I've found that current events work best when students can connect them to their own actions. I had this plan to do current events every Friday afternoon. Something (meetings, schedule shuffling, etc) always seems to get in the way. But we are working on current events in meaningful ways throughout the day. For example, in science we've been studying ecosystems, including the rainforest. I found out that Indonesia recently gave some rainforest land to a palm oil company. It's a section of rainforest that is home to the largest remaining orangutan population. So we talked about that and the students, who were very upset, decided to write letters to the governor who made the decision. We talk about how human decisions affect others and the environment and I let their tendency toward taking action determine next steps. For example, they're upset by how much paper we use in the school so they want to publish a list of ways to save trees.
I've found that current events work best when students can connect them to their own actions. I had this plan to do current events every Friday afternoon. Something (meetings, schedule shuffling, etc) always seems to get in the way. But we are working on current events in meaningful ways throughout the day. For example, in science we've been studying ecosystems, including the rainforest. I found out that Indonesia recently gave some rainforest land to a palm oil company. It's a section of rainforest that is home to the largest remaining orangutan population. So we talked about that and the students, who were very upset, decided to write letters to the governor who made the decision. We talk about how human decisions affect others and the environment and I let their tendency toward taking action determine next steps. For example, they're upset by how much paper we use in the school so they want to publish a list of ways to save trees.