Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
TeachableMoment
June 11, 2018
Opening: Quick Picture Analysis
Show two pictures to the class. The first photo is of a sit-in at a lunch counter in 1963. View it here:
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM2381…
TeachableMoment
June 4, 2018
To The Teacher:
The online retail giant Amazon is currently in the process of choosing a city in which to build a second headquarters. Because the company promises to bring jobs to whatever…
TeachableMoment
May 19, 2018
Gathering
What is the racial makeup of your neighborhood?
Introduction
Write this fact on the board:
Black families have less than one-tenth the wealth of white families in the U.S…
TeachableMoment
May 10, 2018
What do we already know?
Project the image above, or the tweet below, on the board: https://twitter.com/ClimateCentral/status/992468921403019264
Or, write on the board: Atmospheric carbon…
TeachableMoment
May 1, 2018
To the Teacher:
Americans have been having a ferocious debate over President Trump’s proposal for a “border wall.” But underlying this debate is a more fundamental question: Why do we have borders…
TeachableMoment
April 24, 2018
To the Teacher:
At the end of 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice requested that the Census Bureau add a question to the 2020 census about the citizenship status of respondents. The issue…
TeachableMoment
April 24, 2018
Gathering
Invite students to look at the following tweet. What does it refer to? What do students know about what happened at a Starbucks in Philadelphia on Thursday April 12, 2018? What have…
TeachableMoment
April 11, 2018
Gathering: Word Web
Write #ENOUGH or #NEVERAGAIN on the board or chart paper and circle it.
Invite students to share their associations with the hashtag. If necessary, elicit that these hashtags…
TeachableMoment
April 10, 2018
Gathering / Opening Ceremony
Project the wordcloud below on the white board or print it out and distribute, or distribute the image on this handout.
It is made up of hashtags connected to the…
TeachableMoment
April 5, 2018
To the Teacher:
Following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, some commentators have called for increased security on school campuses, with proposals ranging from…