Year-In-Review: Popular Resources for Teaching Current Events
In today's fast-paced world, staying informed about current events is more important than ever. For teachers, incorporating current events into the classroom can be a powerful tool for educating young people to be informed and humane participants in society, helping them develop the capacity to examine issues from multiple perspectives and think critically about the world around them. However, finding the right resources to support effective teaching of current events can be challenging.
Our Current Events in the Classroom Collection is perennially one of our most utilized set of resources and is designed to help educators make the most of current events in their teaching. This collection offers a wide range of materials, from lesson plans and articles to interactive activities and multimedia resources, all carefully curated to support educators as they teach students to navigate the news.
Top Resources for Processing Breaking News
When a major news event occurs, it's important to be able to process it with students in a way that is both informative and sensitive. Many of our mini-lessons responding to breaking news use our Head, Heart, Conscience strategy as a framework for doing just that. The Head, Heart, Conscience strategy helps educators guide students through their emotional responses to news events, encouraging them to think critically about the information they're presented with and to develop their own informed opinions.
Our most recent mini-lesson, Centering Others’ Humanity When Following News of the Israel-Hamas War, provides students with a framework for how to center their community members’ humanity in conversations about the Israel-Hamas war and how to expand their own “universe of obligation” as they react to the news, including the ongoing war. It also offers concrete strategies for how students can follow reliable news that represents a range of perspectives and how they can ground any action they may take in respect for others’ humanity.
Top Resource for Providing History Behind the Headlines
It’s a given here at Facing History that we believe learning history is crucial for students to be able to draw connections to the world they live in today. By studying the past, students gain valuable insights into the causes and consequences of significant events, recognize patterns and trends, and develop a critical lens through which to analyze contemporary issues. A number of our current events lessons offer important historical context for today’s headlines.
One that tops the list this year is The Persistence of Racial Segregation in American Schools. More than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, this mini-lesson offers important historical context to the problem of school segregation, gives students an overview of the current state of school segregation in the United States, and opens a discussion about possible solutions.
Top Resources for Exploring Democracy and Elections
Teaching students about democracy and elections is essential for preparing them to be informed and engaged citizens. Our Democracy and Current Events Toolkit can help you address news stories related to the strength and fragility of democratic institutions, and ways people, especially young people, can effect change through democratic means.
As we look ahead to the next election cycle, our Free and Fair Elections Explainer is another resource topping the most popular list. This Explainer outlines eight different criteria for the ideal standards that governments should meet before, during, and after an election to ensure that the election is "free and fair." Use this explainer alongside our Political Polarization in the United States Explainer to help ground students in the principles of our democracy as well as the current challenges we see to upholding our ideals.
Top Resource for Examining Media, Technology, and Ethics
Teaching students about media, technology, and ethics is paramount in today's digital landscape. By incorporating media literacy into the curriculum, educators can empower students to become informed consumers of media. With the constant flow of information and the evolution of technology, it's essential to equip students with the skills to navigate the media landscape responsibly. This includes understanding bias, evaluating the credibility of sources, and recognizing misinformation.
This year, we saw a major rise in the availability of generative artificial intelligence platforms, and with it some big questions about when, how, and if it should be used in the academic realm. Our two-lesson series released this spring, The Ethics of Generative AI in the Classroom and Learning to Navigate Generative AI: Media Literacy Strategies, are designed to help both educators and students grapple with this emerging tech.
Used together, these mini-lessons help students learn about what generative AI is, consider norms around how it should (or should not) be used in schools, and learn steps to identify misinformation and verify things they see online.
Top Resource for Celebrating Upstanders and Activism
At a time when most news seems like “bad news”, it is especially important to find moments of progress, hope, and positive change to celebrate. Finding ways to recognize upstanders and activists in teaching current events is a way to remind us all of the power of our choices and the impact they can have on social change. By learning about these stories, students can be inspired to become more civically engaged and to participate in local and global issues.
Since it was originally published in 2021, our mini-lesson Reflecting on Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hill We Climb’ has been widely used to help students reflect on the themes of hope, unity, and civic engagement in then-seventeen-year-old Gorman’s Inauguration Day poem, and consider how their own unique experiences and voices can help America “forge a union with purpose.”
Current Events in Today’s Classrooms
No matter the subject you teach, we’re certain that current events will find their way into your classroom in some way. And being able to address news as it comes up is an important skill for educators seeking to engage students in critical thinking and real-world problem-solving.
As you look ahead to next year and consider how you can best prepare to handle whatever headlines may be coming next, be sure to bookmark our Current Events Toolkit to help ensure you have the tools you need to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to become responsible and informed global citizens, capable of shaping a better future for themselves and their communities.
