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Mary Jane Walker

EDCI 3481

Current Events and Social Studies

Addressing Current Events in Age Appropriate Ways & Chapter 6

Parker, W. (2017). Social Studies in Elementary Education (15th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Jorgenson, S. (2018). Social Studies and the Young Learner. Addressing Current Events In Age

Appropriate ways: Learning about the COnferedrate Flag Contreversy. Retrieved March 14,

2019, from https://www.socialstudies.org/publications/ssyl/march-april2018/experiential-

approach-to-human-geography-in-kindergarten.

For this essay, I’ve chosen the article “Addressing Current Events in Age Appropriate

Ways: Learning About the Confederate Flag Controversy.” The three key points of this article

are made about the connections of teaching about important current events in conjunction with

social studies. This article discusses the proper measures that need to be taken when introducing

controversial current events within the classroom. I believe this article can help all teachers with

talking about sensitive topics in the classroom. The first key point describes how young minds

who are exposed to these controversial events can become key change agents in the future.

The second key point details creating spaces for purposefully engaging ideas. It states

that using current events as a springboard for classroom discussion enhances opportunities for

students to learn from each other and learn how make sense of their own experiences alongside

what they see represented in the popular media. It recommends this as a way for teachers to
engage students in thought-provoking discussions as a step toward fostering transformative

citizenship. I believe incorporating this into a classroom greatly benefits children.

The final key point discusses another strategy when teaching current events in the

classroom. It talks about using a “talking circle” to promote student-centered learning. It

encourages students to build upon one another’s ideas without valuing one over another or citing

one as correct. This helps children not be afraid to speak their mind, as well as allowing other

children to be exposed to other ideas. This greatly helps a child develop their own opinions.

When taking a look at the textbook I also identified three key points within chapter 6

“Current Events and Public Issues.” The first of these being the purpose of addressing current

social events and why they are essential to social studies curriculum. This chapter highlights that

these 4 skills that are essential when teaching about current events; interpreting the news,

discriminating between important and less important news item, predicting likely consequences

of different positions, and taking a position on issues based on knowledge and critical evaluation

of the facts. These 4 skills help a child better understand the ideas they are learning about. I

believe that a child receives many benefits from being exposed to current events in social studies

curriculum, and these 4 skills help a teacher explain these current events to children.

The second key point is the three strategies’ to building a current events program. The

first of which is teaching current events in addition to social studies. The second is using current

events to supplement social studies. The final is using current events as a basis for social studies.

If a teacher uses these three strategies, they will help the teacher build a successful current events

program that benefits the children they are teaching.

The last of the three key points highlights the importance of teaching enduring public

issues. The book defines “enduring public issues” as controversial issues that do not simply go
away when the current event ends. Rather, the current event is the most recent incident in a long

stream of incidents related to the enduring issue. I find this an important factor when considering

to teach such subjects. It’s crucial to teach children that, one of the responsibilities of being a

member of the public— a citizen—is to tackle such problems.

During my research, I have come to understand that both articles reference the

importance of various topics. They both hint to the importance of teaching major concepts such

as acceptance of others ideas. Citing that it is important to remind oneself that others are entitled

to their own opinion and if you don’t agree with them it doesn’t inherently make them wrong. I

feel mixed emotions about the prospect of teaching both current and controversial events within

my own classroom. However, I am at the same time excited at the idea of being an influential

part of preparing our future generations to solve the problems that encompass our daily lives.

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