Current+Events

Current Events

One thing that I am consistently surprised by over and over again as a teacher is the lack of awareness that my students concerning their world. I will come back from a longer break or from the weekend and I will ask my students about some fairly significant development and many have no clue regarding that event. Arguably the most glaring example of this was tsunami in Asia which took place on Dec 26, 2004. This tsunami killed over 200,000 people and is considered to be one of the worst (if not the worst) natural disaster in history.

When we came back from Christmas break that year, I asked many of my students about the tsunami. Some of them had not heard of it, and many of them that had heard of it could only explain very basic information regarding the tsunami. This might suggest that students simply do not know about events which happen overseas. However, unfortunately, I have not found that to be the case.

I could give many examples regarding how students in my course are not aware of current events at the local, state or national level. One example is how I occasionally will decide to pick topics for a project. I will ask random trivia questions based on current events. Whoever gets the question correct gets to pick the topic they want first, they are taken out of the competition, and then the questioning continues. The questions I pick are fairly easy (in my view at least), yet after the first 3 or 4 students answer, it takes the other students a long time to get questions correct.

As future Social Studies teachers who are tasked with helping to produce an informed citizenry, cultivating a desire for understanding the world in our students is one of your main tasks. How you choose to do this will be something that you should consistently reflect on.


 * Strategies**


 * CNN Student News Starter -** Start each class with CNN Student News. Students can be expected to fill out summary sheets during or afterwards, asked to discuss things or be given a brief quiz about it afterwards. Especially useful in government or geography classes.
 * Article Analysis -** Print off two different articles about the same current event: one from a "conservative" perspective, one from a "liberal" perspective. Have the students read the articles, circle information that is the same, underlining the information that is different. You could also use highlighters, print off articles from different countries, or print off position statements from different websites on different positions.
 * Current Events Quizzes -** Give students a list of articles that they need to read. On a certain day of the week, give them a quiz related to that quiz.
 * Apples to Apples -** This strategy involves taking the concept for the game "Apples to Apples" and applying it to concepts that are current events. Create humorous cards for current event nouns (e.g. Newt Gingrich, Barack Obama, WikiLeaks, Egypt, etc...) and matching verbs (or you can use existing cards for this). You could even assign the students to create a set of cards prior to doing the current events Apples to Apples.
 * Taboo -** Similar in concept to Apples to Apples, you simply create Taboo cards using current events concepts. You then make the students play Taboo (the game where you are not allowed to say 5 words most related to a certain concept) using concepts from current events. Again, you could have the students create a set number of cards each prior to playing.
 * Current Events Circle -** Assign each student in class an article or concept from current events. Each student must find an article and print it off related to the specific topic you have chosen. Afterwards, they answer a set of questions using a worksheet or preparation sheet. In class, desks are moved into a circle and you guide a discussion on the current events.
 * Newspaper Worksheets -** Many newspapers have a student page where they have a feature story that has a set of questions which you do not have to create. Simply get a classroom set of newspapers and use these for this activity. Students need to use the newspapers to find the answers. They can work solo or in groups. This is a good strategy for if you need to be gone and you have a sub, since the students can work quietly and it require very little directions. Additionally, this is helping the students developing their reading skills.
 * Controversies/Debate Strategies -** Click link HERE to see methods of developing current events strategies around discussing and debating controversial topics. Link will take you to "Controversies in Education Page."

media type="youtube" key="A8yHXTkZXNo" height="315" width="560" CNN Student News - September 9, 2011

media type="youtube" key="FN3om8DkXug" height="315" width="560" CNN Student News - September 12, 2011

Links CNN Student News - Daily brief news program put together by CNN, each clip is about 10 minutes. Good for starters or closers in a variety of Social Studies courses, especially Geography, Civics and American Government. Newsmap - Unique search engine which is color-coded and grouped by topic in order to make searching easier. Newspapers in Education - Organization of various newspapers throughout the area which develops plans and resources for (as the name suggests) using newspapers in education. PBS Newshour Extra - PBS Newshour includes a variety of clips and resources for teachers related to current events. CSPAN Classroom - C-SPAN classroom resources. Another great source with videos and a variety of resources. USA Today - Current Events for Teachers - USA Today's page for teachers. A variety of good resources here.