Ken Burns

The Ken Burns app chronicles important moments in American history by renowned documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. The moments are captured in short videos, and the videos are organized chronologically and labeled by theme. The themes include: Politics, Race, Innovation, Art, Hard Times, and War. In each video, Ken Burn uses original footage, primary documents, and authentic images paired with commentary from Ken Burns himself, experts, and individuals who lived through that moment in history. Ken Burns expertly weaves these elements into a video that tells the tale of American history. This app is a freemium, and users can only view the Innovation-themed films for free before having to purchase videos aligned to other themes.

Instructional Ideas

1. Teachers can couple the videos included in this app while they lead class discussions about specific topics in American history. When playing a video, teachers can require students to respond to it by asking them: (1) In one sentence, summarize the major idea(s) in this video, (2) Explain how the topic of this video impacts modern society, (3) Name three ideas, facts, or concepts mentioned in this video, (4) Explain how this video relates to the topic of our conversation, and (5) Explain this video’s theme.
2. As an attention-grabber, teachers can instruct students to watch a particular video or set of videos, either individually or as a class, on their iPads. Next, teachers can have students blog a response to the video. In the blog, students can share their thoughts, questions, or what they learned from the video, and post their blog to a class website or Twitter page.
3. Teachers can introduce a research assignment to students by showing them a video from this app. To do so, teachers must first show the video to their students. Next, students can watch the extended documentary by clicking the “Watch the Film” feature that appears in the top-right of the screen while the video is playing. At this point, teachers can ask students what about the video they found most interesting, important, or what topic they would like to further explore. From these responses, teachers can support students in crafting a research question. Then, students can use search-engine apps (e.g., Google, Bing, or izik) to research their topic, and they can create their research paper using CloudOn, Quick Office, or Pages. Lastly, students can create presentations about their topic using KeyNote or Haiku Deck.
4. After watching a film piece, teachers can ask students to write a journal entry or letter to a friend from the perspective of somebody who witnessed the event(s) in the film. To add engagement to the writing, students can use the Lifecard app.

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