current events
Why do we study current events? Because today's current events become tomorrow's history. Students are expected to complete one current event almost every week, due on Fridays. The current event form is available to the right. They can use newspapers, magazines, or online sources, anything from the past month that is truly important and has wide-ranging socio-economic consequences, like landing a human being on the moon or the current conflicts happening in Europe and Southwest Asia. Sports, minor local stories, or media sensationalization of trivial stories like Kim Kardashian's breakfast are not allowed and they will have to be redone for credit. CNN, Time, National Geographic, or any newspaper are excellent sources to use, but any written article from a reputable site works, just no videos.
Studying current events creates intelligent, informed, and virtuous citizens, the keystone of democracy. For children to become competent lifelong learners, they must learn how to use nonfiction materials to expand their knowledge base, solve problems, and make decisions. That point was made by Edward F. DeRoche, dean of the School of Education at the University of San Diego in his book The Newspaper: A Reference for Teachers and Librarians (ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1991). A large body of research supports the use of newspapers and current events as teaching tools, says DeRoche. Among the research he sites: -Students who use newspapers tend to score higher on standardized achievement tests -- particularly in reading, math, and social studies -- than those who don't use them. -Newspapers help teach students to be effective readers. -Newspapers can help develop and improve student vocabulary, word recognition skills, and comprehension. -Newspapers are effective tools for teaching many math concepts, particularly fractions, decimals, currency, and averages. -In surveys, students overwhelmingly support the use of newspapers in the classroom and have a positive attitude toward reading newspapers. -Newpapers increase awareness of and interest in current events. -Students who read newspapers in school tend to continue reading them when they become adults. -See more at: http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr084.shtml#sthash.gWQbQWh9.dpuf 9/11 newspapers collage from http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/Cheryl_Lynn7284/Pictures/9-11%20Remembrances/newspaperheadlineson9-11-01.jpg June 29, 1914 The Evening Herald from https://geopolicraticus.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/evening-herald-june-29-1914.jpg |
Excellent source for current events that allows you to change the reading level:
https://newsela.com/ Other great sources for current events: http://www.bbc.com/ http://america.aljazeera.com/ |