2018 NETA Awards - Teacher Resources
From KSPS/Spokane
Project Budget: No Outside Funding
In 2018, Spokane Public Schools, Washington state’s 2nd largest school district, approved the curriculum resources for KSPS documentaries. The curriculum resources are included in the district’s social studies and history print and online curriculum guides for grades K-12. These resources have garnered 4,000 views on PBS LearningMedia™, extending the reach of the resources even to teachers who live outside of Washington State. The KSPS materials have garnered 86 unique downloads from educators. With a teacher averaging 25 students a class, over 2,000 potential students have engaged with KSPS’s documentary segments and learning activities. Educators have saved the resources as “favorites” 62 times, indicating that they find the resources useful and relevant. Educators are regularly saving KSPS’s documentary resource materials to use or refer to for their classrooms. This project was completed without outside funding. KSPS worked with two graduate students
from Gonzaga University’s School of Education, to segment 16 regional documentaries for classroom use and to create accompanying standards-based learning guides with a variety of learning activities to supplement classroom instruction.
What Did the Judges Say?
This was a massive undertaking. The KSPS documentaries were perfect for creating lesson plans and clips for Washington State history study units.
The use of historical footage was impressive in Courage in Corsets and the Mount St. Helens’ eruption documentaries. Many of the stories are unknown and untold outside Washington, so they make engaging learning assets for students where history textbooks may not cover the material well. The use of women's rights history to engage students with their state's history is powerful. First person interviews with suvivors of Japanese Internment camps should resonate with students witnessing similar treatment of immigrants today. The lesson plans and handouts for teachers were full of useful references, engaging activities and comprehensive learning objectives.
You can't beat FREE for a budget! The strategy of using graduate students to segment the documentaries and create the associated guides was brilliant.