Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
In this brief activity, students consider how the storm, and the rebuilding of New Orleans, affected people differently, depending on their income and race.
Students learn some background about the surge of refugees pressing into Europe, view a 4-minute video about a group of refugees stranded in Hungary, consider how refugees may be feeling, and share their wishes for the refugees.
This brief activity gets your class talking about the "money primary" and the 2016 presidential election.
Two readings and discussion questions help students weigh arguments for and against marijuana legalization and consider whether marijuana laws are enforced in a racially discriminatory way.
This classroom activity helps build community in your classroom at the start of the school year, and encourages students to reflect on some of the big issues in the news over the summer. It can be a stand-alone circle, or it can be used to jumpstart a longer term project in advisory, social studies...
On June 17, 2015, a white man shot and killed nine black churchgoers at a Charleston, South Carolina Bible study class. On June 26, President Obama delivered the eulogy for Clementa Pinckney, one of those murdered. His eulogy connected the killings to pressing issues related to racial injustice in...
General guidelines for talking sensitively with students who may be upset about recent acts of violence in the news.
Circles are a powerful way for people to come together, share their thoughts and feelings, be heard, mourn and heal together. Below are suggestions for a circle to help students share their thoughts and feelings following the massacre of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, on...
In this brief activity, students take a quick quiz about vacation policies and practices in the U.S. and other countries, analyze a chart comparing vacation policies, and discuss what they think about U.S. vacation policies.
In this brief activity, students reflect on issues that are most important to them, discuss why 65 percent of media election coverage is not about issues, and consider what they most want to know from candidates.