Nine Essential English Language Arts Collections in PBS LearningMedia

Here is a quick round up of the most popular English Language Arts collections in PBS LearningMedia. Find 1,000s more ELA resources, searchable by grade, resource type and topic in PBS LearningMedia. Sign up for a free account to curate your own collections with PBS LearningMedia folders. Tools in PBS LearningMedia allow teachers to make quick assessments and customize learning with trusted, quality, standards aligned resources.

Hamilton’s America

GREAT PERFORMANCES: “Hamilton’s America” provides a behind-the-scenes look at Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash hit Broadway musical Hamilton. “Hamilton’s America” blends history, footage of Miranda’s writing process, and scenes from the musical itself to create a vibrant and engaging film about the making of the musical and the preservation of Alexander Hamilton’s legacy. This collection includes clips, classroom activities, discussion questions, handouts, and teaching tips connected to the film. Use videos as  an introduction to American politics, democracy or the creative process.

PBS Digital Studios

Explore top selections from the PBS Digital Studios library. This content is edgy and engaging, educational and thought-provoking — designed to grab your students’ attention. Explore  collections curated towards design and innovation, social studies, and even popular culture, with many more subjects that highlight the cross-disciplinary, exciting topics that have made Digital Studios such a powerful classroom resource.

American Masters

American Masters, public television’s award-winning biography series, brings unique originality and perspective to exploring the lives and illuminating the creative journeys of our most enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists and filmmakers – those who have left an indelible impression on our nation’s cultural landscape. This collection offers you access to classroom-ready videos and articles drawn from the Series broadcasts and website. Essential resources in exploring the writing of Salinger, Wilson, Baldwin, Arthur Miller, Harper Lee and more American classics.

Masterpiece Theater

The acclaimed PBS series MASTERPIECE, renowned for its superb adaptations of classic literature, is a trusted source for both teachers and students. Presenting a treasure trove of video segments from MASTERPIECE, supported by essays and teacher tips, this collection offers innovative ways to access, understand, and analyze complex literary texts. Watching these pivotal moments from award-winning shows also helps to provide a deeper appreciation of the power of film dramatization—and the importance of becoming a critical media consumer. These can eb essential resources in exploring the writings of Austen, Bronte, Christie, Dickens, Doyle, Hardy, Wilder.

Crash Course Literature

From balancing chemical reactions to analyzing famous literature, never before has one collection offered such a range of content. Since 2011, brothers John and Hank Green have pioneered digital education with their series Crash Course on YouTube.

Finding Your Roots

Discover lesson plans, clips, and resources from Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Explore historical events as experienced by the ancestors of season three guests including Azar Nafisi, Bill Hader, Bill O’Reilly, Frank Gehry, Gloria Steinem, John McCain, Maya Rudolph, Mia Farrow, Sean Combs, and Ty Burrell. Travel through time and around the world, from the Russian Empire in 1721 to the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Learn about war heroes, survivors, homesteaders, slaves who fought for freedom, civil rights activists, and more using this collection.

The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare’s History Plays

The Hollow Crown is a Great Performances series showcasing four filmed adaptations of Shakespeare’s most gripping history plays: Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V.The interactive and video resources in this collection are designed to aid teachers in exploring these complex plays with their students. Use the viewing guide, supplemental teaching tips, discussion questions, background essays, and activities to analyze and compare the films with Shakespeare’s original text, discover major themes, and delve deeper into the stories’ historical backgrounds.

Inspiring Middle School Literacy

These online self-paced lessons for blended learning, funded by the Walmart Foundation, are designed to enhance the literacy skills of struggling readers in grades 5–8. Each lesson uses videos, interactive activities, note taking, reading, and writing to present students with an engaging science, social studies, mathematics, or English language arts topic.

Anne Frank Resources

From Masterpiece excerpt to News Hour reporting,  here are several Anne Frank resources found in PBS LearningMedia.