How to incorporate current events into your elementary school classroom

Most of us follow the news by consuming print and audiovisual media. These sources provide ample material for classroom activities related to both the format and content of news media. Here are a few ways to incorporate current events into your French or English lessons:

• Build reading comprehension with news articles: Every week, have a different student present a news article to the class. Then, ask your students to answer the six questions on this Alloprof poster, individually or in pairs, to check their understanding.

• Write a review: Every week, ask students to choose a news article to read and explain why they picked it. They can do so by writing a short paragraph or by sharing their thoughts in a class discussion. Since the reading level of some publications is too high for elementary school students, you may want to recommend news sources tailored to younger readers, like CBC Kids News.

• Do mock interviews: Assign each student a partner and have them take turns interviewing each other. One partner will act as the journalist, and the other will play a public figure who has been in the news recently. Make sure that students prepare a few interview questions to ask their classmate before they begin. After the first student has finished interviewing their partner, have them switch roles.

• Analyze articles using the 5 Ws and H method: Make it a part of your daily class routine to read an informative text and answer the 5 Ws + H questions (who?, what?, when?, why?, where?, and how?). Answering these questions will help students gain a deeper understanding of the text and identify the main ideas.

• React to a news segment or news article: Present a news segment or article related to a current event, then ask your students to share their thoughts in a short paragraph or in a class discussion.

• Organize a workshop on how to identify misinformation: Critical thinking is a skill that must be developed from childhood. It is especially important to apply this skill to the media we consume every day. You can address this topic in English or French class by holding a workshop on how to identify reliable news sources and websites.

• Become a reporter for a day: Perhaps the most effective way to engage with current events is to document them first-hand. Asking students to do the reporting is an excellent way to introduce them to journalism. For instance, you could have students create a photojournalism project or write columns for the school newspaper, a class bulletin board, or community magazine.

• Do a creative writing exercise: Ask students to rewrite a news article of their choice using synonyms or antonyms, or simply by changing the tone of the text. For example, they could rewrite a sad news story to give it a more positive tone.

Mathematics and science are particularly well suited to making connections with current events. Here are a few ways to incorporate current events into your math or science lessons:

• Analyze statistics: Ask students to analyze statistics or simple graphs in newspapers (e.g., unemployment rates or hockey scores) or make graphs using information they find in news articles.

• Conduct polls: Ask students to conduct polls on topics that interest them, based on examples from news articles. You can also have them present their results in the form of statistics or graphs.

• Discuss science news: Ask students to read kids’ science magazines and talk about the latest news in science and technology. Here are a few examples of popular science publications for young readers: Science Journal for Kids and Teens, CBC Kids News, National Geographic Kids, Les Explorateurs, Les Débrouillards, and Curium.

• Identify ways to fight climate change: Climate change is often in the headlines and is a real concern for many young people. To help students shift from fear to action, ask them to identify small everyday actions they can take to fight climate change.

• Do science experiments related to current events: You can draw inspiration from natural phenomena, such as the current season or an upcoming eclipse, when planning astronomy activities and science experiments.

• Listen and discuss: Listening to popular science podcasts is an excellent way to introduce students to science in the media. For instance, you could ask your class to share their thoughts about an episode they found particularly interesting. Here are a few podcast suggestions to get you started:

  • Jeunesse Espace pour la vie

  • La puce à l’oreille

  • Le guide de survie des Débrouillards

  • Olma

  • Rad

  • Tumble

  • But Why

  • Earth Rangers

Incorporating current events into social sciences lessons sets students up to become engaged citizens. Students develop the skills they need to stay informed, analyze information, form educated opinions, and understand the social, economic, geopolitical, and environmental issues that impact them.

Here are a few ways to incorporate current events into your social sciences lessons:

• Organize discussion groups: Choose a few news topics related to the concepts you are covering in class, and have students discuss them in groups. This will give them an opportunity to look at issues from different perspectives and practise constructing their own opinions.

• Invite a guest speaker to your class: Invite an expert, such as a journalist, a historian, or a representative from a community organization, to talk to your class about their experience and expertise on current events related to the concepts you are covering in class.

• Introduce students to democracy: During election periods, you can have students take part in mock votes and referendums. The Democracy Education Zone is also a great source for educational activities related to democracy.

• Relate the past to the present: You can help students draw connections between what they are studying in their history lessons and current events. One way to do this is by asking students to think like a historian: What events make it into history books? How are they described? From whose point of view? How do we talk about current events, and how is it different from the way we talk about historical events?

• Make connections between geography and world news: Ask students to make maps of the countries featured in news stories. You can also ask them to make infographics or drawings to show their understanding of the events or to raise awareness of social, economic, political, environmental, and other issues.

• Quiz students on current events: Quizzes are a fun way to review what students have learned after reading or watching the news. If you want to use cooperative learning in your lesson, students can test their knowledge in teams.

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