For Teachers

Part 1 — For Teachers

A teacher who wants to try this usually has two questions: how to do it, and how to get permission. The how is already simple. The permission is where teachers most often get stuck. This page answers both.

Why this works in a classroom, and how it's different from home

The underlying principle doesn't change: give a child enough real-life examples, and let the child choose their own goal. But a classroom has two things a home doesn't always have:

• An adult is reliably present every single day. Some children's homes may not have anyone with the time or consistency to be there in the evening. A teacher is an adult who's reliably there every day school is in session.
• A classmate's answer is another example in itself. When a teacher asks the same question and several children answer, each child doesn't just hear their own observation. They hear what their classmates noticed too. One child's menu of examples grows to include the whole room's perspective, not just their own.

The difference from home: at home, this runs on one child's own pace. In a classroom, it's a shared routine for the whole room. Both use the same mechanism, just a different setting.

How much time does a teacher actually need

Honestly: if you use pairs, the time needed is the documentary's length for the students' age group, plus no more than 3 minutes for the end-of-video question. No homework, no scoring, no preparation beyond choosing the title in advance and watching it first.

The times in the table are suggestions, not targets you have to reach.

Some days a child will watch less because they are tired, can't concentrate, or the film just doesn't appeal. That's fine. Stop, and watch again tomorrow. A shorter time every day still helps, because what helps a child is watching consistently, day after day.

If an older child loves a film and wants to see it through to the end, going over the time in the table is fine.

For kindergarten children, we suggest staying within the time in the table.

Note: This content is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. It is not a substitute for guidance from a qualified paediatrician or child development professional. If you have concerns about a student's development or behaviour, please consult a doctor directly. Screen-time guidance on this page references the general public guidance from AAP and WHO for children aged 2-5 (up to 60 minutes/day across all screens combined). The suggested Doxzilla Learning viewing time is intended as part of — not in addition to — that overall daily allowance. References to AAP and WHO on this page refer to their publicly published general guidance and do not imply that AAP or WHO has reviewed, endorsed, or is affiliated with Doxzilla Learning or the Amornphat Method.

If the table's viewing time runs longer than the period actually available, split it across two days. Go right ahead. A routine kept up consistently matters more than finishing in one sitting.

Choosing documentaries for a child: four checks

When a teacher chooses, the whole class watches the same documentary. That makes the four checks matter even more.

This method asks a child to watch one documentary a day, every day, from age 3 to 18. What the child watches matters as much as the watching.

Find documentaries anywhere. Make sure each one has all four of these.

Curated Content

Someone chose this documentary for children, and can tell you why. A child who walks past one barbershop every day knows one job. Documentaries chosen on purpose, from many kinds of work and many parts of the world, make that picture bigger.

Ask: who picked this one, and why?

Age Classification

The documentary says which ages can watch it and what to know first, such as which films suit young children and which are better left until a child is older. A label helps you choose faster, and it helps most when you have no time to watch first. But if the child is under 9, please skim the whole documentary first.

Ask: was this label made for this documentary, and did the person who made it actually watch it?

Fact Check

Someone has checked that what the documentary says is true, and says plainly what could not be checked. A child builds a picture of what's possible from what they see. If what they see isn't true, the picture isn't either.

Ask: who checked it, and is it someone other than the people who made it?

Trust

You can tell who stands behind it, who pays for it, and who to tell if something is wrong. This method asks you to step back day after day, for years, and that only works with a source you can rely on.

Ask: can I find a name I can contact, and what happens if something is wrong?

If all four are there, press play. If one isn't, try another.

A convenience option, not a required step. If you can't find documentaries that meet all four, we've prepared them at Doxzilla Learning (doxzilla.com/learning), which is built around these four standards. Sign-up details are on that page. The method itself works anywhere, with or without it.

This section is general information, not part of a commercial offer.

How to start in the first week

Day one: choose one documentary that meets all four checks and fits your students' age group, and watch the whole film yourself first, every time, especially for ages 3 to 8 (a library, a computer room, or any screen the school already has will do). Watch it together as a class, then ask one question: "What did you see someone doing today?" Whoever wants to answer can. No one has to, and no answer is right or wrong.

The first three days: start with the animals category, because every age warms to it fastest. Use it to build the "watch every day" habit before moving on to content that needs more focus.

After that: rotate through working people (the most important category in this method), science/technology, and places/how things are made.

Want a more detailed plan? The full 14-day plan, the base question for each category, and how to adjust questions by age are all in the 14-day starter guide. It uses the exact same template a family would use, with almost no adaptation needed.

In the Classroom

This section runs parallel to "The 14-Day Plan" and "The Daily Question" in the 14-day guide on the At Home page, for a teacher with thirty children in a room at once. It isn't a different guide. The content and the core method are identical throughout. Only one thing needs a new design: the original mechanism is "a child talks with an adult." A teacher with thirty children can't do that one-on-one every day.

The 14-day plan works as-is — no content changes. But "14 days" means 14 school days, not 14 calendar days.

The category plan and the four base questions in the 14-day guide work in a classroom exactly as written, because they're about content, not about where the watching happens. The only thing that changes is time. School isn't open every day, so the 14-day plan runs across roughly three calendar weeks (weekends included) rather than two, as it would at home. That's not a problem, because missing the occasional day doesn't break the method.

The daily question with thirty children — the heart of this format

What replaces "a child talks with one adult" is a child talks with one classmate, while the teacher asks the question and listens in on a few pairs, not every pair. Thirty children really can talk at once, if they're paired up.

Steps (total time: no more than 3 minutes a day, after watching):

1. The teacher reads the day's base question out loud, once. No extra explaining, no example answers given first.
2. Ten seconds of silent thinking.
3. Pair with a neighbour and take turns. No more than 30 seconds each (60 seconds total per pair, all pairs talking at once).
4. The teacher walks around and listens in on a few pairs during that time, not every pair, no notes, no scoring. The question rules in the 14-day guide apply exactly as they do at home: open not closed, short, no scoring, and every answer heard with the same face and the same tone.
5. No one is forced to speak to the whole class. On some days, not every day, the teacher can invite one or two volunteers who raise their own hand to share with the room. Only children who volunteer themselves.

Adjusting by age

• Kindergarten: no timed pairs. Sit in one big circle with the whole class, ask one question, and listen to whoever wants to tell. Skip the ten seconds of silent thinking.
• Ages 6 to 14: use the steps above.
• Ages 15 to 17: don't read out the daily question. Say once, at the start of term: "If you'd like to talk about something you watched, you can any time. You don't have to wait to be asked." Then don't repeat it.

Time the teacher spends per day with pairs: no more than 3 minutes. There is nothing to prepare beyond picking the day's category in advance, nothing to score, no record to keep for each child, and no homework to follow. Three minutes is enough to read the question aloud, give the children a moment of quiet thinking, let them talk in pairs, and walk around listening to a few pairs. The small-group activity further down this page is a different activity and takes longer than pairs.

A child who doesn't want to speak, or can't

Some children want to speak, but the moment someone looks at them they tighten up, go red, lose their voice or go completely silent. These children need time, and that is perfectly normal. Giving them time and another way to take part helps them feel at ease faster than saying "just try, you'll get used to it." The rule that a child who isn't ready to speak can pass applies exactly as it does at home, and a classroom has more options, because a teacher can design the activity:

• On day one, tell the whole class together that nobody has to speak. There's no need to single anyone out.
• Pairing up is naturally less pressure than speaking to the whole room. A child too shy to speak in front of thirty classmates can often still talk to one.
• A child who doesn't want to talk even with a partner can write or draw instead, a one-line note or a quick sketch, into the class notebook. You don't read it aloud and you don't show it to other students. If you see something that worries you about a child's safety, for example a child draws or writes that someone is hurting them, take it to your school counsellor or principal straight away and follow your school's child-protection procedure. You don't need to question the child further, and you shouldn't promise to keep it secret.
• Other ways count the same: drawing, writing one line, pointing at a picture, giving a thumbs up, or telling you alone at break.
• A pair that says "nothing to talk about," or stays quiet, counts as a completed pair.
• If a child wants to try, move forward a small step at a time, at the pace the child asks for, not at the pace of a timetable. Rotating pairs now and then can help a shy child land with someone easier to talk to, but it's not a required rule.
• Never call a child "shy" in front of the child or their classmates. When a child who has been silent for a long time starts to speak, praise them gently, exactly as much as you would praise anyone else. When a child's turn comes and they pass, answer "Of course" and move on.

If a child talks at home but has been completely silent at school for a month or more, tell the family and suggest they see a doctor or a child psychologist.

Telling friends about it in small groups

Entirely optional

You can use small groups or not. Nobody has to. There is no test, no contest and no prize. Staying with pairs all year is perfectly fine.

Small groups are the format the Amornphat Method chose to use, but teachers know better what suits their own room, so go by your own experience. On days when time is short, use pairs instead. Both use the same principle.

By age

• Kindergarten (ages 3 to 5): no small groups yet. Sit in one big circle with the whole class, ask one question, then listen to the children who want to tell. Children this age can't yet take turns in a group on their own, so they need the teacher to keep the rhythm. A child who doesn't want to speak can draw instead.
• Ages 6 to 8: start with pairs, talking to the friend beside them. Once the children know each other, after about a month, move to groups of 3. In bigger groups at this age, the loudest child ends up talking alone.
• Ages 9 to 14: groups of 5 work. Children this age can wait for a friend to finish, and they like hearing views different from their own. Everyone is invited to tell in turn, but nobody has to.
• Ages 15 to 17: let each student choose whether to join a group, talk in a pair, or write a note alone. This age wants space of its own. When they are placed in a group, many say just enough to get by.

The same rules apply at every age: no scores, no competing, no grouping by ability, and change the members every month. A listener can say one of two things: "I like the part where..." or "I'd like to know more about..."

Why groups of five

Johnson and Johnson's research on cooperative learning recommends small groups of 2 to 4, so that everyone really gets to speak. Five is one more than that range.

The Amornphat Method uses groups of five because of the schedule. Five children go round exactly once in a school week, so everyone is invited to be the teller once and a listener four times.

The trade-off is one extra child, so each child speaks a little less. If a group seems too quiet, drop to four straight away. That's within the rules.

What the research tells us is about learning together in general. Johnson and Johnson themselves reported in 2018 that more than 1,200 studies compare children learning together, competing, or working alone, and concluded that learning together brings better grades and better relationships with classmates.

Why take turns telling and listening

Having every child tell and listen in turn is the format the Amornphat Method has chosen. What you may see is children getting better at listening, paying more attention to how others feel, and speaking up more.

Johnson and Johnson also wrote that communication, trust-building and conflict-resolution skills have to be taught on purpose, like any other subject. They don't appear just because children sit in the same group. So the teacher has one job that can't be skipped: say clearly what the teller does and what the listeners do.

The teller and the listeners

The teller

• Everyone is invited to tell in turn, but nobody has to.
• A child can tell out loud, draw for the group, point at a picture and ask a friend to help tell it, or say "today I'll just listen."
• No reason needed. The teacher doesn't ask why and doesn't note who passed.
• Don't write a turn chart on the board. Quietly tell the child in the morning: "It's your turn today. If you're not ready, just tell me."
• Two or three sentences is enough.

The listeners

• A listener can say one of two things: "I like the part where..." or "I'd like to know more about..."
• Every answer is accepted in the room. If someone laughs, the teacher talks to that child later, never in front of the child who was laughed at.

Telling a few friends is less pressure than speaking to the whole room. Children who won't speak in front of the class may find it easier to talk to a few friends.

How the activity runs

Step 1: Watch without talking. The whole class watches the same documentary together, for the suggested time for their age in the table above. No talking while watching. Each child keeps what they saw to themselves for now. If children talk during the film, the loudest one ends up deciding what everyone saw.

Step 2: Think alone. The teacher reads the base question for the category (the same one as in the 14-day guide) once, out loud. Each child thinks quietly at their own seat. They can jot one line or sketch quickly if they like. Nothing is collected, checked or scored. This way every child arrives at the group with an answer of their own, and doesn't have to wait to hear someone else's.

Step 3: Today's teller tells. The children move into their groups and face each other. The first days may take a little longer. Today's teller tells the others what they saw, in their own words, and gives their own answer to the teacher's question. No reciting. They tell only their group, and nobody stands at the front. If the child chooses to draw, point or just listen today, that's fine, as in "The teller and the listeners" above.

Step 4: The group talks. The teller invites friends to speak, one at a time. Listeners say "I like the part where..." or "I'd like to know more about..." Anyone who doesn't want to speak yet can give a thumbs up or pass. The teacher walks past a few groups, not all, and doesn't sit in the middle of a group. If a group is stuck, ask one question, such as "What did you see that made you think that?" and walk on.

Step 5: Say what you heard from a friend. A listener who wants to can share one thing they heard from a friend in the group today, something they hadn't thought of before. "I heard from my friend that..." No notes. Anyone who doesn't want to speak can just listen.

If the lesson period isn't long enough

The group activity takes longer than pairs. If one period isn't enough, there are three ways to do it:

• Split the viewing over two days, and do steps 2 to 5 on the second day.
• Do groups every other day, and pairs on the other days. The teller order only moves forward on group days.
• Do groups once a week, and pairs on the other days.

Any of these is fine and none breaks the rules.

How to form groups and set the telling order

The teacher forms the groups. If children choose, close friends sit together and some children are left with nobody choosing them.

Mix children who are different from each other. Don't group by ability. Johnson and Johnson found that mixed groups help children see their classmates more realistically and more positively.

The teacher keeps the telling order for each group, in their head or in the teacher's own notebook, not on the board and not on the group's table. In the morning, quietly tell the child whose turn it is: "It's your turn today. If you're not ready, just tell me."

If the child whose turn it is is absent, or chooses to just listen that day, the next child tells instead, and the first child keeps their place as the next teller. Don't skip them.

When everyone has had a turn, start a new round. Change the groups every month, or when a child asks.

A class of 37, which doesn't divide by 5

Don't force every group to have five. Fill the gaps with groups of four.

37 children make 5 groups of five and 3 groups of four, 8 groups in all. 25 plus 12 is 37.

For any class of 12 or more, divide the number of children by 5 and look at the remainder. The number of groups of four you need is 5 minus the remainder. All the other groups have five.

• Remainder 0: no groups of four
• Remainder 4: 1 group of four
• Remainder 3: 2 groups of four
• Remainder 2: 3 groups of four (a class of 37 is like this)
• Remainder 1: 4 groups of four

A group of four goes round in 4 days, one day sooner than a group of five. Don't try to match it to the week. Just keep each group's order moving.

For a class of fewer than 12, use groups of three or four, whichever fits. For 11, that's 4, 4 and 3. A group of three works, and it's better than leaving one child alone.

A group of six is possible, but a round takes six days and each child speaks even less. If you can choose, use smaller groups.

What the teacher does

• Choose a documentary that passes the four checks, and watch it first.
• Form the groups and set the telling order.
• On the first group day, explain the roles to the children once.
• When explaining, tell the children that today's teller, if they choose to tell, does three things: tells what they saw in their own words, gives their own answer, and adds a one-sentence summary at the end if they want. Listeners do two things: let the friend finish, then say "I like the part where..." or "I'd like to know more about..." You can put these two lines up beside the board.
• Read the question once. Don't explain it and don't give example answers.
• Walk past a few groups, and ask one question if a group is stuck.
• Notice a child who keeps asking to just listen, or who stays silent round after round. Keep it in your head, don't write it down, and talk to the child privately later. Not to ask why, but to ask what would help, or what might feel easier, such as changing groups or starting by drawing.

The teacher's part, kept simple

• Listen to every answer in the same way. No answer is marked right or wrong, so there is nothing to give away.
• Keep it a conversation, not a test: the teacher's role is to listen, so there are no scores, no notes on individual children and no comparing of groups.
• Treat every group the same: no prizes, rankings or stars, and no competing.
• Thank the whole class alike, so that no group is singled out for telling best in front of the others.
• Follow the telling order. The order decides who tells, not the teacher's whim.
• Give every child their own turn, so the strongest child never tells for the others.
• Spend a short time with each group, then move on, so the other groups aren't left waiting for the teacher.
• A child who isn't ready to tell can pass.
• A child who speaks a local dialect or home language can tell in their own language.

Remembering it in five lines

1. Watch together as a class, without talking.
2. Think of your own answer alone.
3. Today's teller tells their group, in their own words.
4. The group talks. Listeners say "I like the part where..." or "I'd like to know more about..."
5. Anyone who wants to can share one thing they heard from a friend.

Every step has a choice, and nobody has to speak.

References

• Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1999). What Makes Cooperative Learning Work. In Cooperative Learning, JALT Applied Materials (ERIC ED437841). For the points on small groups of 2 to 4, mixed groups, and teaching communication and trust-building skills.
• Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2018). Cooperative Learning: The Foundation for Active Learning. IntechOpen. doi:10.5772/intechopen.81086. For the points on the more than 1,200 studies across the field of cooperative learning, academic results, relationships, and groups of 2 to 4.

Connecting Back to Home: "School Starts It, Home Carries It On"

Once a school has bought access, students can watch every day, including weekends and school holidays, not limited to the days a teacher screens something in class. A school buys access, not class time. What happens in the classroom and what happens at home are two layers that add to each other, not substitutes for one another:

• School starts it: a child with no one at home to watch with gets to see their first documentary and practise "talking about what you saw" through a classmate instead. A teacher can start this method with thirty children on the very first day, while whoever is at home can only start with one or two at a time.
• Home carries it on: daily watching doesn't have to stop just because there's no class that day or school is out. Access stays live. A child can keep watching at home on their own, and if someone is at home, the same daily question from the main guide works exactly as written.
• Teachers don't need to assign homework to connect the two. What a child tells a classmate in the classroom often flows home on its own, with nobody assigning it (the same signal as "What You Might See When It's Working" in the 14-day guide on the "At Home" page: a child starting to talk about what they saw without being asked). If a teacher wants to nudge gently, they can say once, at the start of term: "You can tell your family about this if you want to", then leave it there, with no tracking or scoring. It's an invitation, not an assignment.
• If a child has already watched at school that day, there's no need to watch again at home. The times in the table are for the whole day, not for each place. On a day with no viewing, let it pass. Don't make it up.

This section is general information, not part of a commercial offer.

Short Tips

Before and during the screening

• Watch the whole documentary yourself first, every time, especially for ages 3 to 8. The age label is a helpful guide, not a substitute for the teacher's own judgment.
• A child can cover their eyes or move to another corner of the room. They don't have to give a reason.
• If you have to split a film across two days, stop at a calm scene.
• After the screening, if a child looks upset or unusually quiet, go and talk to them quietly later. Don't call them to the front.
• Which films suit young children, and which scenes to leave for later, is under "Choosing Films for Young Children" at the bottom of the At Home page.

When a child asks a heavy question after watching

How to answer questions about death, animals hunting each other, or families having different amounts of money is in the section "When a child asks a heavy question after watching" on the At Home page. It works in a classroom too. If a child talks about hurting themselves or wanting to die, listen seriously, stay with them, and tell your school counsellor or principal straight away, following your school's procedure.