Famous People from History is compiled from a set of radio broadcasts and class video clips from BBC Teach. The stories are told in the first person and the radio dramas really bring the story of the famous person to life. The transcripts are attractive – they could be given to children as a reading exercise, as well as for comprehension work. The life stories, developed for Class Clips, have their transcripts below the videos and would have to be copied and pasted into Word for them to be useful in class.
The famous people covered:
- Mary Seacole
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Florence Nightingale
- Harriet Tubman
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- Mary Anning
- Edward Jenner
- Elizabeth Fry
- Grace Darling
- Rosa Parks
- Thomas Barnardo
- Introducing Shakespeare
- Stephenson, Anning, Brunel and Queen Victoria
- Boudica
- Henry Vlll and Elizabeth l
- Samuel Pepys and The Great Fire of London
- Columbus and Magellan
Having never heard of Harriet Tubman I listened to her first, it is an interesting introduction to slavery! A video has been added to the story, as part of the class clips set.
The Grace Darling Story is one I have always loved, to hear it in the first person is just great! It is a twelve-minute video, so may need to be split into a couple of sections for children to watch. The ideas for teaching takes account of that.
The Life of Mary Seacole is far more revealing about the life of Mary than anything children will read in books. It is a radio drama that really brings her story to life in three episodes, the first trying to get to England and be accepted as a nurse. The second about her time in the Crimea and building her hospital. The Times Newspaper story was written during this time and it describes the significance of the fall of Sebastopol. Each episode gives teacher notes and a transcript of the video.
Famous People from History provides stories of people who can be related to a huge number of projects or topics, different periods of history, transport, social developments and geography, to name a few.
