Here are the documentary videos, lesson plans and interactive resources that our teacher advisors incorporated into their lessons in the past school year. Bookmark a few for next year’s curriculum.

History 

“9/11 Heroes: Surviving the Biggest Attack on U.S. Soil” and its accompanying lesson plan were favorites among teachers for navigating a complex topic. Another favorite was a package of resources on the Cold War in Latin America, particularly this interactive map, which will be available in translation in Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, French, and Mandarin.

Robert Moor, a History teacher from Lehigh Acres, Fla., said, “ I wanted my students to analyze different perspectives and narratives…. The map easily compared what my students learned with where they immigrated from.” Check out more resources for History classes here. 

“The 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz Was a Catalyst for Indigenous Activism” shows how an occupation, led by Indigenous people, sparked a movement. Nick Shwab, a Retro Report Teacher Ambassador and U.S. History teacher  from Huntington Beach, Calif., said his class “covered a lot of activism strategies during this unit, but the ideas from this film were utilized by students at an extremely high rate.” 

Science 

“Toxic Waste In the Neighborhood: The Love Canal Disaster” revealed why nearly 25 years after the U.S. government declared portions of the area inhabitable, debates continue to resurface. 

Our advisors who teach Science have traced the environmental movement to its origins using “Rachel Carson’s Warning on D.D.T. Ignited an Environmental Movement.” 

In 1987, a ship piled with trash made headlines for aimlessly floating around the harbors of New York. Science teachers have taught about recycling with “A Barge Full of Garbage Helped to Fuel a Recycling Movement.

“GMO Food Fears and the First Test Tube Tomato” covers the introduction of a genetically modified tomato known as Flavr Savr, which ushered in a multi-billion dollar industry. The video discusses how this innovation was received.

Civics and Government

As the presidential election approaches, teachers have been looking to Retro Report for lessons on government and civic engagement. A favorite was “Why Are Schools Still Segregated? The Broken Promise of Brown V. Board of Education.” The film explores the effects of the ruling and whether it accomplished the goal of desegregation. John Staudt, a Teacher Ambassador and History and Civics teacher from Old Westbury, N.Y., said this video “helped answer a student question from the previous day about the long-term impact of Brown.” It is part of our U.S. Supreme Court Collection. 

“How a 1944 Supreme Court Ruling on Internment Camps Led to a Reckoning,” on the 1944 ruling upholding the establishment of internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II, highlights another case with lasting impact. The Civil Rights Act of 1988 provided reparations to surviving detainees, but the ruling was cited in a 2018 Supreme Court decision upholding President Trump’s travel ban on people from Muslim-majority countries. 

Narratives that were untold or hidden were favorites. One example was “The C.I.A. Operation That Haunts U.S.-Iran Relations.” American meddling throughout the 1950’s continues to shape international relations and diplomacy. 

Our video on the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse of 2007 helped teachers add context to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore last March and address federalism. Find more resources on infrastructure and its connection to public policy in our A.P. Human Geography Collection.

Webinars

Retro Report holds webinars to provide educators with resources gathered from experts. “Exploring Climate Change,” presented with the Foreign Policy Association, showcased tools for teaching about climate change and global environmental policy. Kathleen Wilson, a Retro Report Council of Educator member and teacher, attended.  “Evenings like these are so valuable to my practice as an educator,” she said. “Teachers need to be learners, too, and this makes us better able to present students with the best resources available.” Browse more resources in the A.P. Environmental Science Collection. 

A search-by-topic tool on our website has a list of resources in all subjects. What was your favorite resource? Let us know by giving us a shoutout on social media. 

Wishing you a joyful and restful summer.

DAGMAR ROTHSCHILD is an education intern at Retro Report. She is an undergraduate at Georgetown, studying International Relations.

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