Current Events In Your Classroom
Teaching Ideas, Activities, and Strategies for High School and Middle School Students
Teaching current events can be challenging: the news cycle moves quickly, the issues can spark strong feelings, and classroom time is tight. Yet engaging with current events is an essential part of educating young people to be informed and humane participants in a democracy.
Use our resources to foster thoughtful classroom conversations and build your students’ capacities for critical thinking, emotional engagement, ethical reflection, and civic agency.
We will be releasing new Teaching Ideas and current events resources approximately every two weeks during the 2020-2021 school year. Sign up below to receive our Teaching Ideas.
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This Teaching Idea contains guidance on how to discuss the election with your students and activities to help them process their responses, find accurate information, and consider the impact of the results.
The ideas and tools in this guide will help you prepare students to engage in reflective conversations on topics that matter, whether you are in a remote, hybrid, or in-person setting.
View our checklist of things to consider before you start teaching current events, including recommended news sources, teaching strategies, and media literacy tools. This checklist was updated for the 2020 school year with remote and hybrid learning in mind.
In The News Now
Blog
Race in US History
Education Must Disrupt White Supremacy
At Facing History, we stand with educators who are working to disrupt rising white nationalism.
Featured Collection
Race in US History
Policing and the Legacy of Racial Injustice
This series of Teaching Ideas is designed to help students think critically about the long and troubling history between law enforcement and Black Americans, while not stereotyping or criminalizing all police officers.
Teaching Idea
Democracy & Civic Engagement
COVID-19: How Can We Make Choices That Promote The Common Good?
This Teaching Idea features Google Slides with activities that prompt students to reflect on the difficult ethical questions we’re all facing during the coronavirus crisis.
Featured Collection
Democracy & Civic Engagement
Teaching Resources for the 2020 US Election
Use these resources on voting, media literacy, polarization, and bias for remote and in-person learning to talk about the 2020 US presidential election with your high school and middle school students.
About Our Current Events Content
What is a Teaching Idea?
Our Teaching Ideas help you address specific events and issues in the news. With a variety of accessible resources and engaging teaching strategies, they can be used for all or part of a class period.
What is an Explainer?
Our printable “Explainers” introduce key terms and ideas that are essential to understanding today’s news. View our latest explainers.
Going Deeper
Sign up below for our biweekly current events emails to receive links to additional videos, readings, historical sources and lessons to enrich your teaching of current events and connect to your curriculum.
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Everything you need to get started teaching your students about racism, antisemitism and prejudice.