Teaching Current Affairs TCH 347 Social Studies in

Teaching Current Affairs TCH 347 Social Studies in the Elementary School Department of Education Shippensburg University Han Liu Ph. D.

Purpose of Teaching Current Events • Promote the habit of awareness and interests in current events and social problems • Promote the learning and thinking skills • Reading and viewing news materials • Discriminating between important and less important news items • Taking a position on issues based on knowledge and critical evaluation of the facts • Predicting likely consequences in terms of present developments • Help children relate school learning to life outside school

Media Sources • TV • Internet • Radio • Newspaper • Magazines • Cartoons

Scope of Current Affairs • Events in • Family • Neighborhood • Community • Local district • The state • The nation • The world

Events of Social Developments • • • Election/Rallies/Protesting Prevailing Speeches/Opinions Economic growth (ups and downs) Historical findings Geographical discoveries Scientific & Technological breakthroughs

Issues of Public Concern • • • Social Justice Poverty Crime Gender Equality Law–Related Education Multicultural Education Economic Crisis Globalization Environmental degradation

Special Events and Cultural Celebration • National Holidays • Independence Day • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day • Festivals • Thanksgiving • Chinese New Year • Special Month/Week • Black History Month • Conservation Week

Controversial Issues • • Same sex marriage Abortion Prayer in school Affirmative Action Multicultural education Globalization Job outsourcing War on Iraq

Kinds of Controversy • Factual Controversy • Definitional Controversy • Value controversy • Cause controversy • Solution controversy

Criteria to Select Events and Issues • • Education value Appropriateness Relevance Available information Available time Reliability Timeliness Avoid too complex issues

Guidelines for Teaching Controversial Issues • Only significant issues and problems understandable to children, and on which children should begin to have an opinion, should be selected for study in elementary and middle school • Instruction materials must present differing points of view, discussion should includes all points of view, and respect for the views of others should be shown • Teachers must guide learning so as to promote critical thinking and open-mindedness, and they must refrain from taking sides or propagandizing one point of view • Special attention must be given to background factors, possible consequences of various proposals, the need for additional information, and the detection of fallacies of thinking, logic, and argumentation • The importance of keeping an open mind – that is, the willingness to change one’s mind in the light of new information – should be stressed

Lesson Plan Development • Develop specific goals and objectives • Identify concepts, concept clusters, themes, and generalizations that relate to a social studies topic • Dovetail information into different units that student have learned or will learn

Class Activities for Current Affairs • Level 1 • Routine report of events with little discussion or analysis • Level 2 • Reporting is followed by discussion of the most interesting points without requiring any critical analysis • Level 3 • Using problem-solving and critical thinking skills to explore the significance of the event or issue by reviewing supporting facts, considering different points of view, and collecting additional information (this level may need a independent unit)

Class Activities for Current Affairs • • • Student report on specific events Daily sharing period Talking Circle on current affairs Weekly spoken news reports by each student Mimicking television/radio newscast by role playing: anchorperson, news reporter, editorial commentator, sports reporter, etc. • Making connections between current affairs and knowledge learned in textbooks

Class Activities for Special Events • Ask students of different ethnicities to report their festivals and holidays • Ask a local expert to talk about a special day to the class • Have students attend a celebration of another culture • Have students make a calendar of special days of the year • Have students celebrate a festival by decorating the classroom with background information and fun facts displayed

Student Projects • Write letters to media and authorities • Draw cartoons to illustrate events and opinions • Simulate TV news programs • Hold press conference • Create posters to voice opinions on issues • Collect data for hot social issues from various sources • Initiate programs, such as a food drive

Current Affairs Benefit Students • Enhance and enliven instruction • Reinforce concepts and concept clusters in various subject areas • Make connections of past, present, and the future • Bridges knowledge to real life outside of classroom • Develop ability to appraise the actions and decisions of policy makers and political leaders • Practice various thinking skills with concrete events • Appreciate multicultural heritages

Resources for Current Affairs • • • • • • • New York Times Student Connections http: //www. nytimes. com/learning/students/index. html New York Times Learning Network http: //www. nytimes. com/learning/ New York Times Cartoons http: //www. nytimes. com/pages/cartoons/index. html Political Cartoons http: //www. politicalcartoons. com/ Cartoons http: //www. cagle. com/ New York Times Student Quiz http: //www. nytimes. com/learning/students/quiz/ CNN Student News http: //www. cnn. com/EDUCATION/ Washington Post Kids Post http: //www. washingtonpost. com/wp-srv/kidspost/orbit/kidspost. html Parade Magazine: http: //www. paradeclassroom. com/DL/quiz. pdf Scholastic http: //teacher. scholastic. com/scholasticnews/games_quizzes/quiz/index. asp News Bowl USA http: //www. newsbowl. com/ News for Kids on Yahooligans http: //yahooligans. yahoo. com/content/news/ Science News for Kids http: //www. sciencenewsforkids. org/ Times • http: //www. time. com/time/classroom/glenfall 2006/