Online Activities » Digital Movies

Use collections of resources from our Teaching Materials to Create a Digital Documentary Activity for Students in Minutes

PrimarySourceLearning.org is collaborating with the Center for Technology & Teacher Education in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia to enable teachers use collections of teaching materials to transfer resources from Lesson Plans into a movie making activity with PrimaryAccess in just a few clicks of the mouse. This will save time in searching for digital sources related to curriculum standards by using and building on collections of resources that other classroom teachers have already created and used with students.


"PrimaryAccess is a web-based tool that offers teachers and students frictionless access to digital images and materials that enable them to construct compelling personal narratives."

See examples of Primary Access Movies created by students:

Ansel Adams - high school

Billie Holiday - high school

F. Scott Fitzgerald - high school

Bessie Smith - high school

Al Capone - high school

Civil War from a horses perspective - elementary

Roberto Clemente - elementary

Massoit - elementary

Fannie Lou Hammer - elementary

Alice Paul - elementary

Sara Breedlove - elementary

Pocahontas - elementary


To use a collection from our Teaching Materials to make a digital movie:

  1. Use the link below to search for a Lesson Plan from our Collection.
  2. On the Lesson Plan page, click on the PrimaryAccess logo located in the links to the right to start the process.

Search for a Lesson Plan