Breaking News With ClassTools
Breaking News is one of the many great tools available on Russel Tarr’s ClassTools.net. Breaking News is a template for creating fake breaking news screens like those that you might see on CNN or BBC News. Through the template you can add a news headline, a ticker, a location, and custom background image. After completing the […]
In Pictures – A Good Resource for Prompting Current Events Lessons
Over the weekend while browsing some news articles on the BBC News I was reminded of a good resource that I used for many years to prompt discussion and small research activities in my current events class. That resource is the BBC’s Week in Pictures which is a section of their more general In Pictures […]
Three Good Resources for Teaching Fact vs. Opinion
This afternoon I was talking with a few of my students about TikTok and its new relationship with Oracle. The course of that conversation brought up a lot of “I’ve heard X” and “I’ve read X” statements from my students regarding news about TikTok. As you might imagine would happen with teenagers talking about their […]
Three Ways to Explore the News Through Maps
One of the things that I liked about the old version of CNN Student News is that it almost always included a map to show students where a story is taking place in the world. I tried to do the same whenever I taught current events by showing students a map of where a story […]
This is Clickbait – A Lesson on Being a Discerning News Consumer
A couple of weeks ago TED-Ed released a video about spotting misleading headlines. I quickly added that lesson to my list of resources for helping students become discerning news consumers. This week TED-Ed released another video that I’m adding to that list of resources. This One Weird Trick Will Help You Spot Clickbait is a […]
Newsela’s iPad App Offers News Stories Sorted by Reading Level
Newsela is a service that helps teachers find current events articles that are appropriate for their students’ age and reading abilities. This week Newsela launched a free iPad app and iPhone app. The Newsela iPad app and iPhone app delivers current news articles to students. The stories are matched to students’ reading abilities. At the end of each […]