In this day and age, students are capable of being much more exposed to events occurring across the world. It is important as a social studies teacher to have discussions and acknowledge the current events happening in the world in your classroom. You may be the only adult that is helping talk them through current events and quite possibly the only one able to connect these events with historical events to share different perspectives. Teaching current events in social studies is absolutely a great way to foster discussion and build community in the classroom.
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Why teach current events in social studies?
Let’s be honest here, if you don’t… who will? Do they really need to be learning about events on TikTok or YouTube? Or is it safer to learn about current events in social studies where they can talk with a trusted adult about things going on in the world? …That is what I thought.
Not every current event will need an in-depth discussion, but it will encourage great habits for your students in the future. Engaging young people in current events allows them not only to be more informed but also allows them to practice critical thinking skills. On top of that, it leads to great discussions and teaches students how to respectfully disagree with one another.
How should I be teaching current events in the classroom?
Make it Entertaining
No one said that current events in social studies had to be boring time spent scrolling through news articles. There are a few websites that do a great job of providing a review of current events. My favorite is Flocabulary’s Week in Rap which provides information on current events from the week. This could be a great way to start with a broad review of events happening, and then maybe pick one or two to dive deeper on.
Use a Variety of Sources for current events
Sometimes different news outlets give differing opinions or views on specific stories. A good activity for teaching students to research with more than one source is by comparing the same event and how it was written in different media outlets. Choose a few sources and one event to open up some great discussion points in the classroom. Some of your talking points may include media bias, propaganda, reliable sources, quality of sources, differing perspectives, and more!
Switch up the type of media
Some students won’t enjoy reading a news article each week, but they may enjoy listening to a podcast or watching a news clip. It is important to switch up how your are presenting the media in your classroom to expose students to different ways of accessing news.
Here are a few sources I use:
AllSides– shares from all points of view
CNN 10– condensed video of the day’s current events
Today, Explained – the podcast for daily news
Read and Write
Teaching current events can be as simple as reading and writing. Newsela is a great tool for this kind of activity. It is an amazing article archive that makes news student-friendly so they can understand current events a lot better.
All articles include comprehension questions and a writing prompt to encourage reflection. There’s a great variety of articles and they’re available for different reading levels. This can be an individual activity or you can pair students up to see how their perspectives differ on the same topic.
Daily Starters for Teaching Current events
A great way to squeeze in the content on current events without taking a lot of time is to use the events as a warm-up activity. This can work in a variety of ways, but some things you might consider are playing the video or podcast while you pass out the day’s materials, or maybe you have a journal entry for students to complete each day that follows the photo or the previous day’s video.
While there are a ton of resources out there for teaching current events, ultimately it is up to you and what works best for you and your students. The fact of the matter is that you just have to start. Give students the tools and mini-lessons they need to successfully understand the news and what is being presented to them on a daily basis.
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