Keeping Current Events Current

This past week I worked with the 6th grade history teachers to introduce the students to a year-long current events project. They began this unit last year and had a good deal of success, so the improvements that were made this year really took it to the next level.

I met with Monsie before the project and we decided that it would be good for the students to stick with a couple of "themes" throughout the year; like politics, sports, health, etc. By giving the students a choice, they will be more interested in what they read and if they are unable to find a quality article pertaining to one of the themes, there is always another one. We also wanted to make sure that there was some deeper thinking taking place, so we decided that in addition to a 4-6 sentence summary of the article, the students will answer two "essential questions" in 4-6 sentences.

• Is this a "new" or "old" issue? Why is it old/new?
• Have you seen this theme come up before? When and where?
• How does this issue relate to a topic brought up in class? Explain.
• Is this issue affecting a large or small group of people? Explain.
• Who does this issue affect? Why? Give evidence.
• How is this issue connected to our daily lives? Give evidence.
• Do you share the author's perspective? If not, why? Explain. 

We felt that these questions push the students to question what they read, make inferences and connections, and relate the topics to their own experiences or to the experiences of those around them. With the addition of class discussions and presentations throughout the year pertaining to current events, the students will hopefully come away more aware of what's taking place around them locally and around the world. 

Over the three days of instruction we 

• covered the websites and databases given within the LiveBinder
• created a new project in NoodleTools for their citations
• discussed and practiced paraphrasing
• chose themes
• found one article
• paraphrased that article
• divided into groups of two and provided feedback on the paraphrase
• rewrote the paraphrase
• answered two of the essential questions
• and, FINALLY, cited the article

The students were engaged, for the most part, throughout. The more say they have in deciding what they are working on, the better. Also, I felt that this was one of the more productive collaborations I've had with a teacher in a while. We were able to fill in the the blanks for one-another and were truly on the same page. I look forward to watching how this project progresses throughout the year.