civics current events assignment

Current Events

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The New York Times

The learning network | 50 ways to teach with current events.

50 Ways to Teach With Current Events

Current Events

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

• See all in Current Events »
• See all lesson plans »

Updated, July, 2016

How can we make sure that students are informed about what’s going on around the world? That they are armed with the tools to be able to distinguish between opinion and fact; between evidence-based statements and empty rhetoric; between sensationalism and solid journalism? Just like most other things in life, the best way to do all that is through practice.

In honor of National News Engagement Day , here are 50 ideas to help teachers bring current events into the classroom, grouped below by category:

Reading and Writing

Speaking and Listening

Games and Quizzes

Photographs, Illustrations, Videos and Infographics

• Design and Creativity

Making Connections

Building Skills

Some ideas work best as regular routines, others as one-shot activities. Many might be easier to use together with the new K-12 New York Times school subscription , but all of them could be implemented using the free links to Times articles on The Learning Network — or with any other trusted news source.

In our comments section, we hope you’ll share how you teach current events.

1. Read the Paper and Find What Interests You: If we could recommend just one thing teenagers should do with the news, it’s this. Just read and discover what you care about. Every summer we try to promote this with our Summer Reading Contest , and we hope teachers are continuing this student-centered approach now that school has started.

You might invite your students to pick one article each week and write about why they chose it, perhaps using student winners from our summer contest as models. Our Reading Log (PDF) might also help.

Then, set aside time for students to share their picks with a partner, or even with a wider audience through social media.

2. Share Your Opinion: Each school day we publish a new Student Opinion question about an article in The Times. Students can participate in our moderated discussions online, or you can borrow from hundreds of published questions for class discussions or personal writing from 2016 , 2015 , 2014 and beyond .

3. Read About News-Making Teenagers: Every month we publish a collection of all the recent Times articles and multimedia that feature teenagers . Students can use this list to identify someone they admire, learn how other teenagers are taking action or make connections to issues in their own school and community.

4. Find ‘News You Can Use': Use The Times, or any other news source, to find things like movie or video game reviews, recipes , sports scores, health information , and how-to’s on subjects from social media to personal finance that can help improve your life.

5. Ask and Answer Questions: Each day we choose an important or interesting Times story and pose the basic news questions — Who, What, Where, When, Why and How — in our News Q’s feature. Students can first answer the “right there” questions that test reading comprehension, then move on to the deeper critical thinking questions, then write their own “News Q’s” about articles they select.

6. Write an Editorial: Have your students pick an issue that matters to them, whether climate change, gender roles or police brutality, and then write an evidence-based persuasive essay like the editorials The New York Times publishes every day. They can practice all year, but save their best work to submit in our Student Editorial Contest in February. Each year we select 10 winners along with dozens of runners-up and honorable mentions from nearly 5,000 student editorials.

7. Compare News Sources: Different papers, magazines and websites treat the news differently. You might have students compare lead stories or, via the Newseum’s daily gallery, front pages . Or, you might just pick one article about a divisive topic (politics, war, social issues) and see how different news sources have handled the subject.

8. Be a Journalist Yourself: Perhaps the most powerful way to engage with current events is to document them yourself, as a student journalist . Write articles or opinion pieces for your school or community paper about how a national or global issue is playing out in your community. Contribute comments online or letters to the editor reacting to news stories you’ve read. Use social media to document what you witness when news happens near you. Take video of local events and interview participants. Or, suggest ways that you and others your age can take action on an issue you care about. The National News Engagement Day Pinterest board has ideas like this and many more.

9. Hold a Debate: Want your students to be able to develop arguments and support a point of view on current issues? We offer numerous resources to help, including: ideas for different classroom debate formats ; ways to use The Times’ Room for Debate feature in the classroom; and a graphic organizer for gathering evidence on both sides of an argument (PDF).

10. Interview Fellow Students: Ask students to generate a question related to an issue they’re reading about, and then conduct a one-question interview (PDF) with their classmates. The room will be buzzing with students asking and answering questions. For more detailed instructions on this activity, consult our teacher instructions .

11. Brainstorm Solutions to the World’s Problems: Why not put students in the role of policymakers? They can look closely at an issue covered in The Times and brainstorm possible solutions together, using our Problem-Solution handout (PDF) to take notes. Then they can work together to draft a policy proposal, perhaps one that suggests a local solution to the problem, and present it to the class or to the school board or city council.

12. Create a News-Inspired Theatrical Performance: Whether a simple monologue or a full Reader’s Theater event, our series, Drama Strategies to Use With Any Day’s Times, can help you use simple theater exercises to spur discussion and thinking about current events.

13. Hold a Mock Campaign and Election: Looking to teach an upcoming election? Let students take the role of campaign strategists and candidates. Our Election Unit can be adapted for any election to get students researching candidates, studying issues, trying out campaign strategies and holding their own mock election. Or, choose another approach from our 10 ways to teach about Election Day or our list of resources for the 2016 presidential election .

14. Organize a Teach-In, Gallery Walk or Social Action on a Topic: Our country and world face complex issues — war, drug abuse, climate change, poverty — to name a few. Students working in groups can follow a topic in The Times, and then organize a classroom or whole school “teach-in” to inform their peers about topics in the news and decide how to take action. Alternatively, they can create a classroom gallery of photographs, maps, infographics, articles, editorial cartoons, essays, videos and whatever else they can find to immerse others in the topic. Ask yourself and your classmates, what can people our age do to effect change around this issue?

15. See How You Do Compared to Others on Our Weekly News Quiz: Have students test how well they’ve been keeping up with the week’s news with our 10-question current events quiz. The answers provide an explanation along with links to relevant Times articles so students can learn more. Then, in December, students can take our annual year-end news quiz, like this one from 2015 .

16. Play Fantasy Geopolitics: Have students draft teams of countries, similar to how they might draft players in a fantasy sports league, and then accumulate points based on how often those countries appear in The New York Times . Classrooms can track point scores and trade countries using the resources on the Fantasy Geopolitics site, a game created by Eric Nelson, a social studies teacher in Minnesota.

17. Battle Others in Bingo: Encourage students to get to know the newspaper — digital or print — by playing one of our many versions of bingo: Page One Bingo , Science, Health and Technology Bingo , World History Bingo or Geography Bingo (PDF).

18. Do a Scavenger Hunt: Send your students searching for answers to our New York Times Scavenger Hunt (PDF) as a way to become more familiar with how a newspaper covers the day’s news.

19. Mix and Match Headlines, Stories and Photos: Cut up articles, headlines and photos into three separate piles and mix them up, then challenge students in groups to see who can correctly match them in the shortest amount of time. When they’re done, they can fill out our related handout (PDF). Our teacher instructions provide more details.

20. Hunt for the Three Branches of Government in the Paper: What articles can you find in a week’s worth of papers about the different branches of the United States government? Record what you find with our Branching Out handout (PDF).

21. Analyze Photographs to Build Visual Literacy Skills: On Mondays we ask students to look closely at an image using the three-question facilitation method created by our partners at Visual Thinking Strategies: What’s going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find? Students can participate in the activity by commenting in our weekly “What’s Going On In This Picture?” moderated conversation.

Alternatively, you might prefer to select your own news photos. Slideshows, such as the regular “Pictures of the Day” feature, are always a great place to find compelling images related to current events.

22. Interpret Editorial Cartoons and “Op-Art”: Patrick Chappatte publishes editorial cartoons on topics ranging from ISIS to the Ukraine. You can use the Visual Thinking Strategies facilitation method to ask open-ended questions, letting students make meaning out of the cartoons. Or, have students analyze some of the “Op-Art” on the Opinion pages of The Times. How do these images make an argument? Students can also try their hand at drawing their own editorial cartoons , and then enter them into our annual editorial cartoon contest .

23. Decipher an Infographic: Take an infographic or chart in The Times and have students explain what it shows using sentences. Our handout “A Graph Is Worth a Thousand Words, or At Least 50″ (PDF) can serve as a guide.

24. Create an Infographic: Or, do the opposite, and have students take the data provided in a Times article to create their own graph or chart (PDF). The Reader Ideas “From Article to Infographic: Translating Information About ‘Sneakerheads’” and “Telling Stories With Data” suggest ways to approach this task.

25. Illustrate the News: Students can draw an illustration that captures some aspect of an article. Using our handout “The One-Pager” (PDF), students accompany their illustration with a quote from the article as well as a question for the journalist or someone mentioned in the article.

26. Write a Postcard: Or, maybe having students create a mock postcard to or from a subject in a Times article would work better for your class.

27. Say What’s Unsaid: Another option is assigning students to add speech and thought bubbles (PDF) to a Times photograph to communicate something they learned by reading an article.

28. Create Storyboards: Students can break a story into various scenes that they illustrate (PDF), like a storyboard, and then write a caption or choose a quote from the article that captures the essence of each frame. Our teacher instructions can help with this activity, as can a recent lesson plan on using storyboards to inspire close reading .

Creative Writing and Design

29. Write a Rap or Song: Each December, we ask students to compose a rap about important and memorable events from the past year. Get inspired by the winners from our 2015 contest , and start polishing your rhymes for this year.

30. Make a Timeline: Students can design their own timelines, using photographs, captions and selected quotes, to understand and keep track of complex current events topics. Times models can help since the paper regularly publishes timelines on all kinds of topics, whether Mariano Rivera’s career, the evolution of Facebook or the Ferguson protests

31. Create a Twitter Feed: Or, students can create a fake Twitter feed documenting a news story, paying attention to time stamps and author tone, such as we suggested in this lesson about the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

32. Explore a Particular Community: Find reporting on a community of which you’re a member — whether an ethnic, religious, professional, school or artistic group, or any other — and analyze how it has been reported on. Then use these ideas for finding ways you can help express what, in your experience, makes this group unique. What do you think people need to know about this community and how can you communicate that?

33. Write a Found Poem: Every year we invite students to take any Times article or articles published since 1851 and mix and combine the words and phrases in them into a new piece. Take a look at the work of our winners for inspiration, but the exercise can be done with anything from a science essay to an obituary to an archival article reporting on a famous event from history.

34. Make a News Broadcast: Students can turn an article they read in The Times into an evening news broadcast , with an anchor, on-the-ground reporter and interview subjects.

35. Create an Audio Podcast: Listen to some Times models , then get students to create a podcast (PDF) of a news story instead.

36. Connect the Past to Today: Help students tie what they’re studying in history class to what’s going on in the world today. We regularly do this in both our Text to Text feature as well as our social-studies-focused lesson plans . You might also consider following @nytarchives on Twitter and our own “Throwback Thursday” posts to see echoes of the past in today’s headlines — or, visit Times Machine on your own to view by date or through search terms 129 years of Times journalism as it originally appeared.

37. Pair the News With Literature and Poetry: Encourage students to look for connections between literary themes and current events. Our Poetry Pairings and Text to Text lesson plans can provide inspiration, as can our Classic Literature posts .

38. Think Like a Historian: What events make the history books? How and from whose point of view are they told? Have students research a current events topic, and then write a paper arguing whether this topic will make “history” and how it will be remembered.

39. Connect The Times to Your Own Life: Have students make connections between the articles they read in The New York Times and their own life, other texts and the world around them using our Connecting The New York Times to Your World (PDF) handout.

40. Consider Censorship Through Any Day’s Front Page: What if we didn’t have freedom of the press? Ask students to take the front page of any New York Times and put an X over the stories that might be censored if our government controlled the press. You might use our Censoring the Press (PDF) handout to help.

41. Take Informed Action: When students become more informed about the world, they can get inspired to become civically active and engaged in their communities . Have students brainstorm issues that matter to them, either at the local, national or global level, and then design a plan of action for how they can begin to make the change they hope to see in the world.

42. Determine Reliability of Sources : How do we distinguish good journalism from propaganda or just shoddy reporting? Students can use simple mnemonics, like those developed at the Center for News Literacy , to evaluate the reliability of an article and the sources it relies on. For example, apply the acronym “IMVAIN” (PDF) to an article to surface whether sources (and the information they provide) are Independent, Multiple, Verifiable, Authoritative, Informed and Named. This and many other strategies can be found in our lesson on “fake news vs. real news .

43. Distinguish Fact From Opinion: Even within The Times, students can get confused when navigating between news and opinion. What’s the difference? Use our Skills Practice lesson on distinguishing between the two to help students learn the basics, then go on to our lesson “News and ‘News Analysis’,” to help students learn how to navigate between news reporting and Opinion pieces within news outlets.

44. Start With What Students Already Know: Students are often aware of current events on their own, even before topics come up in school. When delving into a subject, start by asking students what they’ve heard or seen, and what questions they already have. Use our K/W/L Chart (PDF) or a concept map to chart what students say and think. And this post , about reading strategies for informational text, has much more.

45. Identify Cause and Effect: Much of journalism involves tracking the ripple effects of big news events or societal trends. Our handout (PDF) can help students get started, as can this Facing History “iceberg” strategy that helps learners think about what’s “under the surface.” Another resource? This Skills Practice lesson .

46. Compare and Contrast: Venn diagrams and T-charts (PDF) are often useful for comparing two topics or issues in the news, and our Text-to-Text handout can help students compare two or more texts, such as an article and a historical document.

47. Read Closely: By using a double-entry journal (PDF), students can become better readers of informational text by noting comments, questions and observations alongside lines or details they select from a text.

48. Support Opinions With Facts: Whether students are writing their own persuasive arguments, or reading those written by other people, they need to understand how authors support opinions with facts. Students can practice by reading Times Opinion pieces and identifying how authors construct arguments using opinions supported by facts (PDF). Then they can develop their own evidence-based counterpoints.

49. Summarize an Article: Having students pull out the basic information of a news story — the five W’s and an H (PDF) can help them better understand a current events topic. Here is a lesson plan with a summary quiz and many ideas for practice.

And Finally…

50. Learn From Our Mistakes: There are several places in the newspaper where you can see corrections and analysis of where The Times has made a misstep. For a weekly critique of grammar, usage and style in The Times, see the After Deadline series. For a list of each day’s corrections, go to the bottom of the Today’s Paper section and click “corrections.” And for a full discussion of issues readers and the public raise around Times coverage, visit the Public Editor column . What can you learn from the mistakes The Times makes, and from how they are addressed publicly?

Let us know in the comment section below how you teach current events in your class, or which ideas from the above list inspired you.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Great ideas! Thanks for sharing.

I am currently a graduate student working towards a certificate and Masters in Special Education. One of the biggest pushes in our program is to ensure that we are doing the things necessary within the classroom to become a critical transformative multicultural educator. Through my studies and observational experiences, I believe there is no better way to prepare studenst for the real world than connecting them to current events. It can often be comfotable to keep students in a world within the walls of the classroom. Yet, in doing so students only adapt to only being able to staticly think about the environments they are exposed to. Through these amazing and creative ways students can evolve their thought processes and become dynamic learners interest in the how the world around them works. It is through current events that we as educators can empower our students to become advocates for their own lives. Thanks so much for sharing and could not agree more with message.

Here are some more current event brain boosters: //www.educationworld.com/a_special/current_events.shtml

! Use current events as an activator to start each class and sometimes we follow the topic the full school year. Great short videos as well. Thanks for the lesson plans ideas as well.

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Civics for All: Current issues and events

This collection of lesson plans and resources supplement the Civics for All curriculum to aid in teaching current issues and events. These materials include two resource types:

Full K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and/or 9-12 lesson plans that connect fundamental civics concepts to current issues and events. The formatting of the lesson plans is consistent with the Civics for All lesson plans and are distinguishable by their purple color-coding.

A brief summary of the issue or event with suggested resources for lesson planning and teaching civics-related current events.

The collection will grow over time. It is recommended that you download and review Current Events and Civics Education before using the resources in this collection in your classroom.

The titles and details for the first set of resources that will be in the collection are below:

Included Resources

Civics for all: the impeachment process.

These full 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 lessons each provide a unique and grade-appropriate exploration of impeachment in the United States as well as other resources and infographics. The formatting of the lesson plans is consistent with the Civics for All lesson plans and is distinguishable by the purple color-coding.

Current events and civics education

Current events and civics educ....

As part of Civics as Part of Quality Social Studies Instruction (pages 17-26 of the Civics for All curriculum) this resource provides guidance on the connection between instructional practices, current issues and events, and the civics classroom.

Resources to Support Discussions On Racism an...

Resources to support discussio..., resources to support discussions on racism and systemic inequality.

This document is a compilation of resources to support classroom discussions on racism and systemic inequality.

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Resources for teaching civics using New York Times content

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Teach Current Events With These Free Worksheets From The Week Junior

Article summary worksheets and news accuracy tips for grades 3-8! 🗞️

The Week Junior magazine is a kid-friendly, unbiased current events news source. It’s a safe and trusted partner to help you explain to kids what’s happening in the world while providing fun reading content including puzzles, recipes, crafts, and more. 

The benefits of using current events in the classroom are practically endless. News stories help students better understand their communities, new perspectives, and real-world events. Introducing current events in the classroom can promote critical thinking, empathy, reading skills, global awareness, and so much more. Whether you’re assigning weekly current events summaries or conducting a single lesson, our free current events worksheets for grades 3-8 are the perfect companion.

Inside, you’ll find two options for current event summaries. In addition, our savvy news reader tips and activity will guide students through determining if an article is trustworthy. In a world of so many media outlets, news literacy is a crucial skill!

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Current Events Summary Worksheets

WeAreTeachers

• When giving current events assignments, give students the option to use one of two article summary worksheets to get started.
• Choose from a graphic organizer–style worksheet or a traditional fill-in worksheet to evaluate an article.

News Accuracy Worksheets

• Begin a lesson on news literacy. Use the list tips to educate students on determining a news article’s accuracy and credibility.
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What’s Goin’ on Today? Resources for Teaching Current Events in Social Studies Classrooms

January 27, 2021 David Childs Democracy & Me Blog , Elections , Lesson Plans , The Role Of Media 19

Dr. David Childs, Ph.D. Northern Kentucky University

Introduction The year 2020 was certainly an eventful year. The year brought a global pandemic that has left millions dead, an impeached president who refused to admit that he lost the election, a sputtering economy and schools that have had to go completely online across the nation. On a more positive note, musicians gave us all free virtual concerts from the comfort of our living rooms via social media, drive-in theaters made a comeback and Zoom and drive by parties became a thing also in 2020. But not to be outdone, 2021 seems to have come in with a bang as well, the president was impeached once again, more chilling COVID deaths, an attempted insurrection at the nation’s capitol, and the election of the first woman and person of color as vice president of the United States of America. And all of these events have taken place in just the first few weeks of 2021. These news items are illustrative of human struggle and triumph and help us define who we are. They are what we call current events.   Four Tips for Teaching Current Events One of the most important jobs of social studies teachers is keeping students abreast on recent news and upcoming events. There are many resources available that help social studies teachers integrate current events into their teaching. Heather Wolpert-Gawron in a 2017 Edutopia article offered four tips that are helpful in teaching current events in the age of social media . Those four components that are outlined and discussed are below. “ 1. Utilize resources that differentiate informational reading levels. Look at resources like Newsela to filter news stories not by topic but by grade level, so that articles are suited to your students’ emotional stages. After all, just because a student is academically ready to read a higher level of text doesn’t mean they’re developmentally ready to do so. Newsela helps to adjust levels so stories are age-appropriate without shying away from particular topics. 2. Create an archive of resources that focus on more positive stories. Find sources that help students learn about human achievement and accomplishments. Start with Common Sense Media’s list of news sources for kids . Remember, however, that every site has articles that need to be vetted. Check out these sites for some possibilities for your students: DailyGood : This is a great resource of straightforward pieces with an emphasis on the amazing and interesting. This site strives also to present news from diverse perspectives. Yes! Magazine : The tagline for this magazine is “Powerful Ideas, Practical Actions.” It focuses on problems, yes, but also on how people are solving those problems. Positive News : This site focuses on challenging stereotypes and sharing what people are doing to tackle the world’s challenges. It’s inspiring and easy to navigate. The menu breaks stories down by society, economics, science, environment, lifestyle, and perspective. 3. Help students read critically to tease apart the true from the questionable and the false. Every teacher should be taking this on, and hopefully your school or district has adopted a program to help teachers achieve this goal. However, there are resources out there to help individual teachers. From PBS to KQED , from Common Sense Media to The New York Times , there are many outlets out there to help teachers tackle this challenge. 4. Teach students the necessity of unplugging sometimes. And while we’re at it, teach students that unplugging is healthy for their hearts and heads. We all need to detach from the news feed sometimes. Unplug, recharge, and oxygenate your brain with exercise. Be transparent about what intelligent adults do (or try to do) to keep life in perspective.” Using Newspaper Headlines to Teach Current Events Another resource I recently accessed from the Freedom Forum was a website that allowed people to see the front page of newspaper headlines from across the US for free. The site includes the Anchorage Daily News, the Montgomery Advertiser, the LA Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Posts, the New York Times and hundreds of others from across the nation. Please click the link here to go to the resource. 

Conclusion In closing, often when educators present current events they portray a perspective of the world that is primarily negative. But Wolpert-Gawron points out that: “We need our students to leave classrooms knowledgeable and critical but also hopeful. We have a responsibility to balance the horrors with the hopeful and the frightening with what is also festive. Help kids focus on the good that is immediately before them. Make your classroom one of positivity so that they have a place to go to feel that the state of the news is not necessarily the state of their own lives.” In other words, it is of the utmost importance to make students aware of troubling things that are going on in our world, but at the same time teachers should highlight the many good things going on in the world as well. Students should be able to know and celebrate the positive things. In this way, social studies classrooms are the perfect space to learn and celebrate both tragedy and triumph in our world.   

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I chose this article at a glance because as a future educator I am very interested in the best ways to integrate current events into curriculum. However, what I found was an article that not only contained resources to use when looking at current events, but also a deeper message. Although in my thought process I was considering using an age specific current event video or reading as a bellringer or starting work in my classroom, I had thought little about the impact all the negativity of the world could be putting into students minds. It is a great thing to point out that generating hope while informing students with credible sources on today’s news is imperative.

I like this article because even though social studies is mainly about history or past events it is important to talk about topics that occur in today’s world. Current events are something that can be discussed in social studies, or you can incorporate them into language arts also. This article points out that current events discussed in class are typically negative, so I like how it provides resources that focus on positive current events. I also like how it talks about the importance of unplugging and keeping up with current events. This article encouraged me to keep in mind that current events are something that needs to be taught.

Going into education in general, whether I teach Social Studies or not it is still important to touch on topics even though they may be touchy. If I was a social studies teacher I would want to share currents events. Current events are what is one day going to be our history so there is no reason not to talk about it. The pandemic and what is going on in Ukraine has created an uncomfortable environment in Social Studies classrooms and that’s not how it should be. These seem like awesome resources to use to help talk about uncomfortable or touchy subjects.

The two biggest takeaways from this article is the educate our students but also remember to teach them to unplug themselves. It is so easy to get wound up in the news, it can be detracting from our everyday lives. I think it important to remain informed in what is going on, but to be careful to not inundate yourself with news where it is consuming your every move.

It’s very important to teach kids todays news and current events. They need to know what is going on in their world and in society. 

This pandemic has forced an uncomfortable environment for learning and being a teacher. Resources such as these can help make an uncomfortable situation manageable and create ab environment that demonstrates a tailored learning experience.

In highschool my history teachers would have us watch these current events videos that told us what was happening world wide. Because of the videos I felt involved with what was going on and was able to actually talk about it.

Going into high school education wanting to be a history teacher this was a very insightful article. In a current events class you need to talk about what is going on in the world even if it’s a touchy subject to talk about. I believe if you want to be a current event teacher you need to realize we’re creating history every single day, and that is why I wanna be a history teacher.

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The Civic Educator

Teaching Methods and Assessments to Use with CNN10 Current Events

Teaching current events is an important part of civics education. Students need to know what’s going on around the world to be engaged citizens.

If you want to teach current events in class, CNN10 is a free online resource for doing so. If you’re unfamiliar with CNN10, you can read more about why it’s a great tool to use with your students here .

Five Suggested Methods for Teaching Current Events with CNN10

But if you’ve already checked out CNN10, you know it’s a daily 10 minute video podcast that covers three to four important news stories. At this point, you’re probably wondering how best to incorporate it into your class. On that note, here are five suggestions to get you started.

Once Weekly Current Events and Summaries

Set aside one day a week and devote it to current events. On that day, start by asking students to share any news stories they’ve heard about during the week. Then, watch one to two of the CNN10 videos from the week. I suggest always using Friday’s video, because it includes the cool montage at the end of the episode. For the second one, you might want to skim the topics for the week to see what is most relevant to your students.

Have the students jot down notes while they are watching the video, and after each one take a few minutes to debrief. As a group, identify each story, emphasize the key details, and answer any questions that the students had. If there’s a particularly interesting or relevant story, you can extend this into a brief class discussion, but try to avoid it consuming the entire period.

Once you’ve finished both videos, have the students write one of two things. Either write a paragraph that summarizes the key events of the week, citing at least three news stories as examples. Or write a paragraph that identifies the most important story of the week, summarizes that story, and explains why it is important. They’re slightly different writing skills, so you may choose to assign one or the other to target those skills. You could also leave the choice up to the students.

One final adjustment would be to assign the writing for homework. This would increase the amount of class time available for discussion of the news as a class. You could always play this by ear, assigning the writing for classwork if the discussion peters out and assigning it for homework if there’s enough interest to carry it through the end of the class.

Daily Current Events and Summaries

A second option is to watch each day’s CNN10 video as an introductory activity for the day. It’s short enough that you can settle in, watch the video, and quickly debrief in 15 minutes. Afterwards, you’ll still have time for another main activity in class. This is best suited for block periods, but you can do this with a traditional class as well if you instill the routines in your students and eliminate time wasting.

If you watch these current events on a daily basis, I would suggest that you have the students write a paragraph each day as per the assignment above. However, it’s simplest to have them hold on to those summaries until the end of the week and hand them each Monday. Students who are absent can watch the videos on their own time and make them up. If you miss a day, you can also assign that video for homework. Collecting it weekly also cuts down on the amount of paper you collect and read, as you can quickly check an entire week’s worth of work instead of five pages per student per week.

Flipped Classroom Videos and Weekly Quizzes

A third option is to flip the classroom and assign each day’s video for homework. If you use a learning management system, you can upload the videos there for students to access, or they can go directly to the CNN10 website. Similar to the suggestion above, students can write a daily summary or reflection on what they’ve watched and you can collect that each Monday. The Monday due date gives students the entire weekend to catch up on any videos they missed, and it allows busy students like athletes to make adjustments to accommodate their weeknight schedules.

As an added incentive to make sure that students watch the videos and write thorough summaries, I would give a quick quiz each Monday morning. CNN provides a series of multiple choice questions with each video, so you could borrow some of these and combine them into a quiz. You could also write your own. Either way, let the students use their notebooks on the quiz and ask a few questions about the major details of the news stories. This will ensure that students aren’t just skimming the headline and writing their summary by paraphrasing the summary CNN10 provides.

Monthly or Quarterly Reflections

Once you get students in the habit of regularly consuming the news, you should incorporate regular longterm reflections. On a monthly or quarterly basis, assign students an essay that asks them to reflect on the major themes in the news. For example, some recent recurrent themes are have been the conflict with North Korea, natural disasters, and the debate over the Affordable Care Act. Writing the essay is a good opportunity for students to look back through their writing for the period in question and think about the bigger picture. On a daily basis, it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees and focus too much on the individual events and news of the day.

Have Students Produce Their Own CNN Student News

A fun summative project for a semester or for the year would be to have students produce their own CNN Student News show. After a few months, they’ll understand the format and routines of the show. Depending on the technical capabilities of your students and the available technology in your school, you could set higher or lower standards for production value.

If you set the bar high, you could require students to incorporate some actual news footage into their broadcast, share a viral video clip, and close out with a photo montage from the week. You could also require them to film a “CNN Hero” type segment where they interview and feature a student or staff member from the school community.

You could set the bar a bit lower by simply having them write up a script, putting two news anchors behind a desk, and filming it on a cell phone.

Either way, this steps it up a notch from just watching and summarizing the news to making editorial decisions about what to include and what not to cut. As part of the assignment, you should ask students for a written reflection on their production process as a group.

If your kids are into video production, you should also think about using StudentCam in your class . It’s an awesome project that challenges kids to think deeply about the Constitution… and they can win a cash prize for participating.

Have You Used CNN10 In Your Class?

If you’ve never used CNN10, take one of these ideas and try it out. But if you have, why don’t you share your routine in the comments? The five suggestions above are just the beginning. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways that teachers incorporate this into their routine.

Also, don’t forget that using current events is one of the six research based methods for improving civics education . Read more about the other five.

Finally, CNN10 is also a great way to liven things up a bit. Here’s a list of six ways to teach government in a fun way , if you’re looking for more ideas.

9 comments on “Teaching Methods and Assessments to Use with CNN10 Current Events”

• January 25, 2018

I have used CNN 10 in all of those ways mentioned.

• January 10, 2019

I teach 6th grade. While watching the show, students take notes. After the show, they sit in their teams and I ask 10 trivia questions. They compete for points and we keep running tallies as the year progresses. After each unit of study, we award a winner and switch around the teams.

• Jennifer Samborski
• May 22, 2019

I teach ancient world history. I have students connect something they have learned in class to stories they see on CNN 10. An example would be to connect a geographic location (the Kushan empire to a story about India) or an important concept (trade and it’s impact on people today as well as people in ancient empires). This helps students to make real world connections that make what we learn in class more relevant for them.

• August 28, 2019

Does CNN10 still provide questions? I can’t seem to find them if they do

• September 4, 2019

They don’t provide daily questions, but they do still provide weekly questions. They’re posted along with the Friday episode. For example, if you look at the August 30 episode, you’ll see the “Weekly News Quiz” with 10 questions (and a printable PDF).

• January 21, 2020

I’ve also used Google My Maps to create and interactive map. We create a class map that’s been shared to everyone, and at the end of every episode we add the stories to the map with short summaries.

• Julie Gentzen
• July 21, 2020

Now that’s an awesome idea!

• Patricia Lowe
• May 19, 2020

I teach a Special Needs class at Lyons Creek Middle School in Coconut Creek, Florida. We watch CNN10 everyday. I ask my students to give me 1 or 2 details about an event that they remember. They are able to come up with some pretty good feedback. With this pandemic going on in our society, I am still showing them the daily digital videos to keep them up to date during virtual teaching. It is sort of different than being in the classroom. I just want Carl Azuz to know that my students look forwards to watching his 10 minute news show. Would it be possible to mention our school, when we finally return to our real classroom in the fall. I would like for this to be a school wide event and our students would be thrilled. A couple years ago, you mentioned my high school in Smith’s Station Alabama, I was thrilled! Thank you, Ms. Lowe, Special Needs teacher

• September 19, 2020

There is a fantastic cnn10 daily quiz resource on teacherspayteachers.com I highly recommend!

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Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Seven Ways to Bring Current Events Into the Classroom

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The news always seems to be moving a thousand miles an hour, with much of it impacting our students’ lives—either now or in the future.

This two-part series will explore ways we connect those current events to what we’re teaching in the classroom.

Today, Suzie Boss, Kristen Koppers, Sarah Cooper, Mike Kaechele, Jessica Torres, and Renee Hobbs share their ideas. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Suzie and Kristen on my BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

You might also find additional useful resources at The Best Resources & Ideas For Teaching About Current Events.

Project-Based Learning

Suzie Boss is a PBL (Project-Based Learning) advocate, author, and member of the PBLWorks National Faculty. Her latest books are Project Based Teaching and Reinventing Project-Based Learning, 3 rd Ed :

One of the best ways to amplify the authenticity of school is to connect the curriculum to current events. I call this “ripped-from-the-headlines” teaching. For many students, the invitation to focus on timely topics—from pop culture to political controversies—is a surefire way to increase engagement.

Current events can inform lesson plans in small ways. For example, English teachers can make free-writes more relevant by using hashtags from social media as writing prompts. Elementary teachers might focus morning meetings on events that are in the news—and, likely, on students’ minds. Science teachers might connect a lesson to a health-related headline.

To maximize the learning potential, however, I encourage teachers to look to the headlines as inspiration for more extended, project-based learning. Well-designed projects invite students to go deeper and make their own connections between academics and the world beyond the classroom. In the process, they will likely need to think critically about everything from the reliability and biases of news sources to the echoes of history in events unfolding today.

Let’s consider a few examples.

Chemistry teacher Ray Ahmed leveraged the Flint, Mich., water crisis to launch his students in Brooklyn, N.Y., on an investigation of how to prevent lead from leaching into drinking water. They had to think as chemists to design experiments about corrosive inhibitors, analyze data, propose solutions, and explain their results in a scientific journal article. Although they live hundreds of miles from Flint, Brooklyn students made personal connections to the larger issue of environmental racism, which has affected the quality of life in their own community. (Ahmed was one of the inspiring teachers I interviewed for a recent book, Project Based Teaching: How to Create Rigorous and Engaging Learning Experiences . This video from PBLWorks documents the Water Quality Project from start to finish.)

Immigration issues not only dominate headlines, they also reflect the life experiences of many of our students and their families. Connecting today’s immigration stories with academic content about human migration is a way to bring human geography to life. For example, Texas teacher Ryan Sprott is co-founder of a collaboration between educators and artists called the Borderland Collective , which invites students to take part in storytelling, photography, and art making.

Election cycles offer social studies teachers real-time connections to their content. Projects might culminate in debates, with students basing arguments on evidence; candidate fairs that students host, with a focus on issues they care about; or public-service campaigns to increase turnout of first-time voters.

If you overhear students buzzing about pop culture, listen closely for connections to learning goals. For Delaware English teacher Dara Laws Savage, it was the #oscarssowhite controversy a couple years back—when few actors of color were nominated for Academy Awards—that generated the idea for an annual awards event honoring African American icons. It’s become an annual event during Black History Month. Students develop criteria for excellence in different categories, make nominations, and persuade voters to share their opinions. Listen to an interview about the project here .

If you’re looking for timely connections for your next PBL unit, ask yourself:

• Is there a topic or event that could provide an entry event for your next project?
• Do you see natural connections between the topic and your upcoming content goals?
• Does the topic involve a problem or challenge that your students could attempt to solve or debate through an extended inquiry project?

As you design your next project, take advantage of resources that will help your students think critically about current events. For example, Project Look Sharp is a K-12 resource for building media literacy. Pro/Con challenges readers to consider both sides of controversial issues.

Don’t be surprised if your students wind up making headlines themselves as a result of their projects.

Connecting George Orwell & Harper Lee to current events

Kristen Koppers is a national-board-certified teacher. She earned her bachelor of arts degree in English from Western Michigan University, a master of arts in English and a master of arts in educational administration from Governors State University. She is a public high school public English teacher. Her book Differentiated Instruction in the Teaching Profession was released in July, 2019:

Connecting current events with lessons in the classroom isn’t as difficult as it seems. Practically every lesson that’s taught from kindergarten through high school, and even postsecondary, can connect to a news article worldwide. It’s difficult to get students to watch the news or even listen to it. Because what they see on social media is the extent of their knowledge. Social-media news, at least from what I can see, is not all accurate. How can we as teachers make sure students are aware of credible information to information that is missing important facts?

The problem isn’t that many don’t take the time to read, listen, or even watch current events. The problem is that it’s not researched. As an ELA secondary education teacher, I not only connect current events to almost every lesson but I make it as authentic as possible. When I teach 1984 , by George Orwell, we focus on the aspect of the First Amendment. Even as an English teacher, I bring in the other subjects, such as history, social sciences, math, and even fine arts to connect with my students. For this particular lesson, I mainly focus on history and political science.

In the novel 1984 , privacy both public and private did not exist. Orwell’s slogan: ‘Ignorance is Strength’ is truer than we know. The less one knows the better. Before beginning the novel, I play a small video clip of Orwell, himself, just before he died warning about the future. Since Orwell wrote the novel in 1948, no one believed what he said was true. Many even thought that he was delusional during his last year. (I mean the title of the novel was just switching the last two digits of the year 48 to 84). However, whether it was coincidence or not, the Apple computer came out in 1984. After showing the short video clip of George Orwell’s warning, I showed the original 1984 commercial of the Macintosh computer. This got the students to talk.

I collected various articles beginning in 1984 through 2018. In their groups, the students read over them one by one where they started to make connections between what was similar about how technology evolved. I then pull out my iPhone to open the app “find my iPhone” to locate my husband. Now, normally, I do not have my phone in class. But for this particular lesson, I wanted to show how easily technology has not only evolved but our privacy has diminished.

I locate my husband and start pinging his phone for location. He knows what I’m going to do in class so he calls me (I have him on speaker) and asks me why I’m tracking him. Now before he calls, I tell the students where he is located. When he calls, I ask him his location. The reason he was on speaker was for the students to hear where he was located. Prior to the call, I told my students that he was located off Route 6 next to the gas station. When asked his location, he confirmed it. The phone conversation ends, and the class conversation begins.

This all connects to current events. This activity takes about two days because I want them to go home and think before the next lesson. Many actually went home to research “invasion of privacy” on their school computers. Because, after all, I can track what they research outside of my classroom. When they find this out, they say I violated their First Amendment rights. So, I have them look up First Amendment rights and I asked them what I exactly infringed upon. What they didn’t realize is that it’s the Fourth Amendment rights they were thinking about not the First. They were speechless.

With this one activity, my students are becoming more aware of current events. However, it wasn’t this one lesson that we connected to current events. Every day was a new lesson; whether we were reading the novel or not, I was able to relate to what was happening in the news.

Even studying short stories and past news about events, such as the lynching of Emmett Till, students were appalled at what happened. We studied a brief overview of the Civil Rights Movement and connected it to To Kill A Mockingbird , by Harper Lee. In 2017, evidence came out that the woman, Carolyn Bryant, Till “whistled” at wasn’t telling the truth. This encouraged them to find other articles about those wrongly accused no matter of race, gender, or religion.

It’s not just lessons that we teach based on the curriculum. If we can connect those lessons to skills students need to succeed, then we are doing our job.

Discussing current events across subject areas

Sarah Cooper teaches 8th grade U.S. history and is dean of studies at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada, Calif. She is the author of two books, Creating Citizens (Routledge, 2018) and Making History Mine (Stenhouse, 2009). Sarah speaks at conferences and writes for MiddleWeb’s Future of History blog, and she lives just outside Los Angeles with her husband and two sons:

We can link current events to what we teach in the classroom in at least two ways—through content and through character.

With content, teachers sometimes wonder how they can justify adding current events to their lessons if they’re not teaching contemporary history or politics.

A surefire way to make such connections is through themes, layering relevant pieces over the planks of an existing curriculum.

For instance, a science teacher can bring in articles all year about scientific ethics, and an English teacher can discuss pieces about group identity or the perils and promises of technology. A teacher of ancient world history can talk about the thrills of modern archaeology. World-language teachers can find pieces about contemporary cultures and politics, and arts teachers can check out the arts section of their local newspaper or alternative weekly.

With character, the relevance of current events expands even more. Many classroom teachers, from math to P.E., build norms with their students as school starts. Later in the year, if you see an article or video that reinforces one of these expectations, you can bring it in to discuss.

In my experience, students especially love stories that focus on positive human interactions, to lighten the daily news litany they scroll through online. One excellent resource for such stories is the Huffington Post’s Good News page . Such stories also generally avoid political partisanship, which even veteran social studies teachers can find hard to navigate.

Finally, don’t feel you have to do a lot! Even five minutes each day, or each week, can open up conversations you never would have had otherwise. And, if you bring in articles frequently enough, your students may start sending you what they find, creating a dialogue that can last far beyond a year in your classroom.

Don’t avoid controversial topics

Mike Kaechele is a history teacher in Grand Rapids, Mich., and National Faculty for PBLWorks. He believes in student-centered learning by giving kids authentic opportunities to do real work with local community partners:

Current events are a great way to engage students in the classroom. Project-Based Learning is an excellent structure to introduce current events. One of the key components of PBL is “authenticity,” and current events make content relevant. I use current events as “entry events” to get kids fired up about the launch of a project. My final products often ask kids to apply lessons from history to propose solutions to current issues that they present to community partners.

In social studies, current events can be used as an entry point to have students trace the causes of current problems to their source. The past can give both warnings and solutions to current problems that need to be addressed. I always use current contexts to launch history projects to give students motivation to learn about the past. For example the Driving Question, “Why do terrorists hate the United States?” requires students to do an in-depth study of American foreign policy of the last century to understand why certain countries do not see the United States as the “hero” on the world stage.

Current events engage students by shedding light on the tensions between American ideals and realities. They force students to be critical thinkers, considering multiple perspectives throughout history. Oftentimes, content is centered around sterile textbooks that do not address current realities. Embracing the controversy of current events engages students in critical thinking. For example, current arguments about immigration could lead to an exploration of our complex history of both welcoming some groups of immigrants while simultaneously discriminating against others with quotas and unjust laws. Students should be shown that current events do not happen in a vacuum but often are seated in a long history of controversy in our country.

Ideally. current events lead students to be proactive in coming up with solutions to the complex, connected society that they are inheriting. If we want students to awaken to the importance of our core content, then current events can be the hook for engagement by addressing real-world issues that their generation will be forced to solve. So instead of avoiding controversy, embrace it and teach students to consider all sides of current issues before taking up a strong position.

Articles & Podcasts

Jessica Torres serves as an educational specialist for ESC Region 12 in the heart of Texas. Formerly an assistant principal and Montessori teacher, Mrs. Torres is passionate about developing educators to provide innovative approaches and experiences for all learners as they pursue their unique interests and learning passions:

Our world has become a very small global community. Social media has allowed our news to become instantaneous in our society, allowing us to “know” what is happening before all of the facts have been clarified and the details are drawn out. For anyone living in today’s media-driven world, it is imperative that they be able to decipher between the facts and the rest, including propaganda, bias, disinformation, and click-bait. With this in mind, discussing current events in the classroom has become more than a fleeting idea—it has become an integral part of ensuring that our students are informed and prepared to face tough topics head-on with a background of knowledge and facts to support their opinions. Here are a few ideas and resources that I use to easily weave current events into the classroom each day and help students decipher between the muck and the news.

• Newsela - The article archive provides access to the world’s news in a student-friendly format that allows the teacher to differentiate for Lexile level or reading ability. Teachers can create assignments from the articles on Google Classroom or share them with the whole group. Each article comes with its own comprehension questions and writing prompt that can be used to engage students in conversation. Allowing students time to discuss their thoughts and emotions in a safe space, such as the classroom, encourages them to listen and think about other perspectives.
• Fact vs. Fiction book by Jennifer LaGarde and Darren Hudgins - Everyone needs help determining what’s real and what’s been spun lately. This book, written by two engaging educators, helps us develop strategies to use with ourselves and our students to safeguard our hearts and minds from inaccurate news and sources. Developing strong critical-thinking skills are the focus of this book, and a variety of resources are provided to help teachers as they share news items in their classrooms.
• Podcasts - Either listening to podcasts or having students create their own podcasts based on what they have learned from news stories can be extremely powerful and clarifying. Many students thoroughly enjoy listening to someone “talk” about the news rather than read about it. For other students, having the opportunity to express their own thoughts or perspective on an event feels personal and encourages ownership. Additionally, podcasts are known to be brief and completely scalable to fit the needs of the classroom.

“The worst ways to bring current events into the classroom”

Renee Hobbs is professor of communication studies and director of the Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island’s Harrington School of Communication and Media. An expert on digital and media literacy, Hobbs is the author of the forthcoming book Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age . Hobbs provides media-literacy curriculum resources for K-12 and college faculty and has offered professional-development programs on four continents:

Let’s start with identifying two of the worst ways to bring current events into the classroom: require students to maintain a current events journal or stage a debate about ongoing news and current events topic. The current events journal is a too-common assignment in middle school and high school where students must write short summaries of news, following a particular format. It’s an assignment that makes paying attention to news and current events a chore, a form of homework, and something to be dreaded. Assignments like this are not likely to inspire students to want to be informed on current events or encourage their intellectual curiosity about the news.

Classroom debate activities are well-meaning efforts intended to promote understanding of controversial public issues. But when students are positioned to take opposing sides and encouraged to gather evidence, argue their side and “win,” this legalistic practice actually leads adolescents in the wrong direction. As an instructional practice, debate can work against the development of genuine understanding and knowledge. Because debates promote competition, it does not model the deliberative and reflective practice of activating intellectual curiosity and modeling humility. When it comes to learning, the goal is not winning—it’s understanding.

Learning Civil Discourse

Instead of debate, students need to practice the art of perspective-taking on news and current events. In a five-minute daily discussion, start with a question to the whole group: “What are all the things you have heard about this topic, regardless of whether you believe them or not?” This invites general sharing and gathering of ideas, and it frees students up to offer ideas without being associated with or having to defend them.

In this kind of activity, students can share information without isolating themselves from their group. Plus, this method does not alienate the students who aren’t familiar with the news event or controversy under discussion. There’s no penalty for not knowing. Students can learn about current events from their peers.

Some teachers maintain a classroom rule for current events discussions: “You only have a right to an opinion if you have evidence or experience to back it up. If you don’t, then ask questions and listen and learn.” When students hear this, they feel a sense of relief. Students can show that they are participating by asking questions and taking notes. High school social studies teacher Emily Glankler explains it this way: “I’m trying to address a social problem we have in society today. Part of the problem is that people think they are entitled to an opinion on everything.” The everyday ritual of talking about current events for five minutes a day all year long models the practice of becoming a lifelong learner and an engaged citizen.

(This is the first post in a two-part series. You can see Part 2 here. )

The question of the week is:

What are the best ways to connect current events to what we’re teaching in the classroom?

Thanks to Suzie, Kristen, Sarah, Mike, Jessica, and Renee for their contributions.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It’s titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching .

Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader.

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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October 22, 2024

What remains: science, ethics, and the smithsonian's bone collection.

October 22, 2024 • The Smithsonian is the world's largest research institution, but much of it is out of public sight. And one particular kind of collection is part of a growing debate over where ethical lines and scientific discovery should be drawn. This week, we present the first part of a special series from our colleagues at Outside/In. You can listen to the rest of the series here, or get Outside/In wherever listen to podcasts. You can support our journalism by making a donation to our show! Thanks so much. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.

October 15, 2024

Why does corruption matter.

October 15, 2024 • Corruption in politics is a trope that's been around ever since we had politics. And it can feel inevitable. Regardless of anticorruption legislation and executive orders, it seems like it will never go away. David Sirota, editor in chief of The Lever and host of the podcast Master Plan, argues the opposite. Today on Civics 101 we learn about what corruption is, how it influences (or doesn't influence) policy, and what needs to be done to eradicate it from our political system. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.

October 8, 2024

How can the president stop a strike.

October 8, 2024 • Whenever there's a big strike in the news, someone inevitably invokes the phrase "Taft-Hartely Act" when talking about whether or not the president should intervene. But what is Taft-Hartley? How did it come about? And what can it actually do? Nick chats with Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island and expert on all things labor-related. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.

October 1, 2024

How you can help preserve our democracy (really).

October 1, 2024 • Why don't people "civically engage?" Because they're too busy! Politicians are busy! Or maybe...they don't care? In this special episode of Civics 101 recorded in front of a live audience, we hear from experts who break down what it means to participate in our democracy, how to break down barriers to participation, and how to be who you already are and make a VERY big difference. This episode was recorded at NHPR's Civics 101 Summit at Southern New Hampshire University. Learn more about that event right here. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.

September 24, 2024

What is "originalism".

September 24, 2024 • What does it mean if a SCOTUS justice is a self-proclaimed "originalist?" When was the word first used in that context? And what are we missing about the framers when we look only upon the recent interpretation of their words in the court? Today our guide is Mackenzie Joy Brennan; lawyer, media commentator, and author of the upcoming book The Original 'Original Intent,' Recovering the Lost Constitution of the Founders. Click here for more of Mackenzie's research on originalism, including Terry Brennan's essay in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Click here for our episode on the Second Amendment. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.

What is "Originalism?"

September 17, 2024, the mighty mississippi.

September 17, 2024 • For more than two hundred years Americans have tried to tame the Mississippi River. And, for that entire time, the river has fought back. This week we present an episode of our sister podcast Outside/In. Journalist and author Boyce Upholt has spent dozens of nights camping along the Lower Mississippi and knows the river for what it is: both a water-moving machine and a supremely wild place. His recent book, "The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River" tells the story of how engineers have made the Mississippi into one of the most engineered waterways in the world, and in turn have transformed it into a bit of a cyborg — half mechanical, half natural. In this episode, host Nate Hegyi and Upholt take us from the flood ravaged town of Greenville, Mississippi, to the small office of a group of army engineers, in a tale of faulty science, big egos and a river that will ultimately do what it wants. Featuring Boyce Upholt CLICK HERE: Visit our website to donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.

September 13, 2024

It's been a minute: video games vs. journalism vs. robert frost.

September 13, 2024 • Today, we bring you a special bonus - a SMACKDOWN episode of NPR's It's Been a Minute featuring our own hosts Nick and Hannah! IBAM host Brittany Luse has been taking this smackdown on the road to cities all across the country. Hear the other debates on the It's Been a Minute podcast. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!

September 10, 2024

What does the president do.

September 10, 2024 • Today we discuss what a president is, what a president does, and what a president "should be." To quote Professor Amar, it can be hard to find someone to fill those shoes because they were designed for Washington's feet. Our guests are Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, and Andy Lipka, president of EverScholar. Akhil and Andy co-host Amarica's Constitution, a podcast that explores the constitutional issues of our day. It is a perfect companion show to Civics 101, and one we endorse wholeheartedly. Here is where you can listen to our episode on the Executive Branch, here is a link to our episode on the Presidential Veto, and here is where you can learn about the President and the Price of Gas. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!