The New York Times
Reader Idea | Thinking Like a Historian About Current World Events
Check out this fantastic research project where learners work to see the modern world through the eyes of a historian and analyze a contemporary event of their choice. An in-depth reflection on the project is given by the project...
Curated OER
Identifying Main Events
Help kindergartners learn to identify the main events in fiction. They will review elements of fiction, retell information found in the text, and discuss their real-life daily experiences. All the while, they will be asking themselves...
Curated OER
Twenty-Five Great Ideas for Teaching Current Events
Teaching current events can be an amazingly-rewarding part of your teaching week. This resource presents twenty-five ways to incorporate current events into your curriculum. It offers some outstanding ideas, such as providing your...
Curated OER
Teaching Justice: Schooling and the Four Waves of U.S. Immigration
U.S. immigration is the focus of a unit on social justice. Over the course of a school year, young historians read a variety of texts to learn about four waves of immigration that have occurred over time in the U.S. An emphasis on...
Scholastic
What Happened Next? (Grades K-4)
Explore the structure of narrative writing with this fun, collaborative lesson. Start by reading aloud a short story, asking small groups of learners to fill in key events on a large story board prepared on the class whiteboard....
Center for History and New Media
The Daily Experience of the Laurel Grove School, 1925
What was daily life like for those attending segregated schools in 1925? Modern learners fill out a KWHL chart as they explore historical background and primary source documents about the Laurel Grove School in Fairfax County, Virginia....
Curated OER
Debating Controversial Issues: Integrating Science and Current Events
In order to give young scientists experience with critical thinking skills, introduce them to a current controversy and prepare them to debate. Choose a topic, such as genetically modified organisms, and assign groups to represent...
Curated OER
Science Current Events
Seventh graders write science current events articles using various media sources.
Curated OER
Schools look for funding solutions
Students investigate the problem of funding for the school district. They conduct interviews with various school officials to gather both opinions and important information about the issue.
Curated OER
Country Comparisons in Current Events Class
Students collect political, socioeconomic, geographical, and other data about 10 countries and record their data in a spreadsheet. The information is used to fuel current events discussions.
Curated OER
Planning a Community Event
Learners work together to organize a fundraiser. In this community event lesson, students work collaboratively to plan and organize a fundraiser. Learners create a timeline, venue and advertisements for the event.
National First Ladies' Library
Trouble in Little Rock: The Desegregation of Central High School
Middle schoolers study one aspect of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States; the battle over desegregating the public schools. They study the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas by producing a newspaper,...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Froggy Goes to School (London)
Just like your budding readers may have felt, Froggy is nervous on his first day of school. Use Johnathan London's book Froggy Goes to School to practice vocabulary in context. Prior to reading the story aloud, pre-teach the new words...
Curated OER
Our Classroom Party
Students are shown the importance of planning events in the context for having a class party. The counselor comes to the class to take a survey of how many students are interested to have a party. The teacher can use this lesson to help...
Curated OER
Writing Memoirs Based On A Shared Event
Learners share their memories of a recent event. They use Elie Wiesel's night to help them recongize a memoir. They write a memoir about a recent school event that was shared by many. They also gather evidence that supports their version...
Curated OER
School Violence: Is It in Your Backyard?
Students share, through discussion and writing, their feelings about violence in schools, as well as about ways in which such incidents and tragedies could be prevented.
J. Paul Getty Trust
Picturing a Story: Photo Essay about a Community, Event or Issue
Picture this. Class members follow in the footsteps of W. Eugene Smith, Dorothea Lange, James Nachtwey, and Lewis Hine by creating their own photo essay about a local event or issue.
Curated OER
Lesson: Skin Fruit: Propaganda of the Deed
Art can express acts of injustice and move society to action. Upper graders analyze contemporary art relating to specific moments in history. They discuss propaganda, anarchy, sociology, and violence as activism. After researching and...
Curated OER
Kids Get School Named for Obama
Students read about the renaming of a school for Barack Obama. In this political lesson, the teacher presents vocabulary words from the news article, then the students read the article and answer comprehension questions. Lesson includes...
Curated OER
Sequencing / Story Events
Students read a story and use sentence strips to order story events. In this sequencing lesson plan, students learn new vocabulary words centered around the story Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, preview the story, make...
Curated OER
Current Events
Students research current events and simulate a newscast of a current news story. They watch the evening news and write a summary of a story of interest, conduct Internet research and complete a worksheet on a current event, and...
Curated OER
Trailers Become Schools After Hurricane Katrina
Students share their thoughts about natural disasters, then read a news article about how life at an elementary school was changed after Hurricane Katrina. For this current events lesson, the teacher introduces the article with a...
Curated OER
Arkansas' Top Ten Events of the Century....Says Who? Why? Deciding What is Important in History
Middle and high schoolers work in small groups to compare four different lists published in the Arkansas Times newspaper which chose the "top ten" Arkansas news events of the 20th century. Learners look for similarities and differences...
EngageNY
Introducing Close Reading: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes About Rain School
This second lesson in a larger unit is perfect for the beginning of the year because it explicitly teaches 3rd graders how to use close reading skills by identifying unfamiliar words, figuring out the gist, and defining important...