5th grade current events assignment

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Current Events for Kids: The Juice News for 5th Grade & Up

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If you’ve ever found yourself stumped on how to navigate current events for kids , explaining news bias again and again, or searching for one, single piece of uplifting news to share, I’ve got an online resource you’re going to love. Read on for our full review of a new source for kids that promotes critical thinking and media literacy.

Disclosure: We received this product free of charge and compensation for our time to prepare an honest review. For more information see our disclosure policy .

It’s tricky to explain what’s going on in the world. Googling “how to explain (insert current events) to kids” natural disasters, politics, and world events more times that I can count. Never has this been more apparent than over the last year. Our K-5 vocabulary list has evolved to include words like pandemic, quarantine, racism, stimulus, riot, brutality, unemployment, wildfires.. . Not to mention everything that went with the not-peaceful-at-all transfer of power.

As an adult it’s challenging to slog through sensationalized headlines and slanted news stories. But we take the time to sort out the facts to make an informed opinion. And for kids? Without a solid set of critical thinking skills in place, it’s next to impossible.

When even the local newspaper endorses a candidate, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find unbiased current event articles for kids. I want my children to learn how to make informed opinions, to come to their own conclusions. Not to be constantly influenced by flashy headlines or even my own biased views . This is why I was thrilled to discover The Juice , an online news source for kids that sticks to the facts, encouraging media literacy and putting critical thinking front and center.

Current Events for Kids: The Juice

The Juice is an online news source designed for kids from fifth through twelfth grade. News stories are presented as just the facts. You’ll find a wide variety of engaging, topical stories as well as videos, vocabulary, and an easy-to-use interface. Monday through Friday your and your kids receive an email with daily headlines – easily accessible from any browser or read on your phone. The following is what you can expect from your daily Juice plus a few benefits that make this program really stand out.

First, take a peak at what you’ll see inside.

Short, to-the-point, stories about current events for kids

Firstly, The Juice isn’t pulling any punches! You will see the same top news headlines here as on the leading news channels. These stories are short and understandable, written in about 200 words. The difference, though, is that these stories are clearly fact-based reporting with no editorializing or sensationalism.

This is fantastic because my 5th grader is as current on world news as we are. He can participate in conversations, ask questions, and form his own opinions. He’s no longer passively listening to our daily discussions about the news but actively participating.

You’ll also find inspiring stories that can be hard to come by on the evening news. Sharing the news with your kids (and reading it to yourself) can be pretty depressing at times. The Juice delivers at least one uplifting story each day, covering stories of adults and kids that are making a positive impact on the world.

Four options for reading level from grades 5-12

Next, when you sign up, you’ll be able to choose a reading level for each of your kids. Homeschool subscriptions come with up to 5 accounts per family. Each level gets the same stories every day, however the sentence length and structure, vocabulary, and concepts are matched to your child’s level to make articles understandable. A fifth grader’s understanding of difficult concepts is different from an eleventh grader’s. The Juice provides support, definitions, and explanations of current events without watering down the stories for kids.

Additionally, The Juice presents news stories in both written and audio format . This is helpful on so many levels from knowing how to pronounce names and foreign words to providing a scaffold for students who struggle with reading comprehension or learning differences. I’ll also note: the audio is computer generated – further helping to separate emotional bias and focus on the facts.

Videos, infographics, and quizzes

As adults, we rarely consume news through reading articles alone. The Juice provides a variety of engaging components that your kids can interact with each day:

• STEAM videos: Each day you’ll receive an educational video related to science, technology, engineering, arts and culture, and/or math (STEAM). These are short, under 5 minutes in length, and cover a wide variety of topics from fun life hacks to book reviews to simple projects and more.
• Infographics: You’ll also find a daily custom created, interactive infographic each day. This is a chart, diagram, or visual aid to help kids understand one of articles or current topics they’ve been exploring. Kids can click or tap the infographics to get more information about each part. It’s a great way to dig into relevant data and statistics.
• Interactive quizzes: Each article leads to an interactive quiz that provides a quick comprehension check for the story. These are great from a parent’s perspective to gauge your child’s understanding, but I’ve found that it’s also a great support for my son to check himself. In reading through his answers, he’s getting clarification and explanations that he needs to fully understand the story.

Using The Juice in your Homeschool, Class, or Co-op

My kids have enjoyed keeping up with current events on The Juice , and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a news source for their kids. This program lends itself well to structured lesson planning, whether you’re homeschooling, with a tutor or class, or teaching co-op.

Reading: Because you can select different reading levels, this is a great source for daily reading practice and vocabulary. Comprehension checks are built in with the interactive quizzes, and you can track of your kids’ results in the teacher portal.

Mathematics and STEAM: Additionally, The Juice is a great supplement for bringing relevant world events into your math and STEM/STEAM classes. Kids have an opportunity to access real-life data and charts and see how this information connects to current events.

Social Studies: This can supplement and support any social studies or history program by focusing on real-time news stories. Connect news with historical events, learn about government processes, and encourage critical thinking and informed opinions and decision making.

Final Thoughts

I can’t emphasize enough how much this program has changed the way we discuss the news in our family. I am a parent who, admittedly, spins stories toward the bright side. However, these short, to-the-point articles have given me support to dig into difficult topics. Breaking complicated topics down with a curious fifth grader that has a difficult time understanding “why?”

My son now has a source for unbiased news that he can access freely. The Juice makes the news engaging, understandable, and relatable. This has sparked interest, prompted many questions, lead to some important conversations, and aided in his understanding of current events.

If you’re looking for a resource that encourages critical thinking with a focus on literacy and comprehension, I highly recommend The Juice . This program is accessible from any browser or mobile device. Start with a free trial and sign up for this affordable news source for less than $1/week.

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Ashley helps parents who want to homeschool find the resources they need to successfully teach their children. Ashley is a former teacher, current homeschooler, published author, and designer behind Circle Time with Miss Fox printables as well as the creator of this website, The Homeschool Resource Room.

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The New York Times

The learning network | 50 ways to teach with current events.

50 Ways to Teach With Current Events

Current Events

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

• See all in Current Events »
• See all lesson plans »

Updated, July, 2016

How can we make sure that students are informed about what’s going on around the world? That they are armed with the tools to be able to distinguish between opinion and fact; between evidence-based statements and empty rhetoric; between sensationalism and solid journalism? Just like most other things in life, the best way to do all that is through practice.

In honor of National News Engagement Day , here are 50 ideas to help teachers bring current events into the classroom, grouped below by category:

Reading and Writing

Speaking and Listening

Games and Quizzes

Photographs, Illustrations, Videos and Infographics

• Design and Creativity

Making Connections

Building Skills

Some ideas work best as regular routines, others as one-shot activities. Many might be easier to use together with the new K-12 New York Times school subscription , but all of them could be implemented using the free links to Times articles on The Learning Network — or with any other trusted news source.

In our comments section, we hope you’ll share how you teach current events.

1. Read the Paper and Find What Interests You: If we could recommend just one thing teenagers should do with the news, it’s this. Just read and discover what you care about. Every summer we try to promote this with our Summer Reading Contest , and we hope teachers are continuing this student-centered approach now that school has started.

You might invite your students to pick one article each week and write about why they chose it, perhaps using student winners from our summer contest as models. Our Reading Log (PDF) might also help.

Then, set aside time for students to share their picks with a partner, or even with a wider audience through social media.

2. Share Your Opinion: Each school day we publish a new Student Opinion question about an article in The Times. Students can participate in our moderated discussions online, or you can borrow from hundreds of published questions for class discussions or personal writing from 2016 , 2015 , 2014 and beyond .

3. Read About News-Making Teenagers: Every month we publish a collection of all the recent Times articles and multimedia that feature teenagers . Students can use this list to identify someone they admire, learn how other teenagers are taking action or make connections to issues in their own school and community.

4. Find ‘News You Can Use': Use The Times, or any other news source, to find things like movie or video game reviews, recipes , sports scores, health information , and how-to’s on subjects from social media to personal finance that can help improve your life.

5. Ask and Answer Questions: Each day we choose an important or interesting Times story and pose the basic news questions — Who, What, Where, When, Why and How — in our News Q’s feature. Students can first answer the “right there” questions that test reading comprehension, then move on to the deeper critical thinking questions, then write their own “News Q’s” about articles they select.

6. Write an Editorial: Have your students pick an issue that matters to them, whether climate change, gender roles or police brutality, and then write an evidence-based persuasive essay like the editorials The New York Times publishes every day. They can practice all year, but save their best work to submit in our Student Editorial Contest in February. Each year we select 10 winners along with dozens of runners-up and honorable mentions from nearly 5,000 student editorials.

7. Compare News Sources: Different papers, magazines and websites treat the news differently. You might have students compare lead stories or, via the Newseum’s daily gallery, front pages . Or, you might just pick one article about a divisive topic (politics, war, social issues) and see how different news sources have handled the subject.

8. Be a Journalist Yourself: Perhaps the most powerful way to engage with current events is to document them yourself, as a student journalist . Write articles or opinion pieces for your school or community paper about how a national or global issue is playing out in your community. Contribute comments online or letters to the editor reacting to news stories you’ve read. Use social media to document what you witness when news happens near you. Take video of local events and interview participants. Or, suggest ways that you and others your age can take action on an issue you care about. The National News Engagement Day Pinterest board has ideas like this and many more.

9. Hold a Debate: Want your students to be able to develop arguments and support a point of view on current issues? We offer numerous resources to help, including: ideas for different classroom debate formats ; ways to use The Times’ Room for Debate feature in the classroom; and a graphic organizer for gathering evidence on both sides of an argument (PDF).

10. Interview Fellow Students: Ask students to generate a question related to an issue they’re reading about, and then conduct a one-question interview (PDF) with their classmates. The room will be buzzing with students asking and answering questions. For more detailed instructions on this activity, consult our teacher instructions .

11. Brainstorm Solutions to the World’s Problems: Why not put students in the role of policymakers? They can look closely at an issue covered in The Times and brainstorm possible solutions together, using our Problem-Solution handout (PDF) to take notes. Then they can work together to draft a policy proposal, perhaps one that suggests a local solution to the problem, and present it to the class or to the school board or city council.

12. Create a News-Inspired Theatrical Performance: Whether a simple monologue or a full Reader’s Theater event, our series, Drama Strategies to Use With Any Day’s Times, can help you use simple theater exercises to spur discussion and thinking about current events.

13. Hold a Mock Campaign and Election: Looking to teach an upcoming election? Let students take the role of campaign strategists and candidates. Our Election Unit can be adapted for any election to get students researching candidates, studying issues, trying out campaign strategies and holding their own mock election. Or, choose another approach from our 10 ways to teach about Election Day or our list of resources for the 2016 presidential election .

14. Organize a Teach-In, Gallery Walk or Social Action on a Topic: Our country and world face complex issues — war, drug abuse, climate change, poverty — to name a few. Students working in groups can follow a topic in The Times, and then organize a classroom or whole school “teach-in” to inform their peers about topics in the news and decide how to take action. Alternatively, they can create a classroom gallery of photographs, maps, infographics, articles, editorial cartoons, essays, videos and whatever else they can find to immerse others in the topic. Ask yourself and your classmates, what can people our age do to effect change around this issue?

15. See How You Do Compared to Others on Our Weekly News Quiz: Have students test how well they’ve been keeping up with the week’s news with our 10-question current events quiz. The answers provide an explanation along with links to relevant Times articles so students can learn more. Then, in December, students can take our annual year-end news quiz, like this one from 2015 .

16. Play Fantasy Geopolitics: Have students draft teams of countries, similar to how they might draft players in a fantasy sports league, and then accumulate points based on how often those countries appear in The New York Times . Classrooms can track point scores and trade countries using the resources on the Fantasy Geopolitics site, a game created by Eric Nelson, a social studies teacher in Minnesota.

17. Battle Others in Bingo: Encourage students to get to know the newspaper — digital or print — by playing one of our many versions of bingo: Page One Bingo , Science, Health and Technology Bingo , World History Bingo or Geography Bingo (PDF).

18. Do a Scavenger Hunt: Send your students searching for answers to our New York Times Scavenger Hunt (PDF) as a way to become more familiar with how a newspaper covers the day’s news.

19. Mix and Match Headlines, Stories and Photos: Cut up articles, headlines and photos into three separate piles and mix them up, then challenge students in groups to see who can correctly match them in the shortest amount of time. When they’re done, they can fill out our related handout (PDF). Our teacher instructions provide more details.

20. Hunt for the Three Branches of Government in the Paper: What articles can you find in a week’s worth of papers about the different branches of the United States government? Record what you find with our Branching Out handout (PDF).

21. Analyze Photographs to Build Visual Literacy Skills: On Mondays we ask students to look closely at an image using the three-question facilitation method created by our partners at Visual Thinking Strategies: What’s going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find? Students can participate in the activity by commenting in our weekly “What’s Going On In This Picture?” moderated conversation.

Alternatively, you might prefer to select your own news photos. Slideshows, such as the regular “Pictures of the Day” feature, are always a great place to find compelling images related to current events.

22. Interpret Editorial Cartoons and “Op-Art”: Patrick Chappatte publishes editorial cartoons on topics ranging from ISIS to the Ukraine. You can use the Visual Thinking Strategies facilitation method to ask open-ended questions, letting students make meaning out of the cartoons. Or, have students analyze some of the “Op-Art” on the Opinion pages of The Times. How do these images make an argument? Students can also try their hand at drawing their own editorial cartoons , and then enter them into our annual editorial cartoon contest .

23. Decipher an Infographic: Take an infographic or chart in The Times and have students explain what it shows using sentences. Our handout “A Graph Is Worth a Thousand Words, or At Least 50″ (PDF) can serve as a guide.

24. Create an Infographic: Or, do the opposite, and have students take the data provided in a Times article to create their own graph or chart (PDF). The Reader Ideas “From Article to Infographic: Translating Information About ‘Sneakerheads’” and “Telling Stories With Data” suggest ways to approach this task.

25. Illustrate the News: Students can draw an illustration that captures some aspect of an article. Using our handout “The One-Pager” (PDF), students accompany their illustration with a quote from the article as well as a question for the journalist or someone mentioned in the article.

26. Write a Postcard: Or, maybe having students create a mock postcard to or from a subject in a Times article would work better for your class.

27. Say What’s Unsaid: Another option is assigning students to add speech and thought bubbles (PDF) to a Times photograph to communicate something they learned by reading an article.

28. Create Storyboards: Students can break a story into various scenes that they illustrate (PDF), like a storyboard, and then write a caption or choose a quote from the article that captures the essence of each frame. Our teacher instructions can help with this activity, as can a recent lesson plan on using storyboards to inspire close reading .

Creative Writing and Design

29. Write a Rap or Song: Each December, we ask students to compose a rap about important and memorable events from the past year. Get inspired by the winners from our 2015 contest , and start polishing your rhymes for this year.

30. Make a Timeline: Students can design their own timelines, using photographs, captions and selected quotes, to understand and keep track of complex current events topics. Times models can help since the paper regularly publishes timelines on all kinds of topics, whether Mariano Rivera’s career, the evolution of Facebook or the Ferguson protests

31. Create a Twitter Feed: Or, students can create a fake Twitter feed documenting a news story, paying attention to time stamps and author tone, such as we suggested in this lesson about the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

32. Explore a Particular Community: Find reporting on a community of which you’re a member — whether an ethnic, religious, professional, school or artistic group, or any other — and analyze how it has been reported on. Then use these ideas for finding ways you can help express what, in your experience, makes this group unique. What do you think people need to know about this community and how can you communicate that?

33. Write a Found Poem: Every year we invite students to take any Times article or articles published since 1851 and mix and combine the words and phrases in them into a new piece. Take a look at the work of our winners for inspiration, but the exercise can be done with anything from a science essay to an obituary to an archival article reporting on a famous event from history.

34. Make a News Broadcast: Students can turn an article they read in The Times into an evening news broadcast , with an anchor, on-the-ground reporter and interview subjects.

35. Create an Audio Podcast: Listen to some Times models , then get students to create a podcast (PDF) of a news story instead.

36. Connect the Past to Today: Help students tie what they’re studying in history class to what’s going on in the world today. We regularly do this in both our Text to Text feature as well as our social-studies-focused lesson plans . You might also consider following @nytarchives on Twitter and our own “Throwback Thursday” posts to see echoes of the past in today’s headlines — or, visit Times Machine on your own to view by date or through search terms 129 years of Times journalism as it originally appeared.

37. Pair the News With Literature and Poetry: Encourage students to look for connections between literary themes and current events. Our Poetry Pairings and Text to Text lesson plans can provide inspiration, as can our Classic Literature posts .

38. Think Like a Historian: What events make the history books? How and from whose point of view are they told? Have students research a current events topic, and then write a paper arguing whether this topic will make “history” and how it will be remembered.

39. Connect The Times to Your Own Life: Have students make connections between the articles they read in The New York Times and their own life, other texts and the world around them using our Connecting The New York Times to Your World (PDF) handout.

40. Consider Censorship Through Any Day’s Front Page: What if we didn’t have freedom of the press? Ask students to take the front page of any New York Times and put an X over the stories that might be censored if our government controlled the press. You might use our Censoring the Press (PDF) handout to help.

41. Take Informed Action: When students become more informed about the world, they can get inspired to become civically active and engaged in their communities . Have students brainstorm issues that matter to them, either at the local, national or global level, and then design a plan of action for how they can begin to make the change they hope to see in the world.

42. Determine Reliability of Sources : How do we distinguish good journalism from propaganda or just shoddy reporting? Students can use simple mnemonics, like those developed at the Center for News Literacy , to evaluate the reliability of an article and the sources it relies on. For example, apply the acronym “IMVAIN” (PDF) to an article to surface whether sources (and the information they provide) are Independent, Multiple, Verifiable, Authoritative, Informed and Named. This and many other strategies can be found in our lesson on “fake news vs. real news .

43. Distinguish Fact From Opinion: Even within The Times, students can get confused when navigating between news and opinion. What’s the difference? Use our Skills Practice lesson on distinguishing between the two to help students learn the basics, then go on to our lesson “News and ‘News Analysis’,” to help students learn how to navigate between news reporting and Opinion pieces within news outlets.

44. Start With What Students Already Know: Students are often aware of current events on their own, even before topics come up in school. When delving into a subject, start by asking students what they’ve heard or seen, and what questions they already have. Use our K/W/L Chart (PDF) or a concept map to chart what students say and think. And this post , about reading strategies for informational text, has much more.

45. Identify Cause and Effect: Much of journalism involves tracking the ripple effects of big news events or societal trends. Our handout (PDF) can help students get started, as can this Facing History “iceberg” strategy that helps learners think about what’s “under the surface.” Another resource? This Skills Practice lesson .

46. Compare and Contrast: Venn diagrams and T-charts (PDF) are often useful for comparing two topics or issues in the news, and our Text-to-Text handout can help students compare two or more texts, such as an article and a historical document.

47. Read Closely: By using a double-entry journal (PDF), students can become better readers of informational text by noting comments, questions and observations alongside lines or details they select from a text.

48. Support Opinions With Facts: Whether students are writing their own persuasive arguments, or reading those written by other people, they need to understand how authors support opinions with facts. Students can practice by reading Times Opinion pieces and identifying how authors construct arguments using opinions supported by facts (PDF). Then they can develop their own evidence-based counterpoints.

49. Summarize an Article: Having students pull out the basic information of a news story — the five W’s and an H (PDF) can help them better understand a current events topic. Here is a lesson plan with a summary quiz and many ideas for practice.

And Finally…

50. Learn From Our Mistakes: There are several places in the newspaper where you can see corrections and analysis of where The Times has made a misstep. For a weekly critique of grammar, usage and style in The Times, see the After Deadline series. For a list of each day’s corrections, go to the bottom of the Today’s Paper section and click “corrections.” And for a full discussion of issues readers and the public raise around Times coverage, visit the Public Editor column . What can you learn from the mistakes The Times makes, and from how they are addressed publicly?

Let us know in the comment section below how you teach current events in your class, or which ideas from the above list inspired you.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Great ideas! Thanks for sharing.

I am currently a graduate student working towards a certificate and Masters in Special Education. One of the biggest pushes in our program is to ensure that we are doing the things necessary within the classroom to become a critical transformative multicultural educator. Through my studies and observational experiences, I believe there is no better way to prepare studenst for the real world than connecting them to current events. It can often be comfotable to keep students in a world within the walls of the classroom. Yet, in doing so students only adapt to only being able to staticly think about the environments they are exposed to. Through these amazing and creative ways students can evolve their thought processes and become dynamic learners interest in the how the world around them works. It is through current events that we as educators can empower our students to become advocates for their own lives. Thanks so much for sharing and could not agree more with message.

Here are some more current event brain boosters: //www.educationworld.com/a_special/current_events.shtml

! Use current events as an activator to start each class and sometimes we follow the topic the full school year. Great short videos as well. Thanks for the lesson plans ideas as well.

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It’s important for students not only to pay close attention to the events that are going on in their lives, but also to the events that are going on in the city, state, region, country and the world in which they live. Yes, current events are important. And arguably today, more so than ever, students are only preoccupied with what’s going on in their immediate lives and not what’s going on elsewhere. And with the 24/7 news cycle and the plethora of ways that information is now garnered (i.e., TV, radio, social media, etc), staying on top of current events can be a challenge.

That’s why it’s important for teachers to instill the importance of staying on top of current events at an early age. This can be accomplished through various activities and assignments in the classroom. Here are some ideas for current events elementary education assignments that teachers can use in their classrooms:

Events presentations

One way to really get students to pay attention to the news and what’s happening in the world is to assign event presentations. Consider dividing students up into groups and having one group present an “Event of the Week” of a current event that they find interesting to the class every Friday. This encourages the students to read newspapers, do Internet research, watch the news and understand for themselves why such an event is so important. Encourage the students to answer the questions of who, what, where, when, why and how in their presentations. Also encourage students to back up their presentations with newspaper clippings, TV news segments and any historical context that needs to be shared. Have groups rotate throughout the year presenting on current events each week.

CNN is one of the best TV resources for staying on top of everything that’s happening domestically and internationally. Consider setting aside some time each day or each week to tune into a CNN broadcast with students. While this isn’t particularly an assignment, per say, doing so can tune students in on some of the most popular stories going on in the world. If a teacher is unable to set aside time per day or per week to devote to CNN, consider doing so for important national and world events, like presidential elections and inaugurations and anything breaking news that is appropriate for school children to observe.

Create a newspaper

While print newspapers may have taken a hit with the rise of the Internet, they are still an ideal way to learn about what’s going on in the world. And studies indicate that students who have access to newspapers are more likely to be interested in reading them and learning about what’s going on in the world. Hence, teachers should consider having students make their own newspaper as part of a class assignment, including city, state, national and world sections. This encourages students to pay more attention to everyday happenings, as they’ll need to decide what to give precedent to in their newspaper. Have students complete this project using the Internet to print out stories and photos, and be sure to have art supplies and art paper on hand for them to layout and design their own newspaper. Also encourage students to look at existing newspapers to get design ideas for theirs. This can be an enjoyable project that yields a lot of unique results.

City Council assignment

Every city has a city council that meets, typically on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. As part of a way to make students understand the important issues that their city faces, make them attend a city council meeting and write a report about what was talked about, what issues were brought to the table and what the council did to resolve any issues. Not only can this help keep students in touch with their community, but it can also introduce ways that they can help their city thrive and overcome obstacles – all at an early age. If the city is small and intimate enough, the student may even be able to interview the mayor or some city council members about some of the big issues the city is facing before or after the meeting to enhance the written report.

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Categorized as: Tips for Teachers and Classroom Resources

Tagged as: Early Childhood and Elementary (Grades: PreK-5) ,  History and Social Studies

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Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Seven Ways to Bring Current Events Into the Classroom

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The news always seems to be moving a thousand miles an hour, with much of it impacting our students’ lives—either now or in the future.

This two-part series will explore ways we connect those current events to what we’re teaching in the classroom.

Today, Suzie Boss, Kristen Koppers, Sarah Cooper, Mike Kaechele, Jessica Torres, and Renee Hobbs share their ideas. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Suzie and Kristen on my BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

You might also find addiitonal useful resources at The Best Resources & Ideas For Teaching About Current Events.

Project-Based Learning

Suzie Boss is a PBL (Project-Based Learning) advocate, author, and member of the PBLWorks National Faculty. Her latest books are Project Based Teaching and Reinventing Project-Based Learning, 3 rd Ed :

One of the best ways to amplify the authenticity of school is to connect the curriculum to current events. I call this “ripped-from-the-headlines” teaching. For many students, the invitation to focus on timely topics—from pop culture to political controversies—is a surefire way to increase engagement.

Current events can inform lesson plans in small ways. For example, English teachers can make free-writes more relevant by using hashtags from social media as writing prompts. Elementary teachers might focus morning meetings on events that are in the news—and, likely, on students’ minds. Science teachers might connect a lesson to a health-related headline.

To maximize the learning potential, however, I encourage teachers to look to the headlines as inspiration for more extended, project-based learning. Well-designed projects invite students to go deeper and make their own connections between academics and the world beyond the classroom. In the process, they will likely need to think critically about everything from the reliability and biases of news sources to the echoes of history in events unfolding today.

Let’s consider a few examples.

Chemistry teacher Ray Ahmed leveraged the Flint, Mich., water crisis to launch his students in Brooklyn, N.Y., on an investigation of how to prevent lead from leaching into drinking water. They had to think as chemists to design experiments about corrosive inhibitors, analyze data, propose solutions, and explain their results in a scientific journal article. Although they live hundreds of miles from Flint, Brooklyn students made personal connections to the larger issue of environmental racism, which has affected the quality of life in their own community. (Ahmed was one of the inspiring teachers I interviewed for a recent book, Project Based Teaching: How to Create Rigorous and Engaging Learning Experiences . This video from PBLWorks documents the Water Quality Project from start to finish.)

Immigration issues not only dominate headlines, they also reflect the life experiences of many of our students and their families. Connecting today’s immigration stories with academic content about human migration is a way to bring human geography to life. For example, Texas teacher Ryan Sprott is co-founder of a collaboration between educators and artists called the Borderland Collective , which invites students to take part in storytelling, photography, and art making.

Election cycles offer social studies teachers real-time connections to their content. Projects might culminate in debates, with students basing arguments on evidence; candidate fairs that students host, with a focus on issues they care about; or public-service campaigns to increase turnout of first-time voters.

If you overhear students buzzing about pop culture, listen closely for connections to learning goals. For Delaware English teacher Dara Laws Savage, it was the #oscarssowhite controversy a couple years back—when few actors of color were nominated for Academy Awards—that generated the idea for an annual awards event honoring African American icons. It’s become an annual event during Black History Month. Students develop criteria for excellence in different categories, make nominations, and persuade voters to share their opinions. Listen to an interview about the project here .

If you’re looking for timely connections for your next PBL unit, ask yourself:

• Is there a topic or event that could provide an entry event for your next project?
• Do you see natural connections between the topic and your upcoming content goals?
• Does the topic involve a problem or challenge that your students could attempt to solve or debate through an extended inquiry project?

As you design your next project, take advantage of resources that will help your students think critically about current events. For example, Project Look Sharp is a K-12 resource for building media literacy. Pro/Con challenges readers to consider both sides of controversial issues.

Don’t be surprised if your students wind up making headlines themselves as a result of their projects.

Connecting George Orwell & Harper Lee to current events

Kristen Koppers is a national-board-certified teacher. She earned her bachelor of arts degree in English from Western Michigan University, a master of arts in English and a master of arts in educational administration from Governors State University. She is a public high school public English teacher. Her book Differentiated Instruction in the Teaching Profession was released in July, 2019:

Connecting current events with lessons in the classroom isn’t as difficult as it seems. Practically every lesson that’s taught from kindergarten through high school, and even postsecondary, can connect to a news article worldwide. It’s difficult to get students to watch the news or even listen to it. Because what they see on social media is the extent of their knowledge. Social-media news, at least from what I can see, is not all accurate. How can we as teachers make sure students are aware of credible information to information that is missing important facts?

The problem isn’t that many don’t take the time to read, listen, or even watch current events. The problem is that it’s not researched. As an ELA secondary education teacher, I not only connect current events to almost every lesson but I make it as authentic as possible. When I teach 1984 , by George Orwell, we focus on the aspect of the First Amendment. Even as an English teacher, I bring in the other subjects, such as history, social sciences, math, and even fine arts to connect with my students. For this particular lesson, I mainly focus on history and political science.

In the novel 1984 , privacy both public and private did not exist. Orwell’s slogan: ‘Ignorance is Strength’ is truer than we know. The less one knows the better. Before beginning the novel, I play a small video clip of Orwell, himself, just before he died warning about the future. Since Orwell wrote the novel in 1948, no one believed what he said was true. Many even thought that he was delusional during his last year. (I mean the title of the novel was just switching the last two digits of the year 48 to 84). However, whether it was coincidence or not, the Apple computer came out in 1984. After showing the short video clip of George Orwell’s warning, I showed the original 1984 commercial of the Macintosh computer. This got the students to talk.

I collected various articles beginning in 1984 through 2018. In their groups, the students read over them one by one where they started to make connections between what was similar about how technology evolved. I then pull out my iPhone to open the app “find my iPhone” to locate my husband. Now, normally, I do not have my phone in class. But for this particular lesson, I wanted to show how easily technology has not only evolved but our privacy has diminished.

I locate my husband and start pinging his phone for location. He knows what I’m going to do in class so he calls me (I have him on speaker) and asks me why I’m tracking him. Now before he calls, I tell the students where he is located. When he calls, I ask him his location. The reason he was on speaker was for the students to hear where he was located. Prior to the call, I told my students that he was located off Route 6 next to the gas station. When asked his location, he confirmed it. The phone conversation ends, and the class conversation begins.

This all connects to current events. This activity takes about two days because I want them to go home and think before the next lesson. Many actually went home to research “invasion of privacy” on their school computers. Because, after all, I can track what they research outside of my classroom. When they find this out, they say I violated their First Amendment rights. So, I have them look up First Amendment rights and I asked them what I exactly infringed upon. What they didn’t realize is that it’s the Fourth Amendment rights they were thinking about not the First. They were speechless.

With this one activity, my students are becoming more aware of current events. However, it wasn’t this one lesson that we connected to current events. Every day was a new lesson; whether we were reading the novel or not, I was able to relate to what was happening in the news.

Even studying short stories and past news about events, such as the lynching of Emmett Till, students were appalled at what happened. We studied a brief overview of the Civil Rights Movement and connected it to To Kill A Mockingbird , by Harper Lee. In 2017, evidence came out that the woman, Carolyn Bryant, Till “whistled” at wasn’t telling the truth. This encouraged them to find other articles about those wrongly accused no matter of race, gender, or religion.

It’s not just lessons that we teach based on the curriculum. If we can connect those lessons to skills students need to succeed, then we are doing our job.

Discussing currect events across subject areas

Sarah Cooper teaches 8th grade U.S. history and is dean of studies at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada, Calif. She is the author of two books, Creating Citizens (Routledge, 2018) and Making History Mine (Stenhouse, 2009). Sarah speaks at conferences and writes for MiddleWeb’s Future of History blog, and she lives just outside Los Angeles with her husband and two sons:

We can link current events to what we teach in the classroom in at least two ways—through content and through character.

With content, teachers sometimes wonder how they can justify adding current events to their lessons if they’re not teaching contemporary history or politics.

A surefire way to make such connections is through themes, layering relevant pieces over the planks of an existing curriculum.

For instance, a science teacher can bring in articles all year about scientific ethics, and an English teacher can discuss pieces about group identity or the perils and promises of technology. A teacher of ancient world history can talk about the thrills of modern archaeology. World-language teachers can find pieces about contemporary cultures and politics, and arts teachers can check out the arts section of their local newspaper or alternative weekly.

With character, the relevance of current events expands even more. Many classroom teachers, from math to P.E., build norms with their students as school starts. Later in the year, if you see an article or video that reinforces one of these expectations, you can bring it in to discuss.

In my experience, students especially love stories that focus on positive human interactions, to lighten the daily news litany they scroll through online. One excellent resource for such stories is the Huffington Post’s Good News page . Such stories also generally avoid political partisanship, which even veteran social studies teachers can find hard to navigate.

Finally, don’t feel you have to do a lot! Even five minutes each day, or each week, can open up conversations you never would have had otherwise. And, if you bring in articles frequently enough, your students may start sending you what they find, creating a dialogue that can last far beyond a year in your classroom.

Don’t avoid controversial topics

Mike Kaechele is a history teacher in Grand Rapids, Mich., and National Faculty for PBLWorks. He believes in student-centered learning by giving kids authentic opportunities to do real work with local community partners:

Current events are a great way to engage students in the classroom. Project-Based Learning is an excellent structure to introduce current events. One of the key components of PBL is “authenticity,” and current events make content relevant. I use current events as “entry events” to get kids fired up about the launch of a project. My final products often ask kids to apply lessons from history to propose solutions to current issues that they present to community partners.

In social studies, current events can be used as an entry point to have students trace the causes of current problems to their source. The past can give both warnings and solutions to current problems that need to be addressed. I always use current contexts to launch history projects to give students motivation to learn about the past. For example the Driving Question, “Why do terrorists hate the United States?” requires students to do an in-depth study of American foreign policy of the last century to understand why certain countries do not see the United States as the “hero” on the world stage.

Current events engage students by shedding light on the tensions between American ideals and realities. They force students to be critical thinkers, considering multiple perspectives throughout history. Oftentimes, content is centered around sterile textbooks that do not address current realities. Embracing the controversy of current events engages students in critical thinking. For example, current arguments about immigration could lead to an exploration of our complex history of both welcoming some groups of immigrants while simultaneously discriminating against others with quotas and unjust laws. Students should be shown that current events do not happen in a vacuum but often are seated in a long history of controversy in our country.

Ideally. current events lead students to be proactive in coming up with solutions to the complex, connected society that they are inheriting. If we want students to awaken to the importance of our core content, then current events can be the hook for engagement by addressing real-world issues that their generation will be forced to solve. So instead of avoiding controversy, embrace it and teach students to consider all sides of current issues before taking up a strong position.

Articles & Podcasts

Jessica Torres serves as an educational specialist for ESC Region 12 in the heart of Texas. Formerly an assistant principal and Montessori teacher, Mrs. Torres is passionate about developing educators to provide innovative approaches and experiences for all learners as they pursue their unique interests and learning passions:

Our world has become a very small global community. Social media has allowed our news to become instantaneous in our society, allowing us to “know” what is happening before all of the facts have been clarified and the details are drawn out. For anyone living in today’s media-driven world, it is imperative that they be able to decipher between the facts and the rest, including propaganda, bias, disinformation, and click-bait. With this in mind, discussing current events in the classroom has become more than a fleeting idea—it has become an integral part of ensuring that our students are informed and prepared to face tough topics head-on with a background of knowledge and facts to support their opinions. Here are a few ideas and resources that I use to easily weave current events into the classroom each day and help students decipher between the muck and the news.

• Newsela - The article archive provides access to the world’s news in a student-friendly format that allows the teacher to differentiate for Lexile level or reading ability. Teachers can create assignments from the articles on Google Classroom or share them with the whole group. Each article comes with its own comprehension questions and writing prompt that can be used to engage students in conversation. Allowing students time to discuss their thoughts and emotions in a safe space, such as the classroom, encourages them to listen and think about other perspectives.
• Fact vs. Fiction book by Jennifer LaGarde and Darren Hudgins - Everyone needs help determining what’s real and what’s been spun lately. This book, written by two engaging educators, helps us develop strategies to use with ourselves and our students to safeguard our hearts and minds from inaccurate news and sources. Developing strong critical-thinking skills are the focus of this book, and a variety of resources are provided to help teachers as they share news items in their classrooms.
• Podcasts - Either listening to podcasts or having students create their own podcasts based on what they have learned from news stories can be extremely powerful and clarifying. Many students thoroughly enjoy listening to someone “talk” about the news rather than read about it. For other students, having the opportunity to express their own thoughts or perspective on an event feels personal and encourages ownership. Additionally, podcasts are known to be brief and completely scalable to fit the needs of the classroom.

“The worst ways to bring current events into the classroom”

Renee Hobbs is professor of communication studies and director of the Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island’s Harrington School of Communication and Media. An expert on digital and media literacy, Hobbs is the author of the forthcoming book Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age . Hobbs provides media-literacy curriculum resources for K-12 and college faculty and has offered professional-development programs on four continents:

Let’s start with identifying two of the worst ways to bring current events into the classroom: require students to maintain a current events journal or stage a debate about ongoing news and current events topic. The current events journal is a too-common assignment in middle school and high school where students must write short summaries of news, following a particular format. It’s an assignment that makes paying attention to news and current events a chore, a form of homework, and something to be dreaded. Assignments like this are not likely to inspire students to want to be informed on current events or encourage their intellectual curiosity about the news.

Classroom debate activities are well-meaning efforts intended to promote understanding of controversial public issues. But when students are positioned to take opposing sides and encouraged to gather evidence, argue their side and “win,” this legalistic practice actually leads adolescents in the wrong direction. As an instructional practice, debate can work against the development of genuine understanding and knowledge. Because debates promote competition, it does not model the deliberative and reflective practice of activating intellectual curiosity and modeling humility. When it comes to learning, the goal is not winning—it’s understanding.

Learning Civil Discourse

Instead of debate, students need to practice the art of perspective-taking on news and current events. In a five-minute daily discussion, start with a question to the whole group: “What are all the things you have heard about this topic, regardless of whether you believe them or not?” This invites general sharing and gathering of ideas, and it frees students up to offer ideas without being associated with or having to defend them.

In this kind of activity, students can share information without isolating themselves from their group. Plus, this method does not alienate the students who aren’t familiar with the news event or controversy under discussion. There’s no penalty for not knowing. Students can learn about current events from their peers.

Some teachers maintain a classroom rule for current events discussions: “You only have a right to an opinion if you have evidence or experience to back it up. If you don’t, then ask questions and listen and learn.” When students hear this, they feel a sense of relief. Students can show that they are participating by asking questions and taking notes. High school social studies teacher Emily Glankler explains it this way: “I’m trying to address a social problem we have in society today. Part of the problem is that people think they are entitled to an opinion on everything.” The everyday ritual of talking about current events for five minutes a day all year long models the practice of becoming a lifelong learner and an engaged citizen.

(This is the first post in a two-part series. You can see Part 2 here. )

The question of the week is:

What are the best ways to connect current events to what we’re teaching in the classroom?

Thanks to Suzie, Kristen, Sarah, Mike, Jessica, and Renee for their contributions.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It’s titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching .

Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader.

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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Engaging Students with Current Events Worksheets: Fostering Critical Thinking and Global Awareness

Real world current events serve as a powerful educational tool, as students learn tangible examples and relatable context to explore societal topics and understand their relevance in the broader world. Studying a current event and completing a current events assignment keeps students informed and is essential for their development as engaged and informed citizens. One effective tool for achieving this goal is the use of free current events worksheets. These worksheets provide a structured approach to help children learn and stay updated on the latest news, while also promoting critical thinking and global awareness.

When students engage with these handouts, they not only learn about what is happening in the world, but also develop essential analytical skills and learn about possible bias and what's going on in their city, country, and the world in the present day. By examining news articles and answering questions related to the content, children are encouraged to think critically about the information presented. They learn different ways to assess the credibility and reliability of news sources, ensuring they become discerning consumers of information. Through these activities, students gain media literacy skills and become better equipped to navigate the vast amount of news available to them.

What is a Current Events Worksheet?

It serves as a valuable resource for teachers and students alike. It offers a structured format that includes essential components such as a summary of the news article, questions to assess comprehension, and opportunities for reflection. Teachers can provide a blank sheet for kids to fill in with information from news articles they find, or they can use pre-selected articles and provide a sheet with answers. By using these worksheets, teachers can guide the class in analyzing news articles effectively and guide classroom discussions on important topics.

Implementing current events lessons in the classroom provides an interactive and engaging way for kids to learn about the world around them. By discussing current events and sharing their perspectives, they develop a deeper understanding of real-world issues and their impact on society. With these and other resources, teachers can facilitate classroom debates, encourage collaborative activities, and encourage students to express their opinions on the news articles they explore together.

To make these more effective, it's important to choose a variety of news articles that cover diverse topics and perspectives. This ensures children are exposed to different viewpoints and fosters empathy and understanding in preparation for life as they get older. Educators can also integrate multimedia elements such as videos, infographics, links, and newspaper clips to enhance the learning experience and cater to different learning styles. Another great idea it to let kids choose their own article relating to a current event in the world today.

Components of Effective Current Events Worksheets

To maximize the benefits of a current event handout, be sure to include components that provide a structured format for learners to engage with news articles. This can include sections for recording the title and date of the news article, allowing students to keep track of the articles they have explored. Additionally, including a section for students to write a summary of the article helps them condense information and identify the main points. To promote critical thinking, the handout can also include questions to answer that encourage students to analyze the main idea, supporting details, and different perspectives presented in the article.

Implementing Current Events Worksheets in the Classroom

These lessons offer a valuable opportunity for kids to delve into real-world issues, fostering critical thinking, empathy, and a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness between their lives and the events shaping the world. A current events activity provides a dynamic and hands-on approach to learning, as students actively explore and analyze real-world issues through engaging exercises and interactive tasks. Teachers can provide a selection of templates with different topics and difficulty levels, allowing students to choose worksheets that align with their interests and grade level. It's important to provide resources and materials such as a variety of news articles, websites, and other relevant sources to support students in completing the worksheets. To illustrate the relevance of current events in the classroom, educators can provide students with a compelling example of current events news articles during their discussion.

Examples of Current Events Worksheets and Activities

A current events report sheet serves as a valuable tool for all grades to structure their research, gather relevant information, and craft a well-organized report on the news article they have analyzed, fostering effective communication and critical thinking skills.

Engaging in classroom discussions allows the class to exchange perspectives, broaden their understanding, and develop critical thinking skills by critically analyzing and debating various aspects of the news articles. By discussing recent events, students not only gain a deeper understanding of the world around them but also sharpen their communication skills as they articulate their thoughts, listen to others' viewpoints, and engage in respectful debates on pressing global issues.

To make these worksheets engaging and interactive, use activities like comparing articles from different sources, creating presentations or podcasts, and conducting in-depth research. These activities promote analysis, communication skills, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of global issues.

Worksheet Making Tips

• Find a News Article: Look for a relevant and age-appropriate news article from a reliable news source or consider allowing students to choose their own articles within certain guidelines.
• Determine the Focus: Decide on the main issues or themes you want to explore through the assignment.
• Provide Resources: Gather additional resources such as articles, videos, or websites that can supplement the students' understanding of the topic.
• Create a Template: Design a format that includes sections for reading the article, answering questions, summarizing key points, and reflecting on the moral or ethical questions it raises.
• Prepare the Worksheet: Write clear and concise questions that prompt critical thinking and analysis of the news article. Answer questions as they arise.
• Engage Class in Reading and Research: Encourage students to read the news article carefully and use additional resources to gain a broader understanding of the topic.
• Complete the Worksheet: Have kids fill out the worksheet, answering the questions and summarizing the main points of the article in their own words.
• Make Use of Available Resources: Explore the curriculum corner or utilize educational websites on the internet, newspapers, or community resources to find additional articles and materials for future current events worksheets.

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How to Make a Current Events Worksheet

Choose one of the premade templates.

We have lots of templates to choose from. Take a look at our example for inspiration!

Click on “Copy Template”

Once you do this, you will be directed to the storyboard creator.

Give Your Worksheet a Name!

Be sure to call it something related to the topic so that you can easily find it in the future.

Edit Your Worksheet

This is where you will include directions, specific images, and make any aesthetic changes that you would like. The options are endless!

Click "Save and Exit"

When you are finished, click this button in the lower right hand corner to exit your storyboard.

From here you can print, download as a PDF, attach it to an assignment and use it digitally, and more!

Happy Creating!

Frequently Asked Questions About Current Events

Why is it important to keep students informed about current events.

Keeping kids informed about current events helps them understand the world they live in, fosters critical thinking, and encourages active citizenship. It promotes global awareness, empathy, and the ability to make informed decisions. Teachers can provide engaging and age-appropriate current events for kids worksheets to spark children's curiosity about the world and encourage their active involvement in understanding global issues.

How do current events worksheets promote critical thinking?

They require learners to analyze news articles, identify bias, evaluate sources, and discern between facts and opinions. These activities challenge students to think critically, consider multiple perspectives, and develop their own informed opinions. Students can assess their understanding and compare their interpretations by discussing the current events worksheet answers during classroom conversations.

How can current events worksheets enhance media literacy skills?

They play a crucial role in enhancing media literacy skills by providing students with opportunities to evaluate news sources, analyze media elements, fact-check information, recognize bias, and critically analyze news articles. By engaging with real-world current events through these worksheets, children can bridge the gap between classroom learning and the complexities of the world.

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There’s so much going on in the world right now. We could spend entire class periods going over current events and relating news stories to students’ lives.

However, most upper elementary teachers don’t have a ton of time to discuss current events. So, I’ve created three awesome, quick sources to help you give students an overview of the big news stories around the world.

These sources are ones that I’ve used in my classroom at one time or another. I usually don’t stick with just one source because I like to bounce around and see which one offers the best current event coverage in the little time that I have available.

What’s the best news? All of these sites are free for teachers and students. I am not affiliated with these sites in any way. I am sharing them with you because I think they are all amazing and I’m sure your students will enjoy using these sites both with you and outside the classroom!

CNN10 is a 10 minute recap of the most important recent news stories.

The site is updated daily but they are on summer break now. The new segments will start again on August 12.

A printable transcript of the broadcast is available if you want students to use it for research or ELA work.

Another cool feature of the site is that some of the broadcasts include a news quiz that help students to process what they’ve learned.

In my classroom, I display the 10 minute video on my technology board occasionally but not daily. I encourage students to watch the 10 minute broadcast daily, especially when they have their Chromebooks available.

If something significant is going on in the world, I show the daily video more often because topics and events are explained in student-friendly terms.

Please consider signing up for my weekly newsletter. It’s full of tips, ideas, and resources for upper elementary teachers. Never any spam 🙂

National Geographic’s Photo of the Day

I recently discovered National Geographic’s Photo of the Day.

Each day, there is a new photo posted covering a current event, phenomenon, or an interesting place/person in our world.

This online resource features top-notch photos by professional photographers.

National Geographic Photo of the Day Site

If you don’t like the photo of the day, just scroll down a little bit and you’ll see the archive where you can pick from thousands of photos.

So, how do I use this resource in my classroom?

Two days a week, I use a photo as a class starter activity.

1. I display the photo on my technology board so that students can see it when they walk into class.

2. I read the short informational snippet below the photo.

3. I ask students to use a half-sheet of paper to respond to one of the following prompts for 5-10 minutes:

a. How can this photo teach you more about our world?

b. What does this photo remind you of?

c. How does this photo make you feel?

Smithsonian Tween Tribune

If it’s put out by the Smithsonian, it has to be good, right?!?

The Tween Tribune is an amazing resource for upper elementary teachers. Simply visit the site and choose your grade level band at the top.

You’ll notice that the articles cover current events but they also mix in some history-themed articles.

Each article has multiple Lexile options, so your higher readers and lower readers can read the same information but at comfortable reading levels.

There is a teacher log-in section that will allow you to create an account, assign articles, review progress, and assign students quizzes on the articles.

Another cool thing about this site is that you can assign articles to Google Classroom.

Thanks for reading this article!

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8 Smart Ways to Teach Current Events in the Classroom in 2017

Because being informed about the world crosses all disciplines and makes learning relevant.

Current events are being curated and edited for student access in amazing ways all over the internet. This kid-focused curated material means you don’t have to panic that something inappropriate will pop up in your classrooms unexpectedly. It also means that the work matching current events to content area is not as difficult as it used to be. Here are eight ways to help bring current events to life for students.

1. Analyze data side by side.

If you are using The Stock Market Game in math, ask kids to look at how the stock market changes depending on the year of a president’s term. These two things may seem unrelated at first, but once they list presidents and the year of their terms lined up against the Dow Jones average for those years, they will quickly see the similarities. This will help teach analytical skills that can be used immediately. Students will be able to see how their president will affect the stock market and can compare this information to other presidencies.

2. Use websites like Flocabulary.

It’s hard to figure out which weekly current events to include in a writing lesson. Let Flocabulary do the work. When students listen to Flocabulary’s Week in Rap, the music keeps them engaged and the small sound bites keep them focused. After they listen to the week’s current events, ask students to reflect on this information and choose one current event to briefly research. They can share their new information in a Haiku form or as a tweet on Twitter. The shortened forms of both help students use just the right words to communicate their reflection.

3. Read picture books.

Children’s picture book writers are blazing new trails these days. Want to explain the Syrian refugee situation without scaring your young students? Check out books like those on Brightly’s list of books to help kids understand what it’s like to be a refugee . If you think you can go deeper with upper elementary kids, show this Teaching Human Rights video and have them compare it to your carefully curated picture books and chapter books about refugees.

4. Challenge students to think about news from different perspectives.

When the class is learning about scientists, show them how scientists in different disciplines might look at the same information. Check out “The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week” at Live Science and choose one topic. Share that topic with students and then have them pick scientific roles written on slips of paper. Each student must write and share about how that particular kind of scientist would view and use the science topic chosen. Students will be amazed to consider how differently a biologist and a chemist view the same information about How Sleep Shrinks the Brain or any other topic.

5. Gamify current events.

Show students how politics really works in the world by teaching them how to play games like The World Peace Game and Fantasy Geopolitics . These games, even when modified or simplified, can help shed new light on the world’s interconnectedness. 

6. Read differentiated news stories.

The Common Core standards focus on more nonfiction reading and writing. Meet these needs by sharing news articles that are already vetted and leveled for your students. NewsELA is teacher tested and approved. Students are able to have a choice in the articles they read and respond to because every topic has articles written at different reading levels. This also means that two students of different reading abilities can buddy up on the same topic. The articles cover every content area in your school including music and the arts.

7. Create podcasts instead of research projects.

When kids hear they must do a research project, they groan. The work can feel overwhelming, from identifying a topic to writing a long paper with sources. Instead of going the traditional route, try a more current use of technology by having kids research current events in order to create a podcast for their technology class. This is one project that covers all content areas and brings them together under one roof. Students listen to podcasts designed for kids like Brains On! and Buy Why? Then they find a current event, research it just enough to write a script, record the podcast in GarageBand (found free on all Macs) and export it to an MP4. If the podcasts are uploaded to one location, both kids and parents can enjoy and learn from them. This article has more on doing podcasting projects with your students.

8. Increase current events comprehension through SCAMPER.

SCAMPER is an acronym for a creative technique: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. Have kids check out Kids Go Global , choose an issue and use the SCAMPER rules to think about new solutions. If they choose Endangered Species, they might consider how to substitute one kind of environment or food to help these animals live. They could discuss combining the endangered species with another animal that might serve as a protector. Perhaps the animal could adapt in ways not currently occurring in order to save itself. As the students go through each of the SCAMPER concepts, they find themselves becoming more creative problem-solvers, which is a skill that crosses all content areas.

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Current Events Assignment

• Internet Activities

Description

This document contains a link to click that will allow you to create a copy of my Google Doc that can then be edited and shared out with your students.

This activity requires students to choose a current events news article and answer questions about it.

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