In the master's thesis, we discuss the role and importance of historical movies and novels in history and Spanish classes, and we analyze selected movies and novels about the Spanish Civil War in the teaching of history and Spanish. In the theoretical part, we concluded that the Spanish Civil War is a recent historic event that is a sort of representation of the time before the beginning of World War II in Europe and the social and political contradictions of that time. The general-upper-secondary-school curriculum for history classes does not specifically mention the Spanish Civil War. In selected history textbooks, the Spanish Civil War is included; however, in-depth content about the war is not. The general-upper-secondary-school curriculum for Spanish does not mention the Spanish Civil War. Selected Spanish textbooks also include the war to a very small extent or only mention it. The role of historical movies and novels in history and Spanish classes is important, as they can serve as an educational instrument due to providing information in a relaxed way. Using a historical novel as a didactic resource can contribute to higher motivation of students and their critical thinking. By implementing the lesson, we found out that including historical movies and novels in classes further increases the interest of students in the topic and also encourages their motivation and participation in classes. The implementation also enabled us to self-evaluate the lesson. By interviewing history and Spanish professors, we found out that they believe that the role of historical movies and novels is important because they represent a source through which students memorize the material more easily, faster, and for longer. On the basis of a survey conducted among students, we concluded that including historical movies and novels in history and Spanish classes seems important to them because it encourages their critical thinking. Therefore, teachers of history and Spanish should try to use historical movies and novels as didactic sources in their classes when dealing with important historical topics.
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