Implementing Current Events in the Classroom

Planning:

            When planning our current event lesson plan, Lindsay and I focused on the importance of international issues of women’s rights. Since this current event lesson is part of our unit, Lindsay and I discussed that the students will be able to connect how women today are being empowered as well as involved in political change back to the Daughters of Liberty whose political force was actualized in the American Revolution. The articles we found on Newsela are the following:

1. In the fight for equal rights, women’s work is still not done

2. Afghanistan’s only woman taxi driver is a role model

3. Three women lead the way as auto engineers

4. Obama’s push to help educate girls around the world

Using these articles, the students will be able to discuss the theme that the article portrays by completing a Jigsaw activity. The articles we chose from Newsela focused on these locations, Afghanistan, the Maldives, Chicago, Cambodia, etc. Since each article we picked was from a different location around the world, Lindsay and I thought that we should focus on geography as well as women’s rights. We decided to focus on the following activity:

News Mapping

Post a map (a community, state, U.S., or world map, depending on the focus of your current events curriculum) on a bulletin board. Post stories around the map and string yarn from each story to the location on the map where the story takes place. 

         Therefore we wanted to implement Goggle Earth to engage the students as well as take a “trip” to each location. We wanted the students to recognize that they should appreciate everything they have here in America, and what life are like in other countries based on the articles the students will be given. For our closure, we made a Twitter board with two tweets that the students had to answer. One tweet was, “How is women’s empowerment an international issue?” and the students will have to comment to the tweet and follow the rubric guidelines. The next tweet the students had to answer was, “Selena, Justin, and Rihanna are working in a group to write a song together. Justin and Rihanna are doing all of the work. What advice would you give to help Selena be a better team member?” This will allow Lindsay and I will to see if students understand international issues with women’s rights and if they understand team work.

Implementing:

Lindsay and I taught our current event lesson on March 27, 2015 to our teacher candidates as if they were fourth graders. We showed the students a YouTube video of women during the American Revolution, therefore the students will begin to get an idea of why the Daughters of Liberty are boycotting. The students were asked to then share their ideas on the video and to think about how women may feel in the video clip. We continued to expand on the teacher candidates ideas by asking them to make a connect with this video and the Newsela articles they had to read for homework. As the teacher candidates shared their ideas, Lindsay and I would ask them to put thumbs up if the agree with their peers statement, or thumbs down if they disagreed. For the introduction of the lesson, we also asked the teacher candidates what teamwork is and why it is important, therefore this discussion can prepare them for the activity in the lesson. Two teacher candidates were assigned the same Newsela article as seen below: 

Dr. Smirnova & Amanda: Newsela article (In the fight for equal rights, women’s work is still not done)

Nicole & Kelli: Newsela article (Three women lead the way as auto engineers) 

Christine & Ainsley: Newsela article (Afghanistan’s only woman taxi driver is a role model)

            Each group was given a Current Event Presentation Preparation Form that will guide them when they will present their article and the location it took place in. Lindsay and I demonstrated what the teacher candidates were asked to do. We started off explain what our article was about and then Lindsay started to describe it into detail of how the women’s empowerment was significant in our reading as I was pulling up Google Earth. We both told the class our response to the last question, such as “What does women’s empowerment mean to you?” By modeling what the teacher candidates were going to do, this allowed them to see what we are looking for and how you can present your information about current events that connect with the Daughters of Liberty during the American Revolution.

            The teacher candidates began to work together to fill our their Current Event Presentation Preparation Form. As the teacher candidates were sharing their ideas with each other, Lindsay and I were circulating around the classroom and asking the teacher candidates higher-order thinking questions to consider. Each group focused on making the connection with the article from Newsela and women’s empowerment, which showed us that they are beginning to understand the similarities and differences from the Daughters of Liberty. Once the time was up, each group came up to the front of the room and began their presentation following the outline they were given. As each group began to discuss what their article was about, I was bringing up Google Earth and finding the location their article took place. When the teacher candidates were presenting their information, they would refer to what their location looked like and how it is very different than America or what we have in schools here. Lindsay and I emphasized how women’s empowerment is an issue throughout the world as well as their culture. Each group member spoke when they were presenting and also tried to relate this article to real-life examples that they had, which showed us that they understand the content and by referring it to an outside source displays that they can expand their knowledge of the material they just learned.

After each group presented their article and geographic location, everyone was given a peer and group evaluation form. As each student handed that to us, they were then given two big post-its for their independent practice. I created a twitter board with two tweets the teacher candidates had to answer. By using this twitter board, the students were able to write their response and post it on an icon for their “exit-ticket.” Lindsay and I thought this was a more creative and engaging activity for the student to wrap up their knowledge of what they learned into the lesson today. This twitter board was easy to circulate throughout the classroom and also allow each student to post it and then share their response with their peers. 

Reflection:

           

At the end of our lesson, the teacher candidates were asked to provide feedback for our lesson. We also had the discussion on how we may implement this lesson into another grade. We all agreed and thought that it would be more effective id the younger grades, such as first, second, and third all had the same article to read. Providing these students with the same article, will allow the teacher to focus on relating that current event article to the past. According to the National Council for the Social Studies (1994), “K–12 social studies programs integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes within and across disciplines”(p.1). For the students in younger grades it would be lesson confusing for them if they just all read the same article, therefore they will develop their comprehension and as they get older they will be able to interpret all different articles. Newsela also has Lexile reading levels on the side of all articles, which is every helpful for when a teacher would want to use an article in their classroom. Students in first, second and third could be reading the same article as a  sixth or seventh grader, however although the article has the same ideas, it is just in a lower Lexile level for the younger students. The teacher candidates also agreed that in first and second grade, we as the teacher should read the article aloud, therefore the students will have a better understanding and as a class we can have a discussion. The National Council for the Social Studies (1994) states, “At primary levels, children often learn social studies through learning opportunities that are highly integrated across several disciplines. These often take the form of units constructed around themes. For example, teachers using the theme “time, continuity, and change” would likely engage young learners in studies using history, science, and language arts (p.1). For implementing current events in younger grades, a teacher could focus on the 5 W Words, such as Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Teachers could ask the students the following questions based on their article they read: 

•  Who are we discussion in the article?
• What happened during this event that makes it significant?
• When did this event take place?
• Where is this event located?
• Why are we discussion this current event issue?

        By developing these skills with younger students, when they get older they will have the skills on the 5 W’s and the current event lesson Lindsay and I implemented could be for grades fourth through sixth. The National Council for the Social Studies (1994) states, “As students proceed to middle and higher levels, social studies programs may continue to be highly integrated and in some cases planned by interdisciplinary teams of teachers (for example, social studies, science, mathematics, humanities). Alternatively, programs may be planned as interdisciplinary courses or more exclusively linked to specific disciplines (for example, a history course that also draws from geography, economics, political science)”(p.1). Implementing different articles on current events will allow students to be exposed to many geographic locations as well as expanding their knowledge on current events. The five principles of powerful teaching were implemented in our lesson as the following:

Meaningful	Students will be able to appreciate what they have here in America after viewing other countries and knowing that not all students receive education. Having students understanding this issue will lead them to develop higher-order thinking questions.
Integrated	The students get the opportunity to use Google Earth to take a trip and visit that geographic location. Integrating technology into a lesson will allow students to learn from Presentations, Video clips and Google Earth.
Value-Based	The students will identify and understand the controversial issue with women’s empowerment throughout the world.
Challenged	Making the connection of the current event article to the content they are learning in Social Studies is challenging the students.
Active	The students will be activity participating in the current event discussion as well as making the connection with the controversial issue of women’s empowerment.

         I personally think the students making the connections with current events allows them to see why it is important to learn about history and how it affects the world today. By the students making these real-life connections, they are understanding how events are causes and related back to history as well as the importance of keeping up with the news. I liked how we integrated Google Earth because it was a great visual aid for the students as they were discussing their current event article.

Thank you for reading,

Works Cited

National Council for the Social Studies. “Principles of Teaching and Learning.” Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies.

National Council for the Social Studies. (1994). “What Is Social Studies?” Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies.

Newsela | Nonfiction Literacy and Current Events. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from https://newsela.com/

New York State Education Department. (2015). New York State K-12 social studies framework. Retrieved April 2, 2015, from https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-k-12-social-studies-framework