From 2019 and 2024, California’s NGSS K-12 test scores only improved 0.7% on state standard exams and less than half of the population met ELA standards. Though plateaued and underperforming scores stem from several variables, here, we’ll address how video serves as an effective engagement solution designed to help educators meet California NGSS and ELA standards.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- Applying California NGSS and ELA standards with video lessons
- Lesson plan ideas for California NGSS and ELA standards
- Creating standards-aligned content with WeVideo
Apply California NGSS and ELA standards with video lessons
To meet California NGSS, educators should address the following elements:
- Science and Engineering practices
- Disciplinary core ideas
- Crosscutting concepts
For ELA, California standards support students to develop appropriate skills for optimal future and career readiness. Some of these skills include:
- Media literacy skills
- The ability to gather and apply information and ideas
- The ability to conduct research
- Developing reading, writing, and speaking proficiency
While both California NGSS and ELA standards seem intuitive, constructing standards-aligned lesson plans can feel like another plate to juggle for time-limited educators. Additionally, delivering standards-aligned instruction doesn’t equal learner engagement, retention, or performance. That’s where video comes in.
Teaching standards-aligned lessons with video
Interactive video learning tools are imperative for enhancing learning outcomes by transforming standard instruction into relevant, future-ready experiences. WeVideo’s video lessons hold countless benefits, some of which include providing:
- Differentiated and personalized learning experiences
- Engagement tools for any lesson, such as: multiple-choice, polls, web embeds, quizzes, and more
- Video creation and editing skills that serve future professional environments
- Skill development such as: critical-thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity
- High-quality templates and standards-aligned assignment ideas that save educators lesson prep time
- Powerful analytics tools to monitor progress and scale success
Having a dynamic video learning platform makes it easy to customize, assign, and track understanding to deepen outcomes and bridge performance gaps.
Meet NGSS standards with dynamic video content
Lesson plan ideas for California NGSS and ELA standards
Video learning is not simply pressing play while students tune out. In fact, with the right tools, it’s the opposite. Interactive video makes it easy for educators to capture and keep learner attention with confidence that they’re meeting California NGSS and ELA standards.
Lessons that meet California NGSS
Video lessons are a dynamic and effective way to integrate state standards into curricula. Consider:
- Collaborative research video projects to investigate phenomena
- Design a digital model that demonstrates a chemical reaction
- Make a stop-motion video to demonstrate an environmental process or concept
- Create a podcast that involves interviewing peers about a subject
- Make a screencast tutorial to demonstrate understanding of a complex topic
- Create an explainer video to prove understanding by bridging audio, voiceover, and stock media
There are endless ways to apply video to learning. Target the learning objectives or standards, create a lesson plan, incorporate video, and assign!
Lessons that meet ELA standards
Whether educators introduce concepts using video, encourage learners to create their own videos, or both (we highly recommend both), there are tons of ways to use video to meet ELA standards, too. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Bring book reports to life with a video book trailer
- Assess understanding with a reflective video that deepens inquiry about a plot line, character, or theme
- Make a video GIF to animate literary concepts, words, or character emotions
- Create a group video book review using creative overlays, transitions, motion titles, and more
- Make a digital poem to help learners embody a lesson from a first-hand perspective
- Assign video diaries or journal entries for consistent creation and reflection
Bringing video to class is a critical way to innovate learning for modern classrooms — and it doesn’t require former tech experience for anyone!
Creating standards-aligned content with WeVideo
WeVideo helps educators amplify learning in diverse environments with an all-in-one platform that streamlines workflows with ease. With robust video learning tools at the ready, California NGSS and ELA standards become an integrated part of curricula without having to think twice about it. Give it a try to see for yourself!