Weekly Reflection – NFB

On Friday I attended an online workshop that introduced the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as a teaching resource for classrooms. Since Social Studies is my main teachable subject, I found the session especially interesting and useful. The NFB offers teachers a great way to bring different types of learning into the classroom, particularly for students who may not connect as well with traditional lectures or textbook-based learning.

Using films and documentaries in class helps create a more engaging and multimodal learning environment. Many students naturally enjoy watching films because they present information through storytelling and visuals, which can make complex topics easier to understand and more interesting to explore. The NFB has a huge collection of films that focus on Canadian history, culture, and social issues, which makes it particularly valuable for Social Studies teachers who want to incorporate Canadian perspectives and stories into their lessons.

This workshop also reminded me of a university course I took called American History Through Film. In that class, we watched and analyzed films that depicted important historical events and periods. A big part of the course involved comparing the films with the actual historical record and thinking critically about how events were portrayed. It pushed us to ask questions about bias, perspective, and the messages filmmakers were trying to communicate.

Because of this experience, I think films can be a great starting point for engaging students who might not initially be interested in a topic. One idea would be to use the NFB as part of a research or exploration project in an upper-level Canadian history class. Students could choose a film from the NFB catalogue and analyze it while also bringing in additional sources. They might look at questions such as how the topic connects to Canadian history, when the film was released and why that timing matters, and what cultural or historical significance the story holds.

One example from the NFB catalogue is True North: Inside the Rise of Toronto Basketball, which focuses on basketball in Toronto. Resources like this highlight stories that are often overlooked and can open the door to meaningful classroom discussions about history, culture, and representation in Canada.