Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
This lesson considers various statements by President Trump about immigration, and invites students to examine the facts on both sides.
2018 is the 50th anniversary of a landmark protest at the Miss America beauty pageant. The protest was part of a new period of feminist activism—one with renewed significance in the #MeToo era. In this lesson, students learn the details of the protest using an original document and explore how the...
Students think about the impact of a letter to the editor, analyze a sampling of letters and identify what makes them effective, and write letters of their own about issues they care about.
Students read one high school senior’s perspective on what teenagers are learning from the Kavanaugh hearings, and share their own perspectives.
Young people are listening to the controversy over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and they are talking about it. How can educators safely and productively bring these conversations into their school and classrooms?
Students learn about and discuss what impeachment is, how it works, and the possibility of impeachment for President Donald Trump stemming from the ongoing Department of Justice investigation.
In August and September 2018, prisoners in at least 30 prisons across 16 states engaged in strike actions. Through a quiz, reading, and discussion, students learn some facts about U.S. prisons and recent prison protests.
Students consider the term "Ubuntu," and the ways in which we are all connected, then discuss some of the news this summer (via tweets), and how these events affect us.
In small groups, students read about and discuss some of the summer's news, including on climate change, elections, the Iran nuclear deal, and more.
Is labor on the ropes? In this lesson students learn about and discuss how unions reduce inequality, labor’s losses in recent decades, and the current signs of a resurgence.