Part of Lesson Plan: Les Frères Lumière Court-métrage

Activity Overview / Details

View all or part of the clip: A Trip Down Market Street (1906). Don't give the students any information about the clip.

Ask students to make notes of what they see while they are watching. When is this? What is happening? Share out when you are done watching the video.

Watch the video: 60 Minute Segment on 1906 Market Street Film.

ASK: How does what you learned in the report line up with your guesses?

Have students spend some time alone or in pairs with the following sites:    

    San Francisco History Index
http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/    

   LearnCalifornia.org, the electronic resource for students about California history
http://www.learncalifornia.org/doc.asp?ID=9

Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916
http://www.memory.loc.gov:8081/ammem/papr/sfhome.html

Students should make notes of their findings to share in the next activity.

Have students report back to the class on different findings they discovered in their exploration. Guiding questions: What were the local events that defined the era and San Francisco in particular? How do you think people viewed the world then? How does what you saw in the movie of Market Street reflect that context?

Have students respond individually to the following journal prompt: Are there any technologies today that are used in novel ways like the film camera was at the turn of the last century that you think may define media in future generations?

Some additional journal prompts or discussion guiding questions:

What might people 100 years from now at the start of the 22nd century think of us here at the beginning of the 21st century based on the film and video media we leave behind?

What are some examples of digital media  that may help to define our current historical time to future eras?

Have students respond in a journal entry as homework or discuss in small groups as time permits.