Technology and Social Studies

Video-Based Anchors

Need. Social studies instruction is often rooted in the textbook. Textbooks are challenging for all learners, but especially for those with disabilities, because they often use difficult vocabulary, assume a high degree of background knowledge, cover too many topics, and don’t help students integrate and organize major concepts (Armbruster & Anderson, 1984; Beck & McKeown, 1991; Brophy, 1990; Loewen, 1995).

Addressing the Need in SSPBL. Although we are not advocating that schools abandon textbooks, our approach does favor the use of a variety of primary and secondary sources, with an emphasis on video based anchors to introduce key instructional concepts. The benefits of using video as an anchor, or as an initial encounter with the key concepts around which a unit is organized, have been well documented (e.g., Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1997; Glaser, Rieth, Kinzer, Colburn, & Peter, 1999).

For students who have limited background information about a topic, video provides rich visual details about the people, events, and time period. Video is especially advantageous for poor readers whose ability to gain information from print may be limited. When the video tells a compelling story, we have found students highly motivated to learn more about the topic. We also have observed students to use the video throughout the unit as a source of examples and as support for their points of view.

Technology-Based Option. Although many have been developed for an adult audience, PBS videos are an excellent source on a range of historical topics. To enhance their appropriateness for middle-grade learners, our participating teachers pre-teach difficult vocabulary and concepts and stop the video at key points to provide additional information, check student understanding, and clarify and extend students’ knowledge through discussion. The PBS website offers a rich collection of lesson plans, teaching tools, and additional information resources to accompany the videos, and we have made frequent use of these resources. Video must be selected and used thoughtfully, however. It is incumbent upon teachers to help students see that video-based information is as much an interpretation of history as are other primary and secondary sources, and as such, may be incomplete or biased.