Customer Reviews

Dig Into History with California Jones: Gold Rush

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This video is absolutely WONDERFUL!!!! It has the exact right amount of silliness so that the kids love the video, and just the right amount of important factual information to make the teacher happy. I really wish that California Jones would branch out and do a videos on all the main social studies and science topics taught in fourth grade! He manages to squeeze in the most important ideas using mnemonic devices-humor. There are also little "pop quizzes" to ensure that the kids are learning. My kids are HUGE fans as we also watched the mission and land form videos.

I bought this video for my fourth grade classroom. My students loved it and I was thrilled with its focus on the fourth grade social studies standards and its fun way to deliver curriculum. My students remembered the vocabulary taught and made connections with what they already knew.

I bought this dvd for my educational enrichment course on the gold rush and after previewing it, feel I cannot use it. I love informational shows that present information in a lively and fun way (such as Reading Rainbow) but this one flashes unrelated goofiness constantly in a misguided and disrespectful effort to sink down to their perceived level of children. Why on earth would one think that flashing scenes of the 49'ers football team playing would show a link to the nickname "49'ers" used for the gold miners of 1849? This kind of pointless humor is used throughout, to the extent that it is hard to glean much useful information from the film. I'm deeply disappointed. Come on Jones --give us some real history without demeaning yourself and your audience!