any current events teachers here?

amother

Mustard

Wed, Sep 09 2015, 9:43 pm

thinkermother wrote:

wow! I am truly impressed with the amount of preparation you put into such an "easy" subject as news! I was scouring the web for appropriate cartoons and it is so time consuming to sort through the junk and to find one that portrays my angle. do you have a specific site you glean from?
also do you create your sheets yourself or are you part of a teacher share site?
I love the idea of an intro lesson to cartoons. would never have thought of that and it is so important.

What do you mean my angle?

I don't preach my angle.

I might get strangled here, but for my Iran deal lesson I'm planning to bring both White House Website infographics and opponents' arguments. And discuss spin.

My job as a CE teacher is to guide them to make their own decisions. Not preach my worldview.

Cagle.com is great for cartoons. The cartoons are not complicated, sorted by topic, and free.

You MUST have a lesson teaching them how to do anything you plan to test them on. This is an ironclad rule in our school. No springing vocabulary "finish the analogy" examples on the test if you haven't practiced it in class. Ditto for essays. If you think about it, it's only fair.

thinkermother

Wed, Sep 09 2015, 10:18 pm

in our school there is no testing on this subject. it is simply to broaden their worldview.
I found I great sheet for interpreting cartoons online.
in your first post you mentioned the five spheres you bring to light in any news lesson. do you mind to elaborate on that?

amother

Mustard

Wed, Sep 09 2015, 10:32 pm

thinkermother wrote:

Interpretting cartoons took me an entire booklet... I'd love to see that sheet. Would you post a link?

The five aspects/themes/storylines are politics (government, foreign affairs, laws) economics (money, banks, stocks, businesses), society (this is pretty broad. It includes culture which we don't go into much, health and wellness, and human interest stories), geography (ecology and environmental iasues, weather events, borders and migration) , and technology (space exploration, new gadgets like drones).

I usually bring an example in my first lesson of a recent news event that fits each category. In later lessons I focus on the story I want to teach skills with.

They often overlap, so we spend a few minutes discussing examples of how an economic event (recession) can affect politics (ruling party loses midterm elections). Then there are events that encompass all areas, like war.

HappytoHS

Thu, Sep 10 2015, 4:15 pm

amother wrote:

Interpretting cartoons took me an entire booklet... I'd love to see that sheet. Would you post a link?

And I'd love to see your booklet!

I am really fired up by the way you've described your history and current events classes. The way you talk about "giving structure to a sometimes chaotic subject" and "form and defend opinions. To identify bias, prejudice, and spin. To look for patterns and brainstorm solutions to political or social problems" really speaks to me and describes what I would like to give over to my kids.

Are there any other teaching resources, digital or print, you can point me to or provide that can help me teach these skills in the organized, structured way that you describe? TIA

mommyash

Thu, Sep 10 2015, 8:13 pm

Hi.
I teach English at one of the Bais Yaakov high schools in Chicago. I am happy to share any of my materials.
For current events, I have had success with the website Newsela.com. What's great about the site is that you can change the reading level of any given article. The articles also come with comprehension questions, which I don't normally use, but you may find helpful. I also have found some good articles on the US News and World Report site in the Op-Ed section. The op-ed pieces on the Israelnationalnews site are also sometimes good.

thinkermother

Fri, Sep 11 2015, 12:57 am

how much time a week do you have with each class? do you zero in on one issue/country/news event or do you generally update?
I have 45 minutes a week per class. im having a hard time deciding on how much and what to cover per session.