School House Rock!

2/10/2010

As I was talking about during our last class, when I was young, the only time you could watch cartoons was for about 3 hours on Saturday morning (there were really only 3 channels and no cartoon channels). During these cartoons, they used to play other shorter cartoons, called "School House Rock." These were educational videos, although we didn't realize it was educational because they were made into cartoons - yes, they tricked us little kids into thinking we were watching more cartoons - we didn't know we were learning! They had videos in a number of categories: Grammar, History/Civics, Science, Economics, and Mathematics. You ended up seeing these videos so many times that you memorized the songs (they were very catchy tunes) and therefore, you ended up learning the information. I've attached 8 of these videos below. Since we were talking about grammar the other day (and will be talking about it on Friday -- we will NOT have a Socratic Seminar this week), I included 5 grammar videos. The most classic are the "Adverbs" and "Conjunction Junction" videos. I also attached 3 of their classic historical videos, simply because I've always been a history geek, so they were always my favorites. My all-time personal favorite was "How a Bill Becomes a Law." Remember that these cartoons were made back in the day when cartoon effects were not as advanced as they are today, but they got the point across. Enjoy!

GRAMMAR VIDEOS:

A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2iLAI0gUW0

Grammar Rock Adjectives: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYzGLzFuwxI

Interjections! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHpJ45_zwM

Grammar Rock Adverbs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7wnT8iiR8w&feature=related

Conjunction Junction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkO87mkgcNo&feature=related

HISTORY VIDEOS:
How a bill becomes a law: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ

Preamble (to the Constitution): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNb9AoY5XXE

The Shot Heard ‘Round The World (American Revolution): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VQA5NDNkUM&feature=related

12 Comments

Randy

2/10/2010 10:51:11 am

The videos were very catchy and educational. I did learn a few things I didn't before. I noticed that each clip was three minutes long. Was the entire cartoon show three minutes long, or 15 minutes or half an hour or a full hour? I've never seen the show. I think the show was from the '70, and if that's the case then I never saw it. I also noticed that each clips had good comments based on the viewers. Most of them mention how they use to watch it in the past or how their history teacher forced them to watch it. They also said how some needed to refer back to this as an aid because it was so useful and easy to understand. I had to watch the videos to see exactly how good they were.

Ms. Cohen

2/10/2010 10:54:54 am

I might not have been clear... There were the regular cartoons that were 1/2 hour (Bugs Bunny, etc.) and then these 3 minute School House Rock mini-cartoons were in between the longer cartoons... Kind of like a commercial...

And yes, School House rock was, I'd say, mid to late 1970s...

Andrew

2/11/2010 08:40:12 am

I cant believe people actually watched this show!! Well I guess I would too if I had nothing else to watch and I was a little child. They were pretty catchy though. I gotta say my favorite one was the bill becoming a law. To tell you the truth I did not know that. It's probably sad but lets look at it this way, i learned something new.

Katherine

2/11/2010 08:58:06 am

I like the little cartoons they are very funny and I actually learned a few things. I learned what an adverb is, because sadly I didn't know what it was. However, I have got to say that my favorite was the ADJECTIVES one, it was funny and it explained so well what an adjective was that now I know it. These must of been good to watch, but nobody beats Bugs Bunny he is just one of a kind, a cute, funny talking rabbit! "Whats up Doc!" HA

Ms. Cohen

2/11/2010 10:57:24 am

First of all, just to clear it up, so there is no doubt - as cute as SpongeBob is, Bugs Bunny is still King and always will be.

Now that I have that cleared up... Katherine, the only way I ever knew what an adverb was was from that video -- I never learned what an adverb was in school either. Lolly sold the adverbs and that was the way I knew what it was... When someone mentions an adverb today, that song flies through my head... Andrew, that was also how I learned how a bill became a law (and the preamble to the Constitution -- I literally have to sing it in order to say it)... To reiterate (repeat), these were like little 3-minute commercials in between cartoons, the same way you'd sit through commercials while watching TV... These just happen to be educational... Believe me Andrew, if you were 8-years old and there were only a few hours of cartoons one day a week, you would not get up from that tv. You would watch the cartoons, the commercials (including School House Rock), and whatever else came on.

Incidentally, Ms. Cybulski won't be coming into our class tomorrow -- she'll be doing that after break... What will we be doing? It'll be a surprise... :)

Regina

2/13/2010 11:32:34 pm

This is cool. The kids during those times must have been really smart...Ms. Cohen.
While watching these little cartoons, I learned that a noun is a person place or a thing. I learned that and adjective is a word used to describe nouns. I didn't really get the adverb but it seems like they were trying to say that adverbs are descriptive words combined with action words. and then learned that conjunction junctions are words the join other words together. ex: and, or, nor. can because be a conjunction junction?

Regina

2/13/2010 11:59:18 pm

I also liked the one about passing a bill. I learned about bill passing in eight grade but this is so much more simple and easier.

Andreina

2/14/2010 10:49:27 am

I thought the bill cartoon was cute. I found myself singing along with him. I also learned something about interjections, “put a comma if the feeling is not as strong” and also “adjectives are words the you use to really describe things, handy words to carry around.” The shows are very musical and education. Just imagine how much more kids will learn if cartoon like that were still around and it was the only cartoon on T.V.. Thankfully we have better and more enjoyable cartoons but unfortunately they only rot our brains.

Ms. Cohen

2/14/2010 11:36:27 am

Angie, what do you mean you have "more enjoyable cartoons"? Better than Bugs Bunny? Better than the Road Runner, Magilla Gorilla and the Flintstones? I. Don't. Think. So.

And yes, if you found yourself singing along with it after listening to it once, you can imagine how many people my age know them by heart...

Katherine

2/15/2010 07:23:01 am

When I was littler I would always watch Bugs Bunny I even had it recorded on tape so i would play it so many times a day and never get tired of it. I agree with you Ms. Cohen cartoons from back then are a lot better!

Justin

2/16/2010 11:53:21 pm

These are like the shorter versions of the shows that come on today (like Dora or Diego) but I find them more helpful and it’s easier to learn something with these cartoons. I think that if they were longer, they would help even more. Ms. Cohen is right when she says that the songs are catchy. I can’t get the song out of my head. :) I was also reading the comments on the bottom of the youtube page and someone said that they had to memorize it when they went to school. I guess that was their way of learning what a verb or adjective is. What happened to teachers doing their job?

Ms. Cohen

2/16/2010 11:58:20 pm

Oooooh! Justin slamming on the teachers! Well Justin, teachers accept any help that television might provide... For example, many students tell me that they've seen History Channel specials on whatever I'm teaching... However students can learn works for me!

Assignments:

1. Answer any and all blog posts to the left by their due dates (which can be found on SnapGrades)

2. Watch "60 Minutes" and answer the questions on the blog (due Monday).

3. Vocab sentences.

MATCHING GAME!
100 Most Common SAT Words
PLAY!!!
http://www.quia.com/mc/1527