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Methods of Teaching Current Events

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

Albert Einstein

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To learn how About Face International’s current-event and social entrepreneurship curriculum, click here.

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If you are now convinced that there is immense value in the systematic study of current-events, you as the educator must now consider how you will incorporate current-event work into your syllabus. With time being the chief concern amongst educators when undertaking this endeavor, you will find the below general guidelines both unnerving and reasonable.

1. Do some current-event discussions in all academic courses.
2. Give current-events a definite place and time in the curriculum, preferably one period a week.
3. Vary the current-event topics to fit the needs and capacities of each class; use one method of presentation with one class, and a different approach with another. Let current-events exemplify the course concepts.
4. Stimulate class discussion of course concepts through discussions of relevant current- events.
5. Students sharing their opinions amongst themselves will allow them to develop critical thinking skills and how to present their thoughts objectively within a group discussion. The teacher, acting as moderator, will keep the students on topic and teach discussion etiquette.

Successful teaching depends upon the knowledge, technique, and enthusiasm the educator brings to the topic. A successful teacher will produce successful students when the desire to learn exists. One Article per Day helps teachers by providing a current-event curriculum that follows what the teacher is currently doing in class. This current-event curriculum will interest students in “what’s happening” in their current world so they have a desire to learn their subject matter.

In teaching current-events, what we propose is for educators to present one current-event topic to their students per week that is relevant to what they are learning. Current-event topics will be extracted from world renown newspapers, magazines, and journals so the students will be reading the best from the best. The student should be given a few days to read the material on their own time and reflect. Some educators will have each student prepare a three to four paragraph weekly reaction paper on the readings. At the end of the week, students will submit their reaction papers and have the opportunity to participate in a lively discussion.

One Article per Day highly encourages this type of structured-study of current-events because it holds each student responsible in learning about happenings in the world outside of their immediate interests. It also allows unity within the classroom allowing students to share opinions and debate amongst each other on the weekly assigned topics. While such a structured teaching of current-events improves the understanding of material in class, we do understand that students need to explore interests on their own and become accustomed to learning about current-events in their leisure time. This is why we strongly suggest that educators allow for fifteen to twenty minutes of their period-class dedicated for the opportunity of allowing students to debate on the topic at hand. The teacher will act as the ‘orchestra conductor’ pulling together the different student opinions and discussions into one common topic or principle.

Committee Method: The educator maps out main issues before the class by looking through periodicals and daily newspapers. On the basis of this general outline, a committee of students is appointed to be responsible for each main topic. For example, the topics might be, “Men and Women before the Public,” “Capital and Labor”, “Science and Intervention,” “Literature and Art,” “International Events of Importance,” “Religion and Education,” “Events and Local Character.” This list may demand several committees. Some of these committees may report once a week and others monthly. The exact arrangement will be determined by the quantity of material available on the various topics as the work moves along. The recitation would consist of committee reports presented by the chairman of each committee. If several committees were to report in a given day, time allotments should be used. Every student in a class will be a member of a committee and will be periodically moved to another committee unknown to the student so that each student will need to be familiar with each committee’s topic. The teacher or chairman may select a student at any time to be moved to another committee. The student evaluation will be determined by the class teacher, committee chairmen and the students of the class.

The Report Method. Each student is to choose a subject which is to be followed for a week or so and then reported on to the class. The report is to be presented covering points in a previously approved outline by the teacher. This outline should be in such a form as to make it possible for the class to copy and to use as a basis for note-taking on the report. The entire class is held responsible for the contents of each report. Two or more students may select the same topic, thus making possible some lively discussions of the report when given.

The Notebook Method. Each student is required to prepare a journal which will record several news events of the past week. The journals are placed in a permanent current-event notebook along with suitable clippings and illustrations as available. The notebook is arranged according to a prescribed format such as the following:

1) Local events (in the town, city, or state)

a) Name of the event

i) Reference

ii) Journal of the event

b) Arrangement as under A

c) Arrangement as under A

2) National events

a) Name of the event

i) Reference

ii) Journal of the event

b) Arrangement as under A

c) Arrangement as under A

3) International events

a) Name of the event

i) Reference

ii) Journal of the event

b) Arrangement as under A

c) Arrangement as under A

The Informational Method. All teacher imposed requirements are removed from the current-event assignments. Each student is responsible for a report on a current-event by a given due date. On that due date, each student will make a brief presentation from their report. The student’s evaluation is on the presentation of the report as well as the critical thinking the student applied in interpreting the current-event.

Middle school and high school educators find including current-events in their classes a daunting task due to time limitations in both finding the appropriate articles on the current-event and then the class time to discuss the event. One Article per Day makes this task easy for educators as we do all of the research for you and prepare your weekly current-event assignments. Each assignment will be delivered to the educator’s email inbox weekly.

One Article per Day reads through hundreds of newspapers (local, national, and international), blogs, magazines and journals daily to ensure your students have the best current-event lesson plans possible. We are unique in that One Article per Day will complement your lesson plan by providing news, and opinions that are making headlines of today.

The following chart reports the percentage of newspaper space devoted by topic.

There is no doubt that the interested educator will discover other and perhaps better ways of conducting current-event work than those described above. There are, of course, favorable and unfavorable things to be said concerning almost any procedure. The main points to be made in this connection, however, are 1.) Teacher should have a well-formulated plan for the work, one that is thoroughly understood both by himself and the students; and 2.) There must be some graduation in the method used in the lower and upper classes, which is another way of saying that the method must be adapted to the class using it, and that the one employed in the most advanced classes should use all of the knowledge and training acquired through the methods previously employed.

To learn more regarding About Face International’s One Article per Day and the unique current-event curriculum offered for middle school, high school, and college students, please email classroom@aboutfaceintl.org or call 617.744.5159.