Resources For Teaching The News

Once upon a time I taught a World History class, and the only resource that I was given was a very thick 30-chapter textbook that essentially covered what I (somewhat) jokingly told students was the entire history of the entire world. To make the curriculum more attainable I made units focused on geographic regions that paired ancient and modern history to give students an idea of the trajectory of development. But development continued as my class went on and it continues as I write this. That is why this post is dedicated to ways to teach current events.

50 Ideas from the NY Times

Instead of writing about the many ways current events can be taught in the classroom, I’ll refer you to the New York Times article on 50 Ways To Teach With Current Events. One of my favorite “go-tos”, is analyzing photos to build visual literacy. When introducing a new topic in history, I often ask students to analyze an image and ask what is happening or what is going to happen next. Visual information is all around us, and building visual literacy is an invaluable skill to have.

Teaching With The News from Choices

I was teaching world history and Latin American history in Miami-Dade Public Schools when the 2010 earthquake tragically hit Haiti. I felt a great responsibility to teach my…