Documentaries and Critical Thinking

I've written previously of my shift in practice to using content to develop critical thinking skills rather than teaching content. Below is an example of how this is done. My grade 7 students have been learning about the American Revolution. Today, they watched a documentary and as they watched were asked to think about the following.

1. Who might have created this documentary and what is its purpose?

2. How is this documentary useful?

3. What are the limitations of this documentary as a learning tool?

4. Whose voices or points of view are missing from this documentary?

We then watched the film, "The Fight for Independence Video Quiz", which is available to our board through Learn 360  It is aimed at the junior level, grades 3-5, narrated by a child and gives a brief overview of the revolution from start to finish in 20 minutes. Included at 3 points in the film are short fact-based quizzes on the segment just watched.

After watching, students had 10 minutes to write responses to the questions and and then moved into small groups for discussion.  This is known as accountable talk It's purpose is to have every learner in the classroom engaged in discussion rather than teacher led discussions where only 1 student speaks at a time and perhaps only 5-6 students actually contribute.

Once the small group discussion occurred, we gathered as a whole class to share insights.

As I wandered and listened to the discussions much thoughtful commentary and insightful observations were made.

Here are some snippets:

I think this was made by Americans, maybe by historians who want students to have pride in their country.

I think this was made by school boards for students to teach them about the revolution.

I think this was made by students. It's very simple and has only facts.

I think this was definitely made by Americans because it only shows one point of view. You don't get any information about the British or people like King George or even the important people like George Washington.

This is very biased. It only shows one point of view. It gives facts but it doesn't give enough information. It's very basic - it doesn't really give details or tell why things happened."

The picture of the Boston Massacre - it doesn't even tell that the picture of the events was exaggerated.

It doesn't tell that the wars had been expensive and that Britain was in debt and that the wars had been fought for the colonists' benefit. It just presents the British as bad and the Americans as good.

It doesn't tell that not everyone agreed. It doesn't tell of the people who supported the British.

I like that the story was told in order and that it covered the main events.

I feel like they are trying to get us to think a certain way about the revolution.

In terms of the film's usefulness as a learning tool, there was a wide range of opinion.

It told the story in order and it did give basic facts which was good.

I liked the quizzes. They solidified the information for me.

I didn't like the quizzes. They were too slow.

The film went too quickly and was hard to understand. I didn't have time to think about the information.

The captions under all the pictures was useful.

It wasn't all that helpful because it only gave facts, it didn't really tell why the people were making the decisions they were making.

It used the word "Indian"(in reference to the Boston Tea Party) instead of "First Nations" which is not appropriate.

I always thought the Boston Tea Party was a real tea party. Now I know.

This would be a good starting point, but you would have to learn more.


With regard to missing voices.

You didn't really get to hear the British point of view.
The French and the Indian's points of view were missing.
You didn't get to hear about the people who supported the British.

I also pointed out that women's voices were absent and there was no reference to the 25 000 black slaves who fought in the revolution.

Content was not directly taught, yet was thoroughly discussed.

In listening to the students' discussion of the documentary as a learning tool I saw clearly how differentiated and blended learning  should be structured for this topic.

The students who liked the quizzes after short bits of instruction would probably do well with an online game-based learning activity.
The students who found the movie went too fast and wished they had more time to think about the content have also expressed a preference for reading texts rather than viewing documentaries.
The students who enjoyed the aural/visual aspect could continue to work with this format.
That is not to say that all students wouldn't benefit from all approaches,rather,  it would be nice for them to be able to select the learning method that they feel leads to their own best learning.