Integrating learning into your free time in a fun, entertaining way can be an excellent method to take a break from traditional studying, while still enriching your knowledge. The best educational YouTube channels do just that: teach valuable and interesting topics in education in an entertaining, accessible way. There are so many amazing YouTubers creating content about ELA and history—these are just some of the best creators for students looking to expand their knowledge!
Literature & ELA YouTube Channels
Want a break from the written page? Learn about reading and writing in a digital format with these videos! So many literature lovers take to YouTube to share their knowledge and passion with learners across the world.
Crash Course
You probably know Crash Course—the creators of some of the most popular, acclaimed educational videos on YouTube. They aim to create high-quality educational material spanning all subjects, from science and math videos to ones that cover topics in the humanities.
If you want to improve your reading comprehension, their literature playlists function like an instructional book club. You can read through novels Crash Course has made videos about, then watch those videos to learn about their contexts, reception, and themes. These playlists of theirs are especially useful for K-12 ELA learning.
LeafbyLeaf
Known for their in-depth book reviews and themed content about reading, LeafbyLeaf creates videos about a wide variety of literature, from book reviews to reading recommendations and other content about their reading. This English Literature YouTube channel covers classics and acclaimed modern works, from a video on 100 works by James Joyce, to a review of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, to a serious look at The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Benjamin McEvoy
Have you ever tried to dive into a novel but felt like you needed some guidance? Benjamin McEvoy is perhaps one of the best educational YouTube channels for this purpose! From “How to Read War and Peace” or “The Count of Monte Cristo”, he creates excellent explanatory, lecture-style looks at the context behind literature. His reading guides (and other content on literature) are especially perfect for those developing a reading habit!
TheGrammarGirl
TheGrammarGirl makes excellent ELA videos for middle school and high school students who want to improve their English and writing abilities. Through this channel, author Mignon Fogarty uses her English expertise to create instructional English language-related content that often has a pop culture flair! Whether you need some instruction for a grammar concept you don’t understand or you want to learn about unique writing concepts to use in your essays, this YouTube channel is a fantastic source of ELA learning material.
History YouTube Channels
YouTube videos can be an especially excellent resource for learning history. From teams of historians and video producers to individual history buffs creating educational content, these are some of the best educational YouTube channels about history and social studies.
Crash Course
Yes, we’re featuring Crash Course once again—but for good reason! As one of the best free educational YouTube channels, their history courses are the perfect accompaniments to any K-12 history course. The US History and World History courses they’ve created are especially suitable study materials for the AP World History and AP US History exams.
A boon of fascinating materials for learning history, here are the Crash Course courses/playlists specializing in particular ages or subjects:
Yale Courses
The esteemed Yale University uploads many of its course lectures to the YaleCourses YouTube channel. One of the best educational YouTube channels for high school students looking to expand their knowledge, YaleCourses’ library of videos cover a wide breadth of subjects. What lands them on this list of the best history YouTube channels in particular is how their history videos truly shine.
College history courses dive even deeper into the past events than K-12 history and social studies, making each course a colorful, intense look at particular historical events or eras. If you’re interested in history from over 1,000 years ago, take a look through Professor Paul Freedman’s course, The Early Middle Ages. Prefer more modern history that’s applicable to your history class? Professor David Blight’s The Civil War and Reconstruction course is 27 lectures of in-depth historical analysis sure to improve your understanding.
Atun-Shei Films
Looking for history YouTube videos that don’t just, well, lecture at you? Self-described as a filmmaker with an interest in history, Andrew Rakic—the person behind Atun-Shei Films—develops marvelous history documentaries with a dramatic flair. Covering topics as specific as a three-video documentary series on the development of the town of Sudbury, MA to as general as a look at the historical context behind Shakespeare’s works, his videos use humor and a movie-lover’s touch to explore unique aspects of history.
OverSimplified
With humor and fun animations, OverSimplified takes a, well, simplified look at both well-known and less-understood topics in history. Their fun, enlightening videos will entertain even those who are always bored by their history classes. While their library is only a few dozen videos, they are still active, regularly uploading every few months. Some suggestions are their Prohibition video, an excellent accompaniment to American history and politics classes, and their most popular video on World War II, a hilarious overview for anyone interested in that era of history.
Reading the Past
The final channel we’re featuring is Reading the Past, Dr. Katrina Marchant’s project to explore the wide breadth of fascinating, dramatic, and even weird moments in history. Her specialty is in early modern literature and culture (roughly 16th–19th century Europe), and her videos attempt to bridge the gap between that period and our world today. While her videos aren’t super applicable to history courses for middle and high schoolers, her investigations into unique topics (such as “Pets at Court” in the royal palaces across Europe or “Mary Tudor: the Sister of Henry VIII”) will expand your awareness and appreciation for history!
Improving Reading & Writing Skills
These were some of the best educational YouTube channels for students who want ELA & history help, and we hope at least one of them has resonated with your interests and learning style! If you want to improve your English and reading skills on your own, there is no such thing as having “too many” resources at your disposal. These channels can give you a helping hand when it comes to building your knowledge and interest in those subjects, but if you want more help and practice (particularly for those upcoming standardized tests), Piqosity is here to help!
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