Resources for Teaching About Current Events in the Classroom

This Teaching Idea is a guide for teachers to begin conversations with their students about George Floyd’s death and the events that surround it.

Help students explore the underlying causes of racial inequity in coronavirus outcomes with the activities in this Teaching Idea.

Inform students about the rising number of antisemitic incidents in the United States and explore the story of one teacher’s response to an antisemitic incident involving high school students in her community.

This teaching idea provides an overview of the ERA and a look at the history behind the struggle to ratify the amendment that would formally guarantee women equal rights to men under the US Constitution.

The Iowa caucuses are the first chance voters in the US have to cast a ballot in support of a presidential candidate. Help students understand how the caucuses work, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of voting in person, and explore the question of whether Iowa should be the first state to vote.

Reading “laterally” is a key media literacy strategy that helps students determine the quality of online sources. This Teaching Idea trains students to use this technique to evaluate the credibility of the news they encounter on social media feeds or elsewhere online.

With reparations in the news, this Teaching Idea helps students define the term, learn what forms reparations can take, and consider what reparations should be offered for slavery and other racist policies.

Introduce your students to an upcoming political debate and challenge them to question the role of cognitive bias in our decisions to support a candidate.

Help students understand how the United States’ complex asylum process works. Invite them to consider the question, who has an obligation to asylum seekers?

This teaching idea contains strategies and activities for supporting your students in the aftermath of a mass shooting, terrorist attack, or other violent event.

More than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, give students an overview of the problem of school segregation in the United States today and open a discussion about possible solutions.

Explore how dress codes can unfairly target the appearance of certain groups of people and help students consider what fair school dress codes look like.

Teach students about Representative Shirley Chisholm’s groundbreaking career and connect her story to today’s 116th Congress—the most diverse federal legislative body in US history.

Provide students with context for understanding China’s ongoing persecution of the Uighur Muslims and encourage them to consider the experiences of this religious minority group targeted with discriminatory policies and incarceration.

Help students analyze recent trends regarding receding Holocaust memory and the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe, and prompt them to consider how history can help us confront hate in the world.

Use the UDHR as a framework to help students understand the progress that has been made since the document's adoption and the areas where we continue to fall short in protecting and promoting human rights today.

Students reflect on the role of freedom of the press by exploring the recent story of two journalists arrested in Myanmar while investigating the killings of Rohingya civilians.

Provide students with an opportunity to explore their understanding of democracy and to make meaning of current events about democracies at risk in the world today.

Help students to examine recent events and statistics about the rise of antisemitism in Europe and to consider how we can respond to hate.

Many students considered participating in the national school walkouts to protest gun violence following the Parkland, Florida school shooting. Use this teaching idea to explore the rich history of youth activism from the 1960s to present day. You'll prepare them to think critically as they examine current events through a historical lens and equip them with tools and strategies to engage in difficult conversations.

Use the following lesson and activities with your students to provide context for the 2018 U.S. immigration debate over who can come to the United States, who can stay, and what it means to be American. Recent news and debates may seem especially combative, but they echo earlier moments in US history when Americans questioned who could become a citizen.