Today, PBS announced the launch of Ken Burns Classroom on PBS LearningMedia – an online destination for free teaching and learning resources inspired by Ken Burns’s renowned documentaries. Created for 6-12th grade educators, the new hub houses a full library of classroom-ready content – aligned to state and national standards – to help students further explore the complex historical events and issues illustrated in Ken Burns’s films. 

Ken Burns Classroom features hundreds of video clips, lesson plans, activity suggestions, discussion questions, handouts, and interactives to help educators integrate the films into their classroom instruction. This will include important historical events, people and moments-in-time such as international wars, the Roosevelt family and the Industrial Age. The hub will kick off with documentaries including “Country Music,” “The Vietnam War,” “The Central Park Five,” “The Dust Bowl,” “The West,” “The Civil War,” “Jackie Robinson,” “Lewis & Clark,” “Prohibition,” “The Roosevelts,” and “The War,” and more will continue to be added in the coming months. 

PBS LearningMedia, a partnership between PBS and WGBH, is an online destination that offers free access to thousands of resources from partners and PBS stations who work to make them available to teachers in local communities across the country. 

All Ken Burns Classroom resources and content are publicly available and can be accessed by visiting PBS LearningMedia at https://pbslearningmedia.org/kenburns. 

Content in Ken Burns Classroom was funded in part by members of The Better Angels Society.

Ranging from bullying to STEM to autism, the topics tackled in these documentary movies can open kids' eyes and encourage discussion. And when they're shown as part of a lesson, you can better help students understand and analyze what they've seen.

For more recommendations, check out Common Sense Educations Ratings and Reviews.