Current Event Sites for Social Studies Distance Learning
Teaching our students about the world around them has never been so important. Sharing appropriate sources for news and current events is vital in an age of "fake news". These current events sites for the social studies classroom will help your students know what's going on in the world around them. Pair these sites with active discussion in your online learning platform like Google Classroom or Seesaw or through live classes on Zoom or Google Meet.
Newsela
Newsela is the perfect place to find news stories for your students. Different categories on the site allow you to introduce stories to your students that will pair well with what you're studying in class, or they can explore based on individual interests. In addition, Newsela lets you assign text based on reading level or Lexile score. Newsela has also put together paired texts with articles linked to nonfiction and fiction texts within your curriculum. Newsela also has quizzes for each article that can link to Google Classroom. Finally, Newsela links with distance learning tools such as Pear Deck and Nearpod. Try this Pear Deck activity that works with articles about video games. Try sharing a Newsela article weekly with your students based on topics relevant to them.CNN10
CNN10 is a site where your students get the daily news in 10 minutes. Anchor Carl Azuz is popular with upper elementary and middle school students with his current event-related puns and understandable approach to the news.
Ten minutes of news can be shared on your Google Classroom, or when you return to school, play it at the beginning of your social studies block. It's so important for students to get an unbiased account of what is going on in the world around them. CNN10 puts the daily news in their terms and short bites that students can understand. As an added bonus, adults find CNN10 enjoyable too!
