American Independence Day, the Fourth of July, is one week away. Most of you reading this aren’t in school right now. That said, I can’t help sharing a few video lessons about the Declaration of Independence the celebration of Independence Day. Take a look then bookmark these for your U.S. History lessons in the fall.
History offers the following excerpt from the America: The Story of Us series. The clip is commentary from talking heads like Tom Brokaw and Aaron Sorkin. It could prompt some thought and discussion amongst your students.
TED-Ed has a lesson titled What You Might Not Know About the Declaration of Independence. It’s a lesson that provides overview of the key points in creation of the Declaration of Independence along with a short discussion prompt at the end. The lesson is probably best suited to middle school students.
In History of the 4th of July John Green offers a short overview of the history of Independence Day and the ways in which Americans have celebrated the holiday since 1776. As he always does, Green includes plenty of sarcastic comments throughout the video so if your students have trouble recognizing sarcasm then this won’t be an appropriate video for them.
Keith Hughes has stopped producing new videos on his YouTube channel, but if you go back in his archives you’ll find this gem from 2012. In the upbeat and concise style that made Keith’s YouTube channel popular he provides an overview of the Declaration of Independence.
