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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Best Movies made for High School History classes...

           So you want to show a movie in your history class(es) but as a teacher of history, what do you show?  Really, it depends on the subject and the grade level you are teaching.  For my classes, since I am a teacher of World Civilization, the list is pretty open.  I usually divide my classes up into units of which I can conveniently decide upon the feature presentation.  Granted, I do not have the time to show everyone of these films.  Usually per year I will almost always show a clip or two from each and rotate the other films as I do not want each class every year to have viewed the same perspective.  The only movie I will always show is Schindler's List as I believe it is the greatest history movie ever made (and in my limited expertise, the greatest film period).  You will notice that every movie only correlates with the modern era.  I have designed my class like this on purpose.  Forgive me, if I left out one of your favorites from an era prior to WWI.  One of the things that I find most interesting is letting my students surf the net for ideas as to what to show in class.  Most of the time they find the same movies I have listed below.  However, on occasion a student will present a new film that I have not watched or even heard of.    Take a look at the list below and tell me what you all as fellow history colleagues think.

Vietnam:
-Nixon
-Platoon
-We Were Soldiers

World War II:
-Saving Private Ryan
-The Thin Red Line
-Enemy at the Gates
-Schindler's List

WWI and After:
-All is Quiet on the Western Front
-The Lost Battalion
-Gallipoli 
-War Horse
-Hitler:  Rise of Evil

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