Using Historic Film to Teach about China

Lesson Plan for film clip "Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing"

Gilbert Collection from Northeast Historic Film

Overview

Primary source film clips from the Gilbert Collection will provide upper elementary students the opportunity to learn about urban China in 1928 by exploring themes of geography (movement and human environment interaction) and practicing critical thinking skills.

Key ideas

• Primary sources can be strong resources when studying a culture.
• We can learn about cultures by studying about the movement of people, goods and ideas and human environment interaction.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify different forms of transportation in film clips from 1928 urban China
• Classify transportation forms according to their power sources
• Develop hypotheses for why these power sources were used
• Use their observations to draw some conclusions about life in 1928 urban China
• Explain how and when a film can be a primary source

Before viewing

• Review concept of primary sources. Show examples of primary and secondary sources.
• 1920s era: time of students' great-great-grandparents
• Show some pictures of transportation in the U.S. in a city in the 1920s
  • New York - 5th Avenue - 1921
  • New York - 1905
  • New York - Herald Square - 1921
  • New York - 5th Avenue and 42 Street - 1910s or 1920s
  • New York - 1908
• Locate China...Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing on a map
• Explain that filmmaker was a tourist. Ask children what they like to take pictures of when they take a trip. Filmmaker seemed to be interested in transportation in each city.

View the film

• Watch each section of the clip. Stop the clip after each city. Ask students to write down the different forms of transportation they see in each city.
• Think-Pair-Share: Ask students what surprised them or what they noticed in the film. (Students think for 30 seconds, share with a partner and then teacher calls on students for general discussion.)
• After watching the clip, divide students into 5 groups. Assign each group a form of transportation. At a computer, each group should watch the film clip a second time, discuss and fill in the chart below about their form of transportation.

Groups: boats, cars, trolleys, rickshaws/sedan chairs, carts

Download the worksheet (PDF)

Groups report to the class and share ideas and observations. Teacher takes notes on smart board. (Students may also fill in their own charts.)

Final class discussion

• Why is this important?
• What do the modes of transportation tell us about the culture, city, and people? (Point out that people must be careful about assuming these things are true for all of China.)
• Is this film a primary source? If so, why is it a valuable source? What must we evaluate when using a primary source?

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