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A Geography lesson on current events
5, 6, 7, 8
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OUR WORLD TODAY?
Grades 5 – 8
September 10, 1996, 30 minutes, throughout the semester
Students will become familiar with the newspaper and magazines. They will become more aware of the events happening in their city, state, nation, and world. They will learn to summarize, find locations on a map, and compute distances using map scales. Students will develop an ability to critically analyze current events for related issues, etc.
Various newspapers for each student, magazines for each student, maps, rulers, writing utensils, computer with internet access if possible.
- First thing in the morning, each student chooses an article from the newspaper or magazine. You may want to set a minimum/maximum length.
- You could also do a different topic area each day, if you leave it broad enough for them to discover articles of their interest.
- Students will write their article titles on the board to avoid duplication.
- During the day, the students will read their article when they have free sessions.
- They will then summarize it.
- Using a map, the students will find the location of the story and compute the distance to their city.
- At the appropriate class time each student will point out the location on the map and state its distance.
- The summary is read aloud.
1. The class follows along in their own newspaper and asks the presenter questions from the article.
Each day, designate local, state, national, or international as their realm of topics. Also, they could follow their story throughout the week. They could then delve into a study about related aspects of the article: culture, crime, statistics, environment, etc. Journals could be used. This could be used to prepare students for making their own class newspaper. Many ideas are possible!
Shy children may need a slightly altered activity. They could prepare a written final draft of their
article and post it on the board for the next morning with questions for thought to be discussed as a morning opener or an afternoon closing activity.
Children will be assessed on their participation, summary, and quality within the guidelines give for their topic. They should not be judged on the topic or their opinions during follow-up questions.
Norris, Sharon. “Current Events, Geography”, Gopher://bvsd.k12.co.us:70/00/Educ…ig%20Sky/social_studies/CECsst.185. (September 26, 1996.)