Current Events in Social Studies!

 
     This week and next week we are focusing on current events and how to teach them and engage students in the news. Current events are events or issues occurring in the world today. They can be things such as online news articles, TV news, the newspaper, etc. In Social Studies, as a teacher you are required to keep the students updated on what is happening in the world. It is also up to us to keep that information engaging and interesting to hear. A good online resource would be Newsela.com, which is what we used for this weeks project.

      For our project we were to create a fun activity or lesson and teach it to our fellow colleagues. We were split into groups and each group presented one class day at a time. Two groups did a debate on the article they have chosen. The other group used a think, pair and share method. For my group we used an interview method. I found the idea to do the interview method from the NewYorkTimes.com, while our article was from Newsela the NewYorkTimes is also a good resource in finding different activities and articles to use. Are article was about global warming, what causes it, and what can we do to fix the problem that is becoming worse. We had our colleagues get into groups of 4 or 5. They then pretended as though they were the reports writing the article. They came up with questions to help them write the article and then they asked and got responses form each of the people in their group. They had a worksheet in which they would write their questions and responses on as well. We only had ten minutes to do this activity so when presenting it was very rushed. I feel if we had adequate time to present it the lesson would be very fun to do. I wished that we explained the directions more in depth as well and maybe show the classmates how it should be done to eliminate the confusion I saw throughout my presentation.

         I had great time creating this presentation and putting together this activity. Newsela.com was a very easy website to use and it provided many different current event articles. They spit them up based on subject and content, which I found to be easier when looking for on one something specific. I would definitely use this website again when teaching and encourage my students to use it as well. The activity can be used for both first through six, however I would recommend trying to use a different article that will challenge each grade's knowledge. I would also make it relatable to whatever topic your class is currently discussing.

If you click the link you will be directed to the powerpoint to our lesson! There is also a fun Kahoot game within the presentation about the article you can use to review the information.