Creating Crash Course Kids Lit.

You know and love our Crash Course Literature series. From Homer to Toni Morrison, we’ve enjoyed our fair share of classics. So we were super excited to dig back into books with a new series, now with a different age group in mind: 3rd- to 5th-graders. But first, we had to learn what kind of approach would work best for the average Crash Course Kids Literature viewer.

First up: keeping it short and simple. While videos on our main channel often cover a lot of ground and meander down interesting tangents, we needed to keep kids’ attention spans in mind. So we cut the average video length in half and chose a single main topic to discuss in each one, using one or two books to help illustrate it. Like, we discussed themes through the lens of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

We also used core standards to help us grasp what this age group would typically be learning in school. And we tried to make lesson planning easier for educators by aligning our videos with those standards and listing them in the description of each one.

When choosing books to cover, we researched commonly studied classics and new favorites, using sites like Common Sense Media to make sure they were age-appropriate. Some episodes—like Episode 1—would skew younger, while others—like Episode 5—would skew older.

Perhaps the most important step, though, was to bring a series advisor on board who had experience teaching and writing for this age group. Editor and teacher Nadja Tiktinsky guided us every step of the way, through script revisions and video reviews, to make sure that this series would be well-loved and understood by our target audience. She pointed us toward important strategies, like not talking down to the viewer; if kids sense they’re being patronized, they’ll stop paying attention! That led us to incorporate phrases like “You probably already know…” or “You might have heard…” when introducing familiar terms.

And lastly, we wanted to make sure to stick to our signature casual tone to keep kids engaged and reinforce the fun of reading. It was important to our whole team to create a series that would speak to all kinds of readers—avid and reluctant—and emphasize that there are lots of ways into the world of literature. CC Kids Lit is chock-full of funky costumes, silly props, and delicious desserts.

We hope you and the kids in your life enjoy this series as much as we enjoyed making it! All episodes are available now on YouTube.