How do I choose educational video?

Select educational video that can supplement content areas or skill development taught in your curriculum.  Ask publishers for preview or demo videos to help you determine whether a particular video series is appropriate for your curricular needs.  If publishers do not provide demo copies, look for them at conferences, in local resource libraries or nearby literacy programs. As with any teaching materials, review videos thoroughly before making a major investment.  Click here for a list of educational videos frequently used by ABE/ESL programs in MN.

How do I evaluate educational video?

Think about how a specific video segment can supplement your lesson plans.  Preview a segment to determine whether the language speed, vocabulary content and graphic support are appropriate for your learners.  You can use the MLC video evaluation guidelines for teachers to begin thinking about how to choose videos and begin using them with learners.

After you have bought your educational video series, continue to evaluate its use with other teachers and learners so that you can determine whether it has been effective and whether your program should buy similar or different video programs  in the future.  

How can I integrate video use into my overall curriculum?

Many educational video programs have support materials or workbooks that you can browse through to help you plan out how to use it with learners.  Use these print materials to help you pick and choose topics or skill areas that correspond to your curriculum.

Guide students through directed video tasks as you would through print or textbook activities.  Show a video segment several times using multiple tasks.  For example have students listen for comprehension the first time they watch a segment, then have them watch it again and write their own questions.  A third watching of the same segment could be followed up by a writing assignment.  If the video does not have a workbook, create tasks similar to ones in their textbooks so that students will be familiar with the exercise format.

Begin with easy tasks as students acclimate themselves to the video segment and progress on to activities they will find more challenging.  Use strategies you might use for working with other classroom materials, such as pairing students up to discuss comprehension or discussion questions.  Finally provide them with writing activities to reinforce acquisition. Think about pre and post exercises that can tie in video lessons to your overall curriculum.

Remember to have back up activities ready, just in case you run into technical difficulties, i.e. the DVD/VCR player doesn't work.

You can check the MLC educational technology training calendar  and the ESL in-service calendar to see if there are any video workshops coming up that you'd like to attend.