they can be a valuable tool in delivering classroom instruction. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a graphic novel as, "a story that is presented in comic-strip format and published as a book." While the terms graphic novel and comic are sometimes used interchangeably, most often a graphic novel is longer in length and has a more complex plot than a comic. 

Why would someone want to use a graphic novel in the classroom? Consider the following, "Graphic novels are an engaging and popular form, and undoubtedly this has made the learning process that much more meaningful for the students. Graphic novelist Svetlana Chmakova explains the power of the graphic novel to resonate with readers by using the example of an author "render[ing] a charged silent moment that speaks volumes about the character's inner state just through their movements. If done right, a scene like that can hit home deeper than a text paragraph ever could." With categories ranging from biography and memoir,  business and career, history, how-to, inspired by myth, philosophy, politics, STEAM and more, there is literally something for everyone.  

Are you wondering how you can get started with graphic novels in your classroom? Look no further than the student reading app Sora, and the popular streaming media service Hoopla. If you are not interested in assigning a class text then your students can use Sora to borrow popular graphic novels without the need to remember a user name or password. High School teachers and students can sign in using CLEVER and easily add access to the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium, which the Flint Memorial Library is a part of. Use Hoopla if you want all of your students to have the ability to read the same graphic novel at the same time. If you need directions for setting up an account for Hoopla or Sora click on this link to the Media Center Website to get started. 

If  you are interested in reading reviews of graphic novels for teens then check out the Website No Flying No Tights. (The creator and Editor-in-chief of this Website works at the Brookline MA public library as a teen librarian!) When exploring the site, use the drop down menus below the search bar to filter results to titles for teens. Select genres or nonfiction categories to further filter your results. *Note that not all listed titles will be available from Sora or Hoopla. 

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Website has a page Using Graphic Novels in Education that contains some sample lessons using popular graphic novels. The Media Center has print copies of some of these titles. In addition, many are available through Sora or Hoopla. 

This photo shows some of the nonfiction graphic novels available through Hoopla. 

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Hughes, Janette, and Laura Morrison. "The evolution of teaching with graphic novels." Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, vol. 6, no. 2, 2014, p. 116+. Gale OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A425349584/PROF?u=mlin_n_northhs&sid=PROF&xid=eb9b4d62. Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

Merriam Webster. “Definition of GRAPHIC NOVEL.” Merriam-Webster.com, 2018, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/graphic%20novel. Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

(Photo by Miika Laaksonen on Unsplash)

Monday Medley: Newsela Resources for Anti-Racist Teaching and Instruction

 

Happy...Tuesday(?)

Sorry, not being at school put me out of the normal routine and I forgot to send this week's Monday Medley.

Newsela has a wealth of resources to explore around the topic of anti-racist teaching and instruction https://go.newsela.com/blackstudentsmatter.html and includes text sets that can be shared with your classes. These resources can be incorporated into our shared goals this year for educator evaluations. 

I hope that everyone has a restful Thanksgiving. One of the things I am grateful for, particularly this year, is that we work in a high school filled with educators who go above and beyond each and every day to provide a high quality educational experience for students. 

Thanks,

Kim

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Monday Medley: Teaching Online Masterclass

 

Hello Everyone,

Are you interested in improving your online instructional practices but don't have a lot of time? Good news! Infobase Classroom Video Master Curriculum Collection recently added a series of 61 very short videos (less than 5 minutes each) that can help. 

Here is a description of the series:
"There have been a lot of changes to the education and learning landscape over the past six months. While the education community is adapting rapidly to the landscape, there’s still a long way to go. Educators now more than ever are hungry for pedagogy-focused professional development to help them motivate and engage students in online teaching environments.  
Acclaimed educational producer Makematic has designed a video course to help educators quickly adapt to online teaching and learning. With a focus on pedagogy over technology, its new Teaching Online Masterclass series—just added to Infobase's streaming video products—has been made by teachers for teachers." 

There is a generic username and password for all of our Infobase subscriptions.
Username: North-ReadingHS
Password: Hornets
Once you are logged in with the generic credentials you can create a personal account to customize playlists, save favorites, and take advantage of other features.   (remember that you need to sign in using the generic username and password first in order to create your personal account)

Photo by Seema Miah on Unsplash