Finding the Perfect Video for Your Homeschool Lessons

by Beverly S. Krueger

We’re posting a number of video reviews with the October 1, 2005 update, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to discuss how to find a video to go with your studies. There are movies made that cover nearly every topic imaginable from historical videos to the great literary classics. The BBC and A&E Television Networks produce more of these each year. Would you like a video on Winston Churchill or Genghis Khan? Want to see what the space shuttle is all about or how to predict the weather? What about Jane Austen’s novels? From Sense and Sensibility to Persuasion, you’ll find them on video.

You know the perfect video is probably waiting “out there” somewhere, but how do you find out about it and get your hands on it? We have some resources to help you.

One of the handiest resources is a big that is published in a new edition each year. The Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever 2005 (current edition) indexes more than 26,000 movies in its 1655 pages by title, alternate title, awards, cast, director, writer, cinematographer, composer, categories, and series. The categories index is the most useful for finding films on a particular topic. At $24.95, it’s a handy resource that you don’t need to buy every year, but once a decade or so. I got my copy on sale after the newer edition had come out. You can also pick up a copy in our resource center Movie Reviews & Discussion and ‘s page.

You’ll also want to read the reviews in the Video section of our Resource Reviews. We have 44 reviews, as of October 1, 2005, in the following categories: Bible, History, Science, Math, Literature, and Other.

Teach with Movies
This site offers learning guides for over 260 movies which are categorized by subject, age of the viewer, character development topics, and alphabetically by title. They also have a list of movies they feel offer no educational value or have other problems like too great a level of historical inaccuracy or situations not suitable for children. The databases may be searched without a subscription. Annual subscription of $11.99 gets you access to all the learning guides. Sample guides are available free of charge.

A & E Television Networks in the Classroom
There are teacher guides for many A & E, Biography, and The History Channel titles. For example their were guides for a couple of the titles included in our review section: The Scarlet Pimpernel and Horatio Hornblower, Use their store listings to find titles based on topics in history, science, religion, travel and transportation, war and warfare, literature, and people.

Internet Movie Database
This site has browseable and searchable title, genre, year of production, language, country, and keyword searches for DVDs and videos. Your search is limited in that the title must contain your keywords.

The PBS Videodatabase
This searchable database contains hundreds of PBS videos divided into chapters so you can search for very specific topics in American history.

PBS Lesson Plans
Browse by age, subject, and topic within a subject for lesson plans and resources that tie in with PBS programming.

BBC Online
The BBC Learning section has extensive resources often with entire websites devoted to specific BBC video series, David Attenborough’s The Life of Mammals for example. The content on the site includes far more than just resources for their programming. If you were developing a unit study, you’d do well to investigate what the BBC has to offer on the topic.

Film Education
Film Education is a registered charity funded by the UK film industry. Its aim is to promote the use of film, digital video, and new media within the UK national curriculum.

Cable in the Classroom
Resources for making the most of cable television educational programming.

Copyright © 2005