Teaching with AV Sources

Bober, Tom. "Multimedia Moment: Exploring Actuality Films in the Classroom." Teaching with the Library of Congress blog, Oct. 5, 2015. http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2015/10/multimedia-moment-exploring-actuality-films-in-the-classroom/

This blog post introduces actuality films, a short film type common during the late 19th and early 20th century, and a type that may be a good choice for student analysis because of their shorter length and focus on real-life events. The post also addresses the interaction between these actuality films and other formats of primary sources such as photographs and newspapers and why students may use both in their learning.

Bober, Tom. "Multimedia Moment: Analyzing Film in the Classroom." Teaching with the Library of Congress blog, Oct. 29, 2015. http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2015/10/multimedia-moment-analyzing-film-in-the-classroom/

This blog post explores common techniques used when students are analyzing film in the classroom as well as considerations for educators such as why a film may used, what part of the film to show given learning objectives, and examples of questioning techniques educators can use to encourage analysis of the film. Technological availability and the impact on analysis as well as examples of student analysis are also explored in the post.

Bober, Tom. "Multimedia Moment: Analyzing Comedy Audio Recordings to Explore Culture." Teaching with the Library of Congress blog, Dec. 8, 2015. http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2015/12/multimedia-moment-analyzing-comedy-audio-recordings-to-explore-culture/

This blog post explores the use of audio primary sources to explore culture, specifically through the use of a comedic recording. Students explore "what is funny" to question culture of the time as well as stereotypes that were common and therefore a common reference of use for comedy performers. Teaching techniques are also explored for utilizing audio recordings in the classroom including questioning techniques to assist in student analysis.

Bober, Tom. "Multimedia Moment: American Archive of Public Broadcasting." Teaching with the Library of Congress blog. March 3, 2016. http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2016/03/multimedia-moment-american-archive-of-public-broadcasting/

The blog post primary points out areas of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting's (AAPB) online archive that is of interest to educators, a collection of over sixty years of audio and visual recordings from public broadcasting across the U.S. In addition to highlighting resources within the site, it explores considerations to utilizing the video and audio primary sources in that archive with students.

Bober, Tom. "Multimedia Moment: Exploring Fairy Tales from Long Ago." Teaching with the Library of Congress blog. March 29, 2016. http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2016/03/multimedia-moment-exploring-fairy-tales-from-long-ago/

For elementary students who study fairy tales, this post incorporates recorded audio and picture book primary sources from the early 20th century to expand beyond the books in their classroom when examine features of fairy tales as well as fractured fairy tales. The content and teaching suggestions work well for early-elementary students.

Bober, Tom. "Multimedia Moment: Documenting WWI Film Analysis Using Video Editing Software." Teaching with the Library of Congress blog. April 21, 2016. http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2016/04/multimedia-moment-documenting-wwi-film-analysis-using-video-editing-software/

Through the example of a short WWI film, this blog post explores the use of digital movie editing software to document primary source film analysis. Showing a student example of this analysis, the benefits of this type of analysis documentation is explored as well as the features of video editing software that may benefit the primary source analysis process.

Bober, Tom. "Multimedia Moment: Audio Recordings from the National Press Club." Teaching with the Library of Congress blog. Oct. 18, 2016. http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2015/01/heliocentric-geocentric-using-library-of-congress-ebooks-to-explore-science-related-primary-sources/

This blog post utilizes audio recordings from the National Press Club to illustrate more complex uses of primary source audio in the classroom. Use of audio that has vague references to historical events and how to encourage students to derive questions to explore future learning, analyzing multiple audio sources over time to explore the evolution of an event, and listening to primary source audio to compare and connect historical events to today are discussed.