My Experience Presenting a Current Events Lesson

It is important to incorporate current events into the classroom so that students have an idea of what is occurring in the real world. Students should be constantly up to date on what is going on around the world so that they are aware. It is the teachers responsibility to create lessons that lets students be aware of the current events and engage them into the lesson and activity so that they have a better understanding of what they are being taught.

My professor, Dr. Smirnova, has given us the chance to experience teaching the classroom a current event in an engaging and effective way. The lesson is short so that teachers give the students a piece of what is occurring around the world while sticking to the main curriculum in the same instructional period. Using the Newsela website, me and my partner picked one of the current events articles to use as the basis of our lesson and activity. The article that we chose was called, "First Lady Announces U.S. Pledge to Aid Pakistani Girls' Education." This article was about how the U.S. announced that they will be giving $70 million to Pakistan regarding education girls. I created a lesson, PowerPoint presentation, and an activity to help students gain a better understanding of this current event. The strategy that I wanted the students to practice and build their skills on was close reading and debating.

 Current Event Presentation
Current Event Lesson Plan

I started off my lesson by presenting a picture of the presidential candidates of 2016 and engaged the students in questions to see how much they knew about these candidates and the roles of these candidates during debates. I then showed a clip of one of the recent debates for a little bit to show how a debate naturally goes. After, I told the students that they will be engaging in a debate based on the article that they read before class. I reviewed to the students what a debate was after I asked for some of their ideas. I also presented the key components of a debate, debate rules, and debate skills that they would be practicing from this debate. I then referred back to the article and asked for them to reflect on their thoughts, feelings, or ideas about the article. I presented the key components of the article and then introduced the story of Malala Yousafzai who received a Noble Peace Prize at the age of 16 for fighting for the rights for girls to receive an education in Pakistan and all around the world. I presented a clip of one of her speeches after receiving the Clinton Global Citizen Award. I presented the other side of the argument with the traditional views of Pakistan in regards to women's education. This was to show the viewpoints of those who do not believe that women should receive an education. The students received knowledge of the viewpoints of both sides when it came to women receiving an education. 

The debate activity began. The debate topic was: "Is Education Important to Everyone, Including Women?" I split the classroom and assigned one side to be "for" this statement in that everyone including women should receive an education and the other side was assigned to be "against" this statement following the tradition. The students discussed with their peers how they would fight for their positions and worked together to form ideas. When each side gave their argument, it was interesting to see it started aflow of each side defending their assigned point of views. There was some frustration on the "against" side because many had their own beliefs and views on this topic that did not agree with their role. I noticed that some students really got into their roles and became passionate about defending their assigned roles. I felt that it went really well and I had the students reflect their experience afterwards.

Debates are a great activity to get students passionate about what they are learning while gaining a better understanding of the topic with the help of their peers constantly giving each other ideas. Students were able to step out of their comfort zones and be placed into the point of view of someone with a different mindset. I felt that this is overall a great activity to use in the classroom and I am happy that it was effective for the students. Feel Free to take a look at my presentation and lesson plan!