Current Events

Using current events in the classroom provides a sense of community and instructs learners in many subjects, including geography, history, social studies and, of course, philanthropy.

The benefits of teaching current events are examined in a 2005 article by Gary Hopkins, Education World® Editor-in-Chief. The article “Why Teach Current Events?” states among the benefits that teaching currents events will:

“develop informed citizens and lifelong newsreaders. Studying current events helps students understand the importance of people, events, and issues in the news; it stimulates students to explore and learn more about the news, and to pay attention to the news they see and hear outside of school.”

Also referenced in the article is Thomas N. Turner, professor of education at the University of Tennessee. Professor Turner states that:

“Teaching about world, national, state, and local happenings needs to involve active, participative learning rather than passive learning. This means a lot of hands-on, multisensory activities rather than activities in which the teacher or one student reports while everyone else pretends to listen.”

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr084.shtml

In Learning to Give's 3-5 lesson entitled Turning Literature into News, students analyze the format and structure of newspaper articles. Then they rewrite events from literature into news stories about acts of kindness. Read through the lesson and consider the skills being developed in the learners that support philanthropy.