Alex's Store

Empire of the Sun is a great story to share when discussing general warfare, World War II, refugees, English, Chinese, or Japanese History. I've included a movie guide for 3 days of viewing with 6 or 7 questions per day so if you are only watching parts of the film, you can easily omit questions. I wrote the questions while watching the movie in preparation for showing it to my classes and tried to blend straightforward with open-ended short answer questions. An answer key is also included.

Prince of Egypt is a great film for portraying early empires and civilizations. I've attached a movie guide that I wrote in preparation for showing my classes. The guide focuses on vocabulary with the definitions included, asking students to write an example from the movie for the following terms: laborer, river valley civilizations, social hierarchy, civilization, hieroglyphics, polytheistic, job specialization, pastoralism, and the Nile River

The Iron Giant is an amazing movie with strong messages about the nature of war, particularly The Cold War (the time period for this movie). The characters are all interesting and worthy of analysis. I've shown this movie multiple times and it has captured attention, insighted critical thought, and brought laughs as well. Here are 11 questions (some straightforward and some deeper) that I wrote with the intent of allowing students to reflect (if they're paying some attention) without overwhelmin

"He Named Me Malala" is a great film for discussing world cultures, the Middle East, and of course, the inspirational person that the movie is about. I've included a simple guide with 9 questions that I wrote in preparation for showing my classes. An answer key is also included :)

Mr. Peabody is a fun film that showcases a few different historical eras and famous figures. This is a simple, chronological guide that focuses on the historical topics (10 questions)

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a fun cooperative game where one person (or more) has the instructions on how to disarm an imaginary bomb while another person (or more) actually does the disarming Having played this, I put together this short fun easy version to do in the classroom with the hope of getting students that don't normally interact working together. It could be used well as a brain break. Here's what you have to do: 1. Tell students they'll have to disarm an imaginary bomb and th

For Poster, Directions sheet and examples included. Students create a physical or digital poster by 1. Choosing a side (Jefferson or Hamilton) 2. Using an attached chart comparing the various political beliefs of each of the two leaders and 3. Finding relevant pictures. I might recommend showing the example but not allowing students to copy it directly. For Pamphlet, I told students to use our textbook (I guided them to certain pages) and the internet to find support for their viewpoints.

Wadjda is a great film for teaching about the Middle East and world cultures, particularly relating to gender roles. It is the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia. I've attached half-sheet movie guides for 2 days of viewing,

These are guides that I wrote in preparation to show my classes throughout the year. I focused on what I considered to be the most important information that was not overly difficult to catch while viewing. Most guides are between 8 and 10 questions (1 page per episode)

This was a great addition to my Civil War Unit this year. Each day in class (you can obviously skip days), students would add a new leader to their "leader list" and/or a new battle to their "battle blog." This is a google slides and each slide has a background picture and the same 5-6 important questions that students answer for each entry. In my class, I found short YouTube videos (not hard to find) on each leader or battle that we would watch while students tried to get the relevant informati

Students pick a famous reformer and create a DVD case (what would be a DVD case for a film about the reformer they chose). If they haven't learned a lot about their reformer, they will need to do some research to find information. This idea stemmed from wanting students to create a historical movie poster and then wanting them to add a bit more detail. I asked my students and they DO still own DVDs at home so they're familiar with what they look like. The front of their DVD case will feature 1.

This is a Google Slides activity that I put together using 5 quotes from G.W.'s Farewell Address. For each quote, students: 1. Guess what Washington thought about a topic 2. Read his short quote from his Farewell Address and 3. Summarize the quote, try to explain why he may have held that opinion, and reflect critically on how those viewpoints have held up over time. For the most part, the quotes haven't been too difficult to understand for my middle schoolers. You may have to assist some studen

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a fun cooperative game where one person (or more) has the instructions on how to disarm an imaginary bomb while another person (or more) actually does the disarming Having played this, I put together this short fun easy version to do in the classroom with the hope of getting students that don't normally interact working together. It could be used well as a brain break. Here's what you have to do: 1. Tell students they'll have to keep an imaginary missile from

This is an assignment I created using a website that has detailed biographies on all the Founding Fathers. Students go to that website, choose a Founding Father, and answer the questions. Question sections among others include their early life, what they're known for, their connection to slavery etc. You could use many of these biographical questions on any historical figure besides the Founding Fathers

An easy icebreaker/brain break that I like to go back to throughout the year. Students go around the room with a hard copy or their computers and get students to sign or initial a square that applies to them (e.g. I've been to another country, I have a pet other than a dog or cat). I recommend saying that other students can only sign once and you can't sign your own. This bingo chart isn't a perfect square so they won't be able to do diagonal. You could offer students a prize for getting two bin

The Color of Friendship's story does a great job of approaching issues like cultural differences across countries and racial inequalities in both South Africa and the United States. I've uploaded half-sheet guides for 2 days of viewing, including some true facts behind the story.