When you’re interested in watching a movie and want to learn more about it beforehand, what do you do? Well, you’re not likely to go into the theater cold, so you might watch the film’s trailer, clips from the film, or a video review to get a sense of whether or not you might be interested. Now, what if there were something like that for literature classics? Not every student wants to dive headfirst into War and Peace without knowing what they’re getting into.
Infobase has just what you need. With the school year coming to an end and Summer Reading rapidly approaching, Infobase has the resources that not only can help your students achieve a greater understanding of literature classics, but can maintain their interest in literature and learning throughout the summer months and well beyond.
Makematic’s Literature Classics
Let us introduce you to the Literature Classics series from Makematic. Available via Learn360 and Classroom Video On Demand, the series features 25 beautifully animated introductory videos, covering some of the most iconic titles in English literature. Each video explores key themes, historical context, and the life of the author—and is designed as an introduction to the text that inspires further reading and investigation.
The titles covered include:
- Oliver Twist
- Great Expectations
- The Scarlet Letter
- Frankenstein
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- The Awakening
- Dracula
- The Tempest
- Emma
- Sense and Sensibility
- The Odyssey
- And more!
Spark students’ interest and curiosity by having them watch the series, then let them pick out the book whose story intrigued them the most. Or have them watch one of the titles while reading the associated book as assigned reading. With both Learn360 and Classroom Video On Demand, you could also use the quiz feature to add questions to the videos and assess how much students have learned from what they’ve read and watched.
Watch Classic Plays and Works with Bloom’s Literature
Those who subscribe to Bloom’s Literature know that the award-winning database is one of the best places students can start their research on the most studied authors and works, multicultural classics, contemporary literature, and more. But did you know that Bloom’s also features hundreds of full-length videos of great literary works?
The 800+ videos complement the full text of the 1,000 most essential works of classic literature, 2,600+ classic poems, and 100+ classic short stories students can find in Bloom’s Literature, not to mention the wide range of reference essays and scholarly criticism that Bloom’s is best known for. Give your students a visual component to the works they’re reading: when assigning Hamlet, show them the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet starring David Tennant. Studying Death of a Salesman? Introduce your students to the 1966 production starring the legendary Lee J. Cobb. Exploring The Glass Menagerie? Bloom’s has a 1973 production starring Katharine Hepburn.
Some of the other productions you’ll find in Bloom’s Literature include:
- Othello: The Shakespeare Series (1994 production starring William Marshall)
- Julius Caesar (1950 production starring Charlton Heston)
- Silas Marner (1985 production starring Ben Kingsley)
- A Farewell to Arms (1932 production starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes)
- Our Town (1940 production)
- Romeo and Juliet: Stratford Festival (2017 production)
- Doctor Faustus (2010 production at London’s Greenwich Theatre)
- Macbeth: The Shakespeare Series (1994 production)
- And hundreds more!
What Is Classroom Video On Demand?
Classroom Video On Demand—created for middle and high schools—is a curriculum-focused video subscription providing unlimited access to thousands of videos for ALL departments. This fully responsive and mobile-friendly multisubject solution is an exceptional value and offers one-stop shopping for librarians and educators, with a wealth of material appropriate for basic through AP courses.
What Is Learn360?
The ultimate streaming multimedia resource for the K–12 educational market, Learn360 is a vetted, easy-to-use media library that is correlated to standards, organized for educators, and full of K–12 content from the industry’s top producers. Learn360 gives teachers, students, and parents access to more than 191,500 media resources—videos, interactives, printables, audio content, and more—on any Internet-enabled device, anytime, anywhere.
What Is Bloom’s Literature?
The award-winning Bloom’s Literature database is rich with relevant content on the core authors and works most studied in the high school curriculum. Students will find exactly what they need without having to wade through an uncurated search. Educators will appreciate the thoughtful organization and important curriculum tools to help with lesson plans, assignments, and independent study.
In addition to the videos and other content mentioned above, Bloom’s also has:
- A “How to Write about Literature” feature that offers crucial, exclusive research guidance and advice for students writing essays on great literary works
- A Shakespeare Center that houses in one convenient location a treasure trove of content on all things Shakespeare
- Topic Centers that bring together in one place specially selected content on major literary and artistic eras and movements
- More than 4,800 of Publishers Weekly’s author interviews and profiles, from 1989 to the present
- More than 250 podcasts of Publishers Weekly Radio, featuring audio interviews with famous authors
- And much more!
Want to see these products for yourself? Take a free trial of Classroom Video On Demand, Learn360, and Bloom’s Literature today! With Classroom Video On Demand and Learn360, you get access to thousands of videos on English and language arts that you can pair with the carefully curated scholarly criticism and full-text literary classics in Bloom’s.
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