TeachingSocialStudiesh: Incorporating Today and Yesterday into History.

For Social Studies Methods, I was given the task of creating a current event lesson plan. I was actually very excited because I think that it is very important that students are educated on current events. I feel like many students are not aware of the world around them. If students are not aware of the world and what is happening, then they will never have civic competence. Civic competence is the ultimate goal of Social Studies instruction and that is why I believe that current events are an essential part of Social Studies.

Why should current events be taught to students ? 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) states that "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.".Deroche's research findings definitely support the importance of teaching current events. Thomas N. Turner, professor of education at the University of Tennessee. says that "Teaching about world, national, state, and local happenings needs to involve active, participative learning rather than passive learning.". I really agree with this statement by Professor Turner, I think current events can really enhance Social Studies instruction more meaningful.

A slide from lesson plan presentation

How can you teach current events in the classroom? Creating my own current events lesson plan has opened my eyes to the endless possible ways of using current events in your classroom. Current events connect to all subjects and can be used to create cross curriculum lesson- something that is essential in today's classrooms. I found it very interesting that a current events lesson can be connected back to a history lesson. This is actually what I did for my current event lesson. I tied it back to the American Revolution. I did this by making my articles relate to the American Revolution. All of the articles were about children during tough times like war. The students during my lesson will be making connections between these children and what children went through during the American Revolution. I also wanted to teach my students a skill set during my lesson to get as much out of this lesson as possible. I did this by having my students conduct interviews based on the articles. I gave them a mini lesson on what is expected from an interviewer and an interviewee. You can check my lesson plan out, here ! Besides my own lesson, I came across many great ideas and lessons for current events. One website that stood out to me was a list of 25 ways to incorporate current events into the classroom. The link is provided here ! Try and use some of these ideas in your own classroom!