596 current-events results | sort by:
return to subject listingTodays News, Tomorrows Lesson - Share My Lesson
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): journalism (72), news (227), politics (111)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use with any current events lessons and as a resource for finding fact-based information to use to help understand modern history. Most of the discussion questions ask students to defend a point of view based on the shared topic. Use technology tools to help students organize their thinking and share their questions and responses. Engage students in the learning process using Fiskkit, reviewed here, as a collaborative discussion tool for sharing online articles related to the topic discussed. Fiskkit offers tools for annotating and collaboratively discussing online information. Share student opinions and discussions using Gravity, reviewed here. Ask students to respond to the discussion question within Gravity using their fact-based research. Use the comment feature to encourage collaboration and student discussion. As a final project, extend learning by asking students (or student groups) to share their responses as part of a multimedia presentation that includes student writing, videos, maps, and infographics. Have students use a presentation tool such as Sway, reviewed here, or Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here, to share their final projects.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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News and Media Literacy Resource Center - Common Sense Media
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): bias (25), journalism (72), media literacy (102), news (227), social media (54)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to take advantage of the many curated resources for teaching media and news literacy. Use a curation tool like Padlet, reviewed here, to save and share favorite resources found on this site with students. Use the shelf option in Padlet to create columns and organize information by topic, type of content, or for use by different groups of students. Enhance instruction by asking students to become creators of information as they share their learning. Have students use Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, to create infographics to demonstrate different forms of media bias or to share facts learned from news articles. Extend learning even further by asking students to create blogs using edublogs, reviewed here, to demonstrate how to write and share the news using credible information and factual resources.Comments
This is such a valuable resource and it's so helpful to have one collection that I know has been vetted with accurate, useful information that teachers can use for themselves as well as with their students. I also love the "In the Classroom" section with suggestions for ways to use the information and resources.Peggy, AZ, Grades: 0 - 8
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Talking About Race and Privilege: Lesson Plan for Middle and High School Students - National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): civil rights (197), psychology (67), racism (78)
In the Classroom
Include this lesson plan with your other resources when teaching lessons on racism and social injustice, either in-person or through remote or blended learning situations. Instead of using paper charts as mentioned in the lesson, use a digital chart creation resource such as Lucidchart, reviewed here, to create collaborative digital workspaces. Lucidchart includes several features that expand learning through the use of commenting, real-time collaboration, and colorful visual displays. Guide students in how to think through reflection questions using topics available in Thinkalong, reviewed here. Thinkalong offers an interactive multimedia format that guides students through investigations that lead them to contemplate possible solutions to serious problems.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Coronavirus Resource Page for Students - New York Times Learning Network
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): diseases (67), journalism (72), news (227), newspapers (91)
In the Classroom
Engage students in learning about the coronavirus by sharing this link with students on your class website. Ask them to browse through information on the site, including opinion pieces as a starting point for writing an opinion piece. Guide students toward learning techniques for presenting a persuasive argument by viewing the site ProCon, reviewed here, to demonstrate methods for sharing both sides of an argument. Take advantage of the many picture prompts shared by the New York Times to encourage student creativity. Use Gravity, reviewed here to promote student voice by sharing a picture prompt from this site and asking students to share their ideas. Be sure to turn on and allow commenting to promote student collaboration and discussion.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Thinkalong - Conneticut Public
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): critical thinking (111), debate (38), inquiry (24), media literacy (102), news (227), persuasive writing (56), Research (84)
In the Classroom
Whether teaching in a classroom or online, scan the included PDF or Word documents into Google Classroom or your school student/teacher platform to share and assign to students. Enhance student learning by asking students to use highlighting and note-taking tools within their word document to provide documentation for their responses. To prepare students for Common Core Assessments on evidence and arguments, have them choose a popular topic, research it (with the materials provided) so they can provide evidence for their stance when writing about their opinion or to refute another's. The debate section is the perfect opportunity to teach students about countering an opposing opinion, deciding which is the strongest point, and then teach them how to address concerns of others in their writing or debate. For example, they can concede it is a valid point and then counter with another strong argument. Consider sharing the activities found on this site with your peers as a model for redesigning lessons you already use in your classroom (for online learning during absences and crises?). Use Padlet, reviewed here, to collaborate and share ideas, activities, and resources as you work toward incorporating inquiry lessons into your classrooms.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Coronavirus Lesson Plans and Resources - Share My Lesson
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Be sure to see the many free resources found on this site for use during health lessons. Add the ideas for implementing remote learning to your toolkit of ideas to use for unexpected school shutdowns due to weather, power failure, or any other unforeseen circumstances. Use Wakelet, reviewed here, to create templates for student lessons and responses, then copy the template and edit to fit the needs of your remote lesson. Incorporate the coronavirus lessons into your current health and science lessons to teach students about the spread of disease. Enhance learning by using Google My Maps, reviewed here, for digital storytelling to demonstrate the flow of diseases across the globe. Ask students to use an animated video creation tool like Powtoon, reviewed here, to share their understanding of the spread of disease. Create your video together with younger students, or ask older students to create videos to demonstrate learning.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Understanding Public Health Crises - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): h1n1 (6), hygiene (9), media literacy (102)
In the Classroom
Help your students to stay healthy and avoid fear by sharing the facts and prevention tips in these resources. Share these resources with your colleagues and school parents by emailing the page or sharing the link from your school web page and in your school newsletter.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Coronavirus Resources: Teaching, Learning and Thinking Critically - New York Times and Katherine Schulten
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): diseases (67), Online Learning (42), professional development (402)
In the Classroom
Be sure to bookmark this site as an important resource for lessons about the coronavirus and also as a resource for implementing online teaching activities. Incorporate ideas and activities found on this site into a blended learning system such as ActivelyLearn, reviewed here or Curipod, reviewed here. Both of these sites include features to create remote lessons with text, videos, and quizzes and provide educators instant feedback on student understanding. As students develop an understanding of the effects and makeup of the coronavirus, use Annotely, reviewed here, to upload and label an image sharing their knowledge. For example, have younger students upload a picture of their home, then label different surfaces with a short sentence on how they can spread or receive germs. For older students, ask them to use Annotely to label the different areas found in the community that leads to the spread of disease.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Reading Treks: Every Single Second - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): character education (76), empathy (28), family (51), racism (78), virtual field trips (83)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the many suggested classroom uses for this resource found on the Instructional Guide (PDF). Include this Reading Trek as part of lessons in empathy, racism, and character traits. Consider using content from the book as an inspiration to have students create a timeline of their friends. Find a variety of free online timeline creation tools located here. Using the map and locales, trace and then calculate distances for some Little Italy locations. Use Google My Maps, reviewed here to create and share custom maps.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Conservation Station - Learn to Conserve
Grades
5 to 10tag(s): conservation (86), energy (130), solar energy (34), STEM (269), water (101)
In the Classroom
Use these excellent free lessons during STEM units on conservation and energy. Use free tech resources to enhance and extend learning beyond the lesson outlines. As you begin an activity, use Padlet, reviewed here, to curate and share a list of online resources for student use. Include websites, interactive activities, and other information relating to your topic. Share a note-taking tool like Webnotes, reviewed here, with your students to use to take notes or ask questions when reading online articles. They can share the URL of their notes with you as part of their ongoing discussions on the topic. If you find online articles that need additional discussion, use Fiskkit, reviewed here, to create a collaborative discussion of the material. As an ongoing activity, ask students to use Pathbrite, reviewed here, to write about the activities and include videos and pictures of their work. As a final project, ask students to become the teacher by sharing what they learned through their choice of media projects. For example, ask students to use moovly, reviewed here, to create animated explainer videos, create an interactive book using Book Creator, reviewed here, or develop a learning game using Minecraft Education Edition, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Famous African Americans - Famous African Americans.org
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): african american (110), biographies (95), black history (128), cultures (131)
In the Classroom
This is an excellent site to use as part of a biography unit to match biographies to individual student interests. Allow students to choose a category. Have them read several biographies from that category, then research an African American that hasn't been included on this site. Have students use these biographies as a model to write about the person they researched. Instead of using paper and pen to write down information, ask students to use Google Docs or Microsoft Word to begin research. Using these online documents affords many benefits, including the ability to add comments, highlight information, and add links to online information. Once research is underway, suggest that students use a bookmarking tool like Raindrop.io, reviewed here, to organize information. Raindrop.io includes the ability to add notes to bookmarks, making it easy for students to label and add information for later use. As a final project and to extend student learning, ask students to create their own book using OurBoox, reviewed here, that includes images, videos, and text. Math teachers could have students figure out which category has the most people in it, or what percentage of the site is dedicated to the category they are interested in.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OK2Ask: Data and Charts and Graphs, Oh My! Let Google Tools Be Your Guide - TeachersFirst
Grades
2 to 12Humans respond...more
Humans respond to and process visual data better than any other type of data. Whether students are learning to collect, organize, graph, or interpret data, this webinar offers proven tools and strategies that assist learners in developing and applying those skills. Together we will explore and plan for the use of forms to collect data, web resources to access data, spreadsheets to manipulate and graph data, and Google MyMaps to visualize data. Students from beginner to advanced can use these tools to visualize and connect math, science, and social studies concepts to concrete, real-world applications. Let's get students excited about learning and help them incorporate complex data literacy into their world view. This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels. Participants will: 1. Understand how to use data visualization in the classroom; 2. Explore digital tools that will assist students with data visualization projects; and 3. Plan for the use of data visualization in the classroom. This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.
tag(s): charts and graphs (169), data (147), Google (51), infographics (56), professional development (402), visualizations (11)
In the Classroom
The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Constitutional Rights - Constitution Center
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): bill of rights (28), constitution (87), countries (72), cross cultural understanding (160)
In the Classroom
Include this interactive with any lessons on constitutional rights or when studying different nations. Create a Padlet, reviewed here, for your class to add and comment on constitutional rights around the world. Create columns on your Padlet by country or specific rights, then enhance learning by asking students to share information and articles detailing information on that right. Use an online news site like World News, reviewed here, for students to find news from around the world and search by regions. Extend learning by challenging computer-savvy students to create a game using Scratch, reviewed here, that takes players around the world to learn about rights and freedoms found in different nations. Ask other students to create podcasts discussing current events and freedoms from around the world. Buzzsprout, reviewed here, is an excellent podcast creation tool and includes features for adding links and lists to shows, and allows users to schedule podcast releases for specific dates and times.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Your Life in Another Country - Hire a Helper
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): countries (72), cross cultural understanding (160), cultures (131), statistics (119)
In the Classroom
This site is perfect for use when discussing current events or during your study of different countries. Share information on your whiteboard during your discussions and ask students to contrast and compare this information to their life. Use a 2 or 3 circle Venn diagram from Class Tools, reviewed here, to visualize comparisons between countries. As students learn more about the country they are studying, ask them to use Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here, to create an infographic representing the data found. Extend learning by asking students to use Google My Maps, reviewed here, to create a virtual tour of any country using images and videos to describe life in that part of the world.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Advertising All Around Us - MediaSmarts
Grades
5 to 8tag(s): advertising (23), media literacy (102)
In the Classroom
Take the ideas and activities found in this lesson plan and enhance them with these lesson extensions. During the first activity, the author suggests taking the name of five products and giving a new humorous name. Take that idea further and ask students to design a print ad using Canva, reviewed here, and using the new product name. Ask students to include a slogan for the product along with imagery promoting the virtues of the item. The second lesson activity asks students to create a new ad to replace one that is boring and unimaginative. Ask students to create a video ad using Clipchamp, reviewed here, or another animated video creation tool. As an alternative, have students use Image Annotator, reviewed here, to create annotated images with links to text, videos, and more. As a final project, students create and plan their own ad. Extend learning by asking students to plan and implement a complete ad campaign, including print, video, and online advertising. Before planning their advertisements, ask students to share examples of effective advertising to an online collaboration tool like Padlet, reviewed here. Include links and images of effective advertising along with comments sharing ideas on why and how the ad works. Have students (or student groups) share their ad campaigns using a multimedia presentation tool like Wakelet, reviewed here. Include links to research, student-created projects, and more all within their Wakelet presentation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Field Guide to Fake News and Other Information Disorders - Liliana Bounegru and others
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): internet safety (112), journalism (72), news (227)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use with any social media lessons. Use the entire book or choose from selected chapters or sections. Enhance learning by encouraging students to reflect on and discuss the information found in the book through the use of Fiskkit, reviewed here. Fiskkit is a collaborative tool for sharing and discussing online articles, add the URL of this book into Fiskkit to create a document where students can highlight and comment on any portion of the information. When working with research projects, suggest that students use iCyte Education, reviewed here, to save quotes and cite information found. iCyte is a browser add-on that makes citations and saving online information easy for you and your students. As a final project, and to extend learning, have students create explainer videos using CapCut, reviewed here to share their tips on how to find and deal with "fake news."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Global Youth Perspectives - Global Oneness Project
Grades
K to 12tag(s): africa (139), alaska (20), anthropology (10), cross cultural understanding (160), cultures (131), empathy (28), india (24), middle east (43), native americans (92), Project Based Learning (25), psychology (67), scotland (7), south africa (13), south america (38), sustainability (42)
In the Classroom
Utilize these free lesson ideas and videos to incorporate into any lessons on tolerance, empathy, culture, and to bring a personal touch to learning about nations around the world. Consider using the embed code found in each video and add the video to your class website for students to view at home before your lesson. Ask students to provide a short response to the video on an online bulletin board like Pinside, reviewed here, then use these responses to guide your lesson. The following ideas lend themselves to using this resource for project-based learning or blended learning: At the start of students' ongoing research, share How to Research: Ultimate Guide, reviewed here. Enhance learning by using information learned to create infographics with Canva Infographic Maker, reviewed here. Instead of a typical report or assessment at the end of your unit extend students' learning by having them use Odyssey, reviewed here to build a virtual field trip to tell the story of students in other cultures. Include links to articles, videos, student-created infographics, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NewsFeed Defenders - FactCheck.org
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): evaluating sources (27), journalism (72), media literacy (102), news (227)
In the Classroom
Include the NewsFeed Defenders game and lesson as part of your broader unit of teaching about online safety and media literacy. Engage studets by using Padlet, reviewed here, to share materials. Include links to videos, articles, and other materials for students to access. Ask them to add comments sharing their insights and information learned. Help students identify online disinformation by collaborating with Fiskkit, reviewed here. Change out paper and pen by sharing the URL of an article to discuss within Fiskkit, then have students highlight any area to discuss the information within the article. Enhance learning by encouraging students to teach others about media literacy using an online book tool like Book Creator, reviewed here. Book Creator can be used for a variety of assignments in any classroom that is integrating technology as an enhancement, modification, or transformation. Have students design and share a book that includes tips for spotting disinformation or bias using specific examples, including text, videos, and images, along with examples of factual, non-biased information.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Social Media Test Drive - Cornell University and the Cornell Research Foundation, Inc
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): character education (76), cyberbullying (40), digital citizenship (86), social media (54)
In the Classroom
Share these modules for students to complete during any lessons on Internet safety. Ask students to contribute to a collaborative document sharing examples they have seen of cyberbullying or deceptive news practice. Replace pencil and paper notetaking by sharing an online tool such as Webnote, reviewed here, for students to use to take notes on any website. When finished, have them share their notes using the URL created for use in classroom discussions. Reinforce online safety concepts through gameplay using Baamboozle, reviewed here. Enhance student learning by asking students to create a game in Baamboozle for their peers to play to identify best practices in creating a safe online presence. After completing your digital safety unit, modify classroom technology use and extend learning by asking students to create explainer videos using FlexClip, reviewed here, with suggestions on how to identify fake news, how to create a positive digital footprint or ways to support peers when faced with cyberbullying. Share student videos on your class website and with younger students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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DigCitCommit - ISTE
Grades
K to 12tag(s): digital citizenship (86), internet safety (112)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to use as a resource as you teach about digital citizenship. Learn about the five competencies, then use them as a basis for instruction. Encourage students to become engaged in the conversation by sharing their understanding of different topics. For example, as you teach about the concept of being aware, use a concept mapping resource like mindmaps, reviewed here, for students to visualize and share ideas related to being aware of online actions. As you continue in your lessons of awareness, enhance student learning by incorporating teaching strategies to encourage students to personalize learning experiences through the use of journals or blogs. edublogs, reviewed here, is an excellent blogging tool that provides a safe resource for student writing in addition to providing you the ability to moderate content and privacy settings. As students develop an understanding of each competency, encourage them to continue learning and applying the lessons to their everyday use of online resources. Have groups of students become experts in different competencies and share their knowledge with younger students through the creation of explainer videos using Clipchamp, reviewed here, podcasts using PodcastGenerator, reviewed here, or digital books created with Book Creator, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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