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Unit iv - the political process and policy, unit iv course schedule.

current event assignment for government class

​Unit IV Review

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Unit iii - the branches of government, unit iii course schedule, ​ ​unit iii review, unit iii assignments, unit iii additional resources, unit ii - the constitution and its amendments, ​unit ii course schedule, ​unit ii review.

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Unit ii additional resources, unit i - foundations of the united states government, unit i course schedule, ​unit i review.

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current event assignment for government class

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Teach Current Events With These Free Worksheets From The Week Junior

Article summary worksheets and news accuracy tips for grades 3-8! 🗞️

Current events worksheets - The Week Junior

The Week Junior magazine is a kid-friendly, unbiased current events news source. It’s a safe and trusted partner to help you explain to kids what’s happening in the world while providing fun reading content including puzzles, recipes, crafts, and more. 

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The benefits of using current events in the classroom are practically endless. News stories help students better understand their communities, new perspectives, and real-world events. Introducing current events in the classroom can promote critical thinking, empathy, reading skills, global awareness, and so much more. Whether you’re assigning weekly current events summaries or conducting a single lesson, our free current events worksheets for grades 3-8 are the perfect companion.

Inside, you’ll find two options for current event summaries. In addition, our savvy news reader tips and activity will guide students through determining if an article is trustworthy. In a world of so many media outlets, news literacy is a crucial skill!

Get my current events worksheets!

Current Events Summary Worksheets

Current events worksheet graphic organizer

WeAreTeachers

  • When giving current events assignments, give students the option to use one of two article summary worksheets to get started.
  • Choose from a graphic organizer–style worksheet or a traditional fill-in worksheet to evaluate an article.

News Accuracy Worksheets

News savvy current events worksheet

  • Begin a lesson on news literacy. Use the list tips to educate students on determining a news article’s accuracy and credibility.
  • Then, have students complete the corresponding worksheet to practice what they learned and evaluate a news article on their own.

The Week Junior , an Unbiased Classroom Current Events Resource

The Week Junior magazine is an awesome way to expose 3rd through 8th grade readers to current events through a kid-friendly, unbiased magazine. There’s something for every student, with sections on sports, culture, movies, crafts, recipes, and so much more! Get a free issue of The Week Junior , and watch kids dive into this interactive reading resource.

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25 Essay Topics for American Government Classes

Writing Ideas That Will Make Students Think

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If you are a teacher searching for essay topics to assign to your U.S. government or civics class or looking for ideas, do not fret. It is easy to integrate debates and discussions into the classroom environment. These topic suggestions provide a wealth of ideas for written assignments such as  position papers , compare-and-contrast essays , and  argumentative essays . Scan the following 25 question topics and ideas to find just the right one. You'll soon be reading interesting papers from your students after they grapple with these challenging and important issues.

  • Compare and contrast what is a direct democracy versus representative democracy. 
  • React to the following statement: Democratic decision-making should be extended to all areas of life including schools, the workplace, and the government. 
  • Compare and contrast the Virginia and New Jersey plans. Explain how these led to the Great Compromise .
  • Pick one thing about the U.S. Constitution including its amendments that you think should be changed. What modifications would you make? Explain your reasons for making this change.
  • What did Thomas Jefferson mean when he said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants?" Do you think that this statement still applies to today's world? 
  • Compare and contrast mandates and conditions of aid regarding the federal government's relationship with states. For example, how has the Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered support to states and commonwealths that have experienced natural disasters?
  • Should individual states have more or less power compared to the federal government when implementing laws dealing with topics such as the legalization of marijuana  and abortion ? 
  • Outline a program that would get more people to vote in presidential elections or local elections.
  • What are the dangers of gerrymandering when it comes to voting and presidential elections?
  • Compare and contrast the major political parties in the United States. What policies are they preparing for upcoming elections?
  • Why would voters choose to vote for a third party, even though they know that their candidate has virtually no chance of winning? 
  • Describe the major sources of money that are donated to political campaigns. Check out the Federal Election Regulatory Commission's website for information.
  • Should corporations be treated as individuals regarding being allowed to donate to political campaigns?  Look at the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling on the issue. Defend your answer. 
  • Explain the role of social media in connecting interest groups that have grown stronger as the major political parties have grown weaker. 
  • Explain why the media has been called the fourth branch of government. Include your opinion on whether this is an accurate portrayal.
  • Compare and contrast the campaigns of U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
  • Should term limits be instituted for members of Congress? Explain your answer.
  • Should members of Congress vote their conscience or follow the will of the people who elected them into office? Explain your answer.
  • Explain how executive orders have been used by presidents throughout the history of the U.S. What is the number of executive orders issued by the current president?
  • In your opinion, which of the three branches of the federal government has the most power? Defend your answer.
  • Which of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment do you consider the most important? Explain your answer. 
  • Should a school be required to get a warrant before searching a student's property? Defend your answer. 
  • Why did the Equal Rights Amendment fail? What kind of campaign could be run to see it passed?
  • Explain how the 14th Amendment has affected civil liberties in the United States from the time of its passage at the end of the Civil War.
  • Do you think that the federal government has enough, too much or just the right amount of power? Defend your answer.
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Current Events Assignment Instructions

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  • Current Events Assignments        due weekly    15 points each assignment Objective:   Students will apply concepts learned in class by identifying the concept in a real life situation.   By including current events in government class students will see the relevancy of what topics we cover throughout the school year. Instructions:   -          Each week students will locate an article that concerns the current topic of study in class.   -          Every Wednesday current events will be collected.   In the event of a school closure because of weather, or any other reason, on a Wednesday, the assignment will be collected the first day back to school.   If the school has a scheduled vacation starting on a Wednesday, the assignment will be due on Tuesday (the day before). -          The article must be turned in along with a summary of the article. -          Included in the summary must be an explanation of how the article relates to class. For example, if the class is on the chapter about the executive branch, the current event must be about the executive branch.   The article could be about the President; however, it must concern executive powers or actions.   The article cannot be about a vacation or trip the President and first lady are planning, unless the focus is on the President’s role of Head of State. Sources:   Article must be from a reputable news source.   Article may be from a newspaper or weekly publication.   Source can be from a website, but the article must be printed out. Examples:         NY Times                         Washington Post                         US News Weekly (magazine)                         The Patriot News and The Sentinel can also be used   ***    Please refer to Mrs. Wire’s website under AP Government Class, “Sources” for some websites that are good sources for current events assignments.  
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current event assignment for government class

Teaching current events in government class

  • February 7, 2020
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“I am not teaching about the impeachment inquiry. It’s too political.” These words came from an AP U.S. Government and Politics teacher on a listserve that I am on. I was shocked when I heard those words! My instant reply was that I am teaching my students about the impeachment inquiry! Where else would they learn about it if not in government class? Teaching current events is vital for being an empathic and critical thinker in our country today.

I am a huge believer that we should not only be educating our students with content but teaching them to be critical of the world around them, civically engaged in politics, and empathize with individuals in their everyday lives.

In my government classes, we have discussed the impeachment inquiry and trial. I use the website All Sides to present balanced news sources for all current events.

Teaching current events

How do I teach current events?

My students present weekly current events with this assignment . They have to report on the same topic from a left-leaning and a right-leaning news source. They then need to connect it to the class in some way. Three students a week present current events to the class every Friday. I grade with a simple checklist rubric that makes grading quick and efficient. Sometimes I show, CNN10 every week to present current events as a supplement after a discussion.

Teaching current events

I really like putting the ownership on my students to find, present, and report on current events. It makes for an engaging Friday! They love discussing and debating current events. Teaching current events is a valuable skill in our current society. How do you teach current events and controversial topics? Reply in the comments

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Current Events & Your AP® Government Classroom

Around 2005, I started a more regular and purposeful current events routine in my AP® Government and Politics class. I would supply three articles on Sunday, and students needed to read them by class time on Tuesday. I creatively called it “Current Events Tuesday.” No students cheered, but I soon noticed that student understanding seemed to increase because real-world events in the here-and-now provide concrete examples and make learning relevant.

A rigorous and well-planned current events program is essential to success in a Government class. To be successful, it’s critical to select the right articles, demonstrate an expectation, create ideal questions, and teach the media as you go.

Weekly might be too often, but once you mark your calendar and set your student deadlines, you’ve got to select and deliver the articles. Some will go old-school and photocopy a clipped newspaper article. Students can mark them up, circle vocab words, identify government functions. More teachers, however, will link chosen articles to their platform or LMS.

Articles need to be relevant, readable, and free. I usually select three articles. Depending on how precious class time is that week, I might allow time to read the articles on a slow Monday. In a perfect world, the top breaking news stories coincide with the Unit or Topic you’re teaching that week. You will find it worthy to occasionally assign relevant articles even if you have yet to cover that content. A brief intro and explanation—maybe define some vocabulary words or concept—will be time well-spent.

Start the year with more traditional news sources and straightforward articles. The Associated Press, USA Today , and the Big 3 TV news networks are my mainstays. Video clips can also be worthy. Some of the most useful come from 60 Minutes and the PBS Newshour . Short live video, like a clip from a press conference, is also a good idea.

Historical articles, especially during your Foundations unit, are a good choice. Secondary articles of the Smithsonian or American Heritage genre are good too. You could even squeeze in a primary source, like a notable congressional floor speech. These can be recycled year after year.

Regardless of when you might teach your Media Unit, go over the basics of the media early on—the media’s role, reporters’ methods, and the different genres of articles. The Media Bias Chart is a good reference tool. For a couple years I have begun with this chart and concept to avoid careless cries of “Bias.” And of course, expose your students to the partisan press. Select articles from the left and right, and then in class ask, “Which one is right, and which one is left?” “How can you tell?” Keep a running list of what you’ve assigned. It will allow or assure you to provide a variety over the course, and you’ll have a handy record of what you’ve assigned. A little CYA never hurts.

You can get a sense of my method at my website, USGOPO.COM .

To learn more about teaching Current Events, drafting good questions, and developing an expectation, check out the recorded webinar below! 

David Wolfford   teaches Advanced Placement ®   U.S. Government and Politics at Mariemont High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has served as an AP ®   Reader. He has a B.A. in Secondary Education and an M.A. in Constitutional and Legal History, both from the University of Kentucky. He has conducted historical research projects on school desegregation and American political history. David has published in historical journals, such as  Ohio Valley History and Kentucky Humanities.  He has written on government, politics, and campaigns for national magazines and Cincinnati newspapers. He is a James Madison Fellow, a National Board-certified teacher, and a regular contributor to  Social Education.  David is editor of  By George: Articles from the Ashland Daily Independent  (Jesse Stuart Foundation) and editor of  Ohio Social Studies Review.

Advanced Placement® is a trademark registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.

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The New York Times

The learning network | 50 ways to teach with current events.

The Learning Network - Teaching and Learning With The New York Times

50 Ways to Teach With Current Events

An <a href="//www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-iraq-isis-conflict-in-maps-photos-and-video.html">Iraq map</a> showing areas under ISIS control; a rally outside the Supreme Court in October 2013 protesting the <a href="//mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/us/politics/supreme-court-weighs-campaign-contribution-limits.html">role of money</a> in politics; demonstrators in Washington in August 2014 <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/us/hundreds-in-washington-protest-missouri-shooting.html">protesting</a> the killing of Michael Brown.

Current Events

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

  • See all in Current Events »
  • See all lesson plans »

Updated, July, 2016

How can we make sure that students are informed about what’s going on around the world? That they are armed with the tools to be able to distinguish between opinion and fact; between evidence-based statements and empty rhetoric; between sensationalism and solid journalism? Just like most other things in life, the best way to do all that is through practice.

In honor of National News Engagement Day , here are 50 ideas to help teachers bring current events into the classroom, grouped below by category:

Reading and Writing

Speaking and Listening

Games and Quizzes

Photographs, Illustrations, Videos and Infographics

  • Design and Creativity

Making Connections

Building Skills

Some ideas work best as regular routines, others as one-shot activities. Many might be easier to use together with the new K-12 New York Times school subscription , but all of them could be implemented using the free links to Times articles on The Learning Network — or with any other trusted news source.

In our comments section, we hope you’ll share how you teach current events.

Amanda Rogowski, left, and Juliana Bailey, center, students in Roosevelt University’s online composition class, read The New York Times with the Roosevelt reference librarian Michael Gabriel.

1. Read the Paper and Find What Interests You: If we could recommend just one thing teenagers should do with the news, it’s this. Just read and discover what you care about. Every summer we try to promote this with our Summer Reading Contest , and we hope teachers are continuing this student-centered approach now that school has started.

You might invite your students to pick one article each week and write about why they chose it, perhaps using student winners from our summer contest as models. Our Reading Log (PDF) might also help.

Then, set aside time for students to share their picks with a partner, or even with a wider audience through social media.

<a href="//learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/should-parents-let-their-sons-play-football/">Should parents let their children play football?<br /></a>

2. Share Your Opinion: Each school day we publish a new Student Opinion question about an article in The Times. Students can participate in our moderated discussions online, or you can borrow from hundreds of published questions for class discussions or personal writing from 2016 , 2015 , 2014 and beyond .

3. Read About News-Making Teenagers: Every month we publish a collection of all the recent Times articles and multimedia that feature teenagers . Students can use this list to identify someone they admire, learn how other teenagers are taking action or make connections to issues in their own school and community.

4. Find ‘News You Can Use': Use The Times, or any other news source, to find things like movie or video game reviews, recipes , sports scores, health information , and how-to’s on subjects from social media to personal finance that can help improve your life.

5. Ask and Answer Questions: Each day we choose an important or interesting Times story and pose the basic news questions — Who, What, Where, When, Why and How — in our News Q’s feature. Students can first answer the “right there” questions that test reading comprehension, then move on to the deeper critical thinking questions, then write their own “News Q’s” about articles they select.

6. Write an Editorial: Have your students pick an issue that matters to them, whether climate change, gender roles or police brutality, and then write an evidence-based persuasive essay like the editorials The New York Times publishes every day. They can practice all year, but save their best work to submit in our Student Editorial Contest in February. Each year we select 10 winners along with dozens of runners-up and honorable mentions from nearly 5,000 student editorials.

7. Compare News Sources: Different papers, magazines and websites treat the news differently. You might have students compare lead stories or, via the Newseum’s daily gallery, front pages . Or, you might just pick one article about a divisive topic (politics, war, social issues) and see how different news sources have handled the subject.

8. Be a Journalist Yourself: Perhaps the most powerful way to engage with current events is to document them yourself, as a student journalist . Write articles or opinion pieces for your school or community paper about how a national or global issue is playing out in your community. Contribute comments online or letters to the editor reacting to news stories you’ve read. Use social media to document what you witness when news happens near you. Take video of local events and interview participants. Or, suggest ways that you and others your age can take action on an issue you care about. The National News Engagement Day Pinterest board has ideas like this and many more.

Protesters waved signs from a flatbed truck in March, 2010 during the March for America immigration rally in Washington. <a href="//learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/election-unit-part-2-what-are-the-issues/">Related Lesson Plan</a>

9. Hold a Debate: Want your students to be able to develop arguments and support a point of view on current issues? We offer numerous resources to help, including: ideas for different classroom debate formats ; ways to use The Times’ Room for Debate feature in the classroom; and a graphic organizer for gathering evidence on both sides of an argument (PDF).

10. Interview Fellow Students: Ask students to generate a question related to an issue they’re reading about, and then conduct a one-question interview (PDF) with their classmates. The room will be buzzing with students asking and answering questions. For more detailed instructions on this activity, consult our teacher instructions .

11. Brainstorm Solutions to the World’s Problems: Why not put students in the role of policymakers? They can look closely at an issue covered in The Times and brainstorm possible solutions together, using our Problem-Solution handout (PDF) to take notes. Then they can work together to draft a policy proposal, perhaps one that suggests a local solution to the problem, and present it to the class or to the school board or city council.

12. Create a News-Inspired Theatrical Performance: Whether a simple monologue or a full Reader’s Theater event, our series, Drama Strategies to Use With Any Day’s Times, can help you use simple theater exercises to spur discussion and thinking about current events.

13. Hold a Mock Campaign and Election: Looking to teach an upcoming election? Let students take the role of campaign strategists and candidates. Our Election Unit can be adapted for any election to get students researching candidates, studying issues, trying out campaign strategies and holding their own mock election. Or, choose another approach from our 10 ways to teach about Election Day or our list of resources for the 2016 presidential election .

14. Organize a Teach-In, Gallery Walk or Social Action on a Topic: Our country and world face complex issues — war, drug abuse, climate change, poverty — to name a few. Students working in groups can follow a topic in The Times, and then organize a classroom or whole school “teach-in” to inform their peers about topics in the news and decide how to take action. Alternatively, they can create a classroom gallery of photographs, maps, infographics, articles, editorial cartoons, essays, videos and whatever else they can find to immerse others in the topic. Ask yourself and your classmates, what can people our age do to effect change around this issue?

Map from a <a href="//www.fantasygeopolitics.com/">Fantasy Geopolitics</a> game.

15. See How You Do Compared to Others on Our Weekly News Quiz: Have students test how well they’ve been keeping up with the week’s news with our 10-question current events quiz. The answers provide an explanation along with links to relevant Times articles so students can learn more. Then, in December, students can take our annual year-end news quiz, like this one from 2015 .

16. Play Fantasy Geopolitics: Have students draft teams of countries, similar to how they might draft players in a fantasy sports league, and then accumulate points based on how often those countries appear in The New York Times . Classrooms can track point scores and trade countries using the resources on the Fantasy Geopolitics site, a game created by Eric Nelson, a social studies teacher in Minnesota.

17. Battle Others in Bingo: Encourage students to get to know the newspaper — digital or print — by playing one of our many versions of bingo: Page One Bingo , Science, Health and Technology Bingo , World History Bingo or Geography Bingo (PDF).

18. Do a Scavenger Hunt: Send your students searching for answers to our New York Times Scavenger Hunt (PDF) as a way to become more familiar with how a newspaper covers the day’s news.

19. Mix and Match Headlines, Stories and Photos: Cut up articles, headlines and photos into three separate piles and mix them up, then challenge students in groups to see who can correctly match them in the shortest amount of time. When they’re done, they can fill out our related handout (PDF). Our teacher instructions provide more details.

20. Hunt for the Three Branches of Government in the Paper: What articles can you find in a week’s worth of papers about the different branches of the United States government? Record what you find with our Branching Out handout (PDF).

What's going on in this picture? Every Monday we ask students to look closely at a Times photograph to describe what they see in our "<a href="//learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/lesson-plans/whats-going-on-in-this-picture/">WGOITP?</a>" series.

21. Analyze Photographs to Build Visual Literacy Skills: On Mondays we ask students to look closely at an image using the three-question facilitation method created by our partners at Visual Thinking Strategies: What’s going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find? Students can participate in the activity by commenting in our weekly “What’s Going On In This Picture?” moderated conversation.

Alternatively, you might prefer to select your own news photos. Slideshows, such as the regular “Pictures of the Day” feature, are always a great place to find compelling images related to current events.

"Dealing With Ebola" <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/opinion/patrick-chappatte-the-ebola-epidemic.html">Editorial Cartoon</a>

22. Interpret Editorial Cartoons and “Op-Art”: Patrick Chappatte publishes editorial cartoons on topics ranging from ISIS to the Ukraine. You can use the Visual Thinking Strategies facilitation method to ask open-ended questions, letting students make meaning out of the cartoons. Or, have students analyze some of the “Op-Art” on the Opinion pages of The Times. How do these images make an argument? Students can also try their hand at drawing their own editorial cartoons , and then enter them into our annual editorial cartoon contest .

23. Decipher an Infographic: Take an infographic or chart in The Times and have students explain what it shows using sentences. Our handout “A Graph Is Worth a Thousand Words, or At Least 50″ (PDF) can serve as a guide.

24. Create an Infographic: Or, do the opposite, and have students take the data provided in a Times article to create their own graph or chart (PDF). The Reader Ideas “From Article to Infographic: Translating Information About ‘Sneakerheads’” and “Telling Stories With Data” suggest ways to approach this task.

25. Illustrate the News: Students can draw an illustration that captures some aspect of an article. Using our handout “The One-Pager” (PDF), students accompany their illustration with a quote from the article as well as a question for the journalist or someone mentioned in the article.

26. Write a Postcard: Or, maybe having students create a mock postcard to or from a subject in a Times article would work better for your class.

27. Say What’s Unsaid: Another option is assigning students to add speech and thought bubbles (PDF) to a Times photograph to communicate something they learned by reading an article.

28. Create Storyboards: Students can break a story into various scenes that they illustrate (PDF), like a storyboard, and then write a caption or choose a quote from the article that captures the essence of each frame. Our teacher instructions can help with this activity, as can a recent lesson plan on using storyboards to inspire close reading .

Creative Writing and Design

Of all the news of 2013, the most-written about for our rap contest was the death of Nelson Mandela. <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/world/africa/nelson-mandela_obit.html">Related Obituary</a>

29. Write a Rap or Song: Each December, we ask students to compose a rap about important and memorable events from the past year. Get inspired by the winners from our 2015 contest , and start polishing your rhymes for this year.

30. Make a Timeline: Students can design their own timelines, using photographs, captions and selected quotes, to understand and keep track of complex current events topics. Times models can help since the paper regularly publishes timelines on all kinds of topics, whether Mariano Rivera’s career, the evolution of Facebook or the Ferguson protests

31. Create a Twitter Feed: Or, students can create a fake Twitter feed documenting a news story, paying attention to time stamps and author tone, such as we suggested in this lesson about the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

32. Explore a Particular Community: Find reporting on a community of which you’re a member — whether an ethnic, religious, professional, school or artistic group, or any other — and analyze how it has been reported on. Then use these ideas for finding ways you can help express what, in your experience, makes this group unique. What do you think people need to know about this community and how can you communicate that?

33. Write a Found Poem: Every year we invite students to take any Times article or articles published since 1851 and mix and combine the words and phrases in them into a new piece. Take a look at the work of our winners for inspiration, but the exercise can be done with anything from a science essay to an obituary to an archival article reporting on a famous event from history.

34. Make a News Broadcast: Students can turn an article they read in The Times into an evening news broadcast , with an anchor, on-the-ground reporter and interview subjects.

35. Create an Audio Podcast: Listen to some Times models , then get students to create a podcast (PDF) of a news story instead.

One of our Text to Texts looks at a connection between the <a href="//learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/08/text-to-text-bangladesh-factory-safety-and-the-triangle-shirtwaist-fire/">factory collapse in Bangladesh</a> and the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. 

36. Connect the Past to Today: Help students tie what they’re studying in history class to what’s going on in the world today. We regularly do this in both our Text to Text feature as well as our social-studies-focused lesson plans . You might also consider following @nytarchives on Twitter and our own “Throwback Thursday” posts to see echoes of the past in today’s headlines — or, visit Times Machine on your own to view by date or through search terms 129 years of Times journalism as it originally appeared.

37. Pair the News With Literature and Poetry: Encourage students to look for connections between literary themes and current events. Our Poetry Pairings and Text to Text lesson plans can provide inspiration, as can our Classic Literature posts .

38. Think Like a Historian: What events make the history books? How and from whose point of view are they told? Have students research a current events topic, and then write a paper arguing whether this topic will make “history” and how it will be remembered.

39. Connect The Times to Your Own Life: Have students make connections between the articles they read in The New York Times and their own life, other texts and the world around them using our Connecting The New York Times to Your World (PDF) handout.

40. Consider Censorship Through Any Day’s Front Page: What if we didn’t have freedom of the press? Ask students to take the front page of any New York Times and put an X over the stories that might be censored if our government controlled the press. You might use our Censoring the Press (PDF) handout to help.

41. Take Informed Action: When students become more informed about the world, they can get inspired to become civically active and engaged in their communities . Have students brainstorm issues that matter to them, either at the local, national or global level, and then design a plan of action for how they can begin to make the change they hope to see in the world.

current event assignment for government class

42. Determine Reliability of Sources : How do we distinguish good journalism from propaganda or just shoddy reporting? Students can use simple mnemonics, like those developed at the Center for News Literacy , to evaluate the reliability of an article and the sources it relies on. For example, apply the acronym “IMVAIN” (PDF) to an article to surface whether sources (and the information they provide) are Independent, Multiple, Verifiable, Authoritative, Informed and Named. This and many other strategies can be found in our lesson on “fake news vs. real news .

43. Distinguish Fact From Opinion: Even within The Times, students can get confused when navigating between news and opinion. What’s the difference? Use our Skills Practice lesson on distinguishing between the two to help students learn the basics, then go on to our lesson “News and ‘News Analysis’,” to help students learn how to navigate between news reporting and Opinion pieces within news outlets.

44. Start With What Students Already Know: Students are often aware of current events on their own, even before topics come up in school. When delving into a subject, start by asking students what they’ve heard or seen, and what questions they already have. Use our K/W/L Chart (PDF) or a concept map to chart what students say and think. And this post , about reading strategies for informational text, has much more.

45. Identify Cause and Effect: Much of journalism involves tracking the ripple effects of big news events or societal trends. Our handout (PDF) can help students get started, as can this Facing History “iceberg” strategy that helps learners think about what’s “under the surface.” Another resource? This Skills Practice lesson .

46. Compare and Contrast: Venn diagrams and T-charts (PDF) are often useful for comparing two topics or issues in the news, and our Text-to-Text handout can help students compare two or more texts, such as an article and a historical document.

47. Read Closely: By using a double-entry journal (PDF), students can become better readers of informational text by noting comments, questions and observations alongside lines or details they select from a text.

48. Support Opinions With Facts: Whether students are writing their own persuasive arguments, or reading those written by other people, they need to understand how authors support opinions with facts. Students can practice by reading Times Opinion pieces and identifying how authors construct arguments using opinions supported by facts (PDF). Then they can develop their own evidence-based counterpoints.

49. Summarize an Article: Having students pull out the basic information of a news story — the five W’s and an H (PDF) can help them better understand a current events topic. Here is a lesson plan with a summary quiz and many ideas for practice.

And Finally…

50. Learn From Our Mistakes: There are several places in the newspaper where you can see corrections and analysis of where The Times has made a misstep. For a weekly critique of grammar, usage and style in The Times, see the After Deadline series. For a list of each day’s corrections, go to the bottom of the Today’s Paper section and click “corrections.” And for a full discussion of issues readers and the public raise around Times coverage, visit the Public Editor column . What can you learn from the mistakes The Times makes, and from how they are addressed publicly?

Let us know in the comment section below how you teach current events in your class, or which ideas from the above list inspired you.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Great ideas! Thanks for sharing.

I am currently a graduate student working towards a certificate and Masters in Special Education. One of the biggest pushes in our program is to ensure that we are doing the things necessary within the classroom to become a critical transformative multicultural educator. Through my studies and observational experiences, I believe there is no better way to prepare studenst for the real world than connecting them to current events. It can often be comfotable to keep students in a world within the walls of the classroom. Yet, in doing so students only adapt to only being able to staticly think about the environments they are exposed to. Through these amazing and creative ways students can evolve their thought processes and become dynamic learners interest in the how the world around them works. It is through current events that we as educators can empower our students to become advocates for their own lives. Thanks so much for sharing and could not agree more with message.

Here are some more current event brain boosters: //www.educationworld.com/a_special/current_events.shtml

! Use current events as an activator to start each class and sometimes we follow the topic the full school year. Great short videos as well. Thanks for the lesson plans ideas as well.

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Civic Engagement and Primary Sources Through Key Moments in History

The Journalism in Action website allows students to investigate the role journalism has played in U.S. history and what it means to have a free press.

Using the Library of Congress' databases, students analyze primary sources ranging from Civil War photographs to broadcasts of the Watergate hearings.

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The Best Way to Teach Current Events? Let Students Lead.

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current event assignment for government class

We’ve all been there.  Students presenting current events, reciting the “news” but not having any idea what it actually means. The problem is that students’ lack of background knowledge, which is often required to understand the news event, ends up making it meaningless to them, or requires so much teacher intervention that the activity isn’t practical.  

For example, one day I was trying to address news about U.S. involvement in Syria with my students. Although I used a source that was supposed to consolidate the history of ISIS for students, it took us a full day to analyze the background information before we were ready to discuss the current issue of U.S. involvement in Syria.

So I asked my seniors in my U.S. Government classes what would make current issues more meaningful to them. They said it wasn’t that they weren’t interested in current issues, but they needed time to learn about them. Homework, jobs, sports and familial duties left no time in the five to six hours after school to learn about current issues. Then a lightbulb went off.

I realized that a better way to teach current events would be for students to follow the same issue throughout an entire year in order to deepen their understanding of the topic. After coming up with the initial idea, I then wondered—what kind of structure and supports would such an ambitious year-long assignment need in order to be successful?

Could I give students class time to discuss current issues? Could I allow students to choose their topic to make it more meaningful to them? How would I track student participation and assess their learning? And the ultimate question: How would I know students were gaining enough background information to understand current events?

The Solution:

To give students choice and hopefully generate more interest in current events, students determined their top two topics of interest from a list I provided: Crime & Punishment, Energy & Environment, Economy, Public Services & Infrastructure, Individual Rights & Liberties, and National Security & War.  I then created Current Issues Groups of three to five students based on their interests. To track the current issues and student participation, I created a website for each class on Google Sites where students posted relevant news stories bi-weekly on a blog with accompanying questions. To address students’ request to have time to read current events, groups met in class every other week to read the articles and then discuss the news events posted for their topic with their peers.  

current event assignment for government class

The Details:

To ensure credible sources and expand students’ skills in media analysis, each group needed to find news stories from various levels of media—local, national and international—and from different types of media—print, web and broadcast. For example, students in the Environment Issues Group posted news stories from a national print news source ( The New York Times ), a local news source ( The Seattle Times ), and a broadcast or international media source ( KPTV ).

To make sure the assignment was meeting the ultimate goal of students having enough background information to understand current events, students were required to create “Inquiry” or comprehension questions for the news story. As shown in the blog post below, the student asked the basic who, what and why of the article to make sure their peers understood the main point of the news story. To deepen student understanding of the event, students were also asked to create “Discussion” questions for their group which required them to use higher level questioning skills involving application and evaluation.  The “Discussion” questions below ask students what they think government action should be, moving from the basics of the news story to evaluating and making a judgement based on the evidence presented.

current event assignment for government class

On Current Issues day in class, we began with individual work time. Each student chose a different news story from their group to read and then posted answers to the inquiry questions in the comments section of the post. Each student verbally summarized their news story and led a discussion on the current status of the issue using the pre-prepared discussion questions. I moved from group to group to listen and join in on their discussion and marked off student participation.

The Result:

After trying out many iterations of current events in the classroom, students really took to this. Groups were always on task, both when reading the news stories and when discussing them. One year, students in the Individual Rights & Liberties group were especially engaged with news stories on the NSA and an individual’s right to privacy. During one of our Current Issues days, the group was discussing Edward Snowden and the National Security Issues group jumped in. I didn’t have to try and make the current issues have meaning or relevance to one another, it just happened naturally.

Students liked that they had class time to read current issues, access to computers to search for things they didn’t understand, and the chance to learn from the peers in their group. For a discussion on how the United States should deal with countries engaging in cyber attacks on the U.S., several students looked up the word “sanctions.” Through conversation with peers, they learned what international courts were and how they would work in this scenario. I didn’t have to fill in the background knowledge for them—my students were self-driven, finding the information themselves or working with their peers to figure it out

Throughout the semester, students developed an expertise on the topic that allowed them to have meaningful discussions in their group and share with their friends, both in and outside of the classroom.  By the end of this assignment one year, the Energy & Environment group had a solid understanding of what fracking was, its advantages and disadvantages, and how public policy addressed the issue. These students ended up discussing the issue in their science and environment classes, too. They were able to bring their public policy knowledge to their science classes, and offer science insights to our class. And I ended up learning more about fracking from my students because of their engagement with the issue both inside and outside of our classroom.  

I enjoyed going from group to group, listening and offering my own comments and questions to push students’ critical thinking. The informal, small groups resulted in more students participating than in a large class discussion. I knew that students were engaged and learning. Not only did the students understand current issues better as a result of this assignment, they developed invaluable skills in media analysis, researching, close reading, questioning, discussion and deliberation.

The Future:  

No lesson is ever perfect. And while feedback from students was positive and learning about current events was apparent in discussion, the assignment needed modifications.

Students wanted class time to find news stories, as well as to read and discuss them. However, I still haven’t figured out how to allocate more than one day to current issues, which was already taken up by reading, posting answers to questions and discussion. Students also wanted to switch their topics for the second semester, which was an easy fix.

From the teacher perspective, the website and blog posts posed challenges with assessment:

  • Grading student posts took an immense amount of time, especially because during class time I was going around from group to group listening to current events discussion.
  • Not every student was talking during discussion participation check-off, so I decided to grade their discussion participation based on their written answer to their peers’ questions on the website.

current event assignment for government class

Additionally, students struggled with posting reliable information and sources so I ended up requiring students only use “hard news,” not news commentary, opinion or blogs. This eliminated at least some potential for inaccurate facts. To help them with this requirement, I began the year with a unit on how to evaluate news sources for credibility and bias. This proved invaluable as “fake news” has grown over the years.    

Technology changes at a rapid pace, and the website could probably be replaced with some other tool or platform. But the essential component of the lesson—to track a current issue throughout the year to enable students to gain enough background knowledge to truly understand the event—was ultimately a success.

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current event assignment for government class

Teaching About Current Events

Introduction

Studying current events helps students better understand their global community and the different cultures across the world. It is very easy to get caught up in our own lives and problems, and learning about current events can both ground and remind students of the world that exists beyond their communities. By teaching students about current events, educators are not only helping students stay informed about world news and social problems but also giving them the chance to build important life skills. The resources below can help educators implement current events into their curriculum. 

There are various online resources available for teaching students about current events. With students constantly receiving floods of false information via social media and the like, this topic may serve as a good opportunity for them to learn about using reliable sources and keeping up with world events.

Lesson Plans

  • Academy 4SC : Find videos related to current events at Academy 4SC, like United States Postal Service: Neither Rain Nor Snow , Epidemics vs. Pandemics: Defining Global Diseases , and Legal vs. Moral: Written vs. Right , among others. Teachers have access to resources like worksheets, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more included in each topic’s lesson plan. Explore Academy 4SC’s full library of applicable content under the tag Current Events .   Academy also has a Connections blog post series, which applies classroom material to what’s currently happening in the news.
  • Teaching with Current Events in Your Classroom : Facing History and Ourselves has put together resources on COVID-19 and current events to help students “understand the complexity of the ongoing pandemic and its connection to history and current events.” They also feature collections on other topics that may appeal to educators, such as global immigration, democracy and civic engagement, and violence and injustice. In addition, the site is planning to release new teaching ideas and current event resources in mid-August, tailored for this upcoming school year!
  • Teaching with Current Events : The Bill of Rights Institute provides many current events resources that fall into various categories, including gun rights, federalism, criminal procedure & due process, citizen juries, freedom of speech, individual liberties, separation of powers, student rights, etc. Using this resource, students can access dozens of articles on current issues related to politics and the American government.
  • 50 Ways to Teach With Current Events : The New York Times’ The Learning Network offers fifty ideas for bringing current events into the classroom, grouped into a handful of categories: reading and writing, speaking and listening, games and quizzes, and more. Each of these ideas is accompanied by an explanation of the activity or project along with links which will guide educators on their journey to teaching about current events.
  • Teaching Current Events in the Age of Social Media : Edutopia has published an article about teaching current events in the age of social media. The article recommends differentiating informational reading levels. The hope is that students can recognize the difference between true and false stories, as well as the importance of taking “breaks” from technology! This resource can give educators a better sense of direction on how to begin teaching students about current events.
  • 8 Smart Ways to Teach Current Events in the Classroom in 2017 : WeAreTeachers provides a list of eight ways to bring current events to the classroom, specifically for educators who teach younger students. The author recommends things such as analyzing data with websites like Flocabulary , reading picture books, gamifying current events, creating podcasts, and more. Educators can take a lot away from this resource, and these tips will help them make learning about current events more exciting for students!
  • The Best Way to Teach Current Events? Let Students Lead : The organization KQED advises educators on a specific way of teaching current events, namely to let the students lead. The author, an educator herself, describes how she spoke with her own students about teaching current events and how to make it more meaningful. If students are able to choose the current event or issue they want to research, they are more likely to take something away from the assignment. This would be an ideal resource for high school educators who are looking for their students to take initiative. 

Informational Sites

There are numerous news outlets, national and international, and other organizations that report current news on topics such as history, science, travel, culture, weather, politics, technology, health, and world events. Depending on the grade levels educators are teaching and which topics they want students to focus on, the websites below may come in handy:

  • StudentNewsDaily
  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • National Geographic
  • The New York Times
  • The Washington Post

Teaching students about current events isn’t an easy task, especially since the majority of the stories in the news are unfortunately negative. When discussing current events in the classroom, it is important to also provide students with the necessary resources to cope with these negative stories. Because the news can be tough to talk about, educators should do their best to be honest about events but focus on the positive aspects. If a terrible accident occurred, was there anything positive that stemmed from it? Did the community band together to honor those who passed or create a new foundation in their memory? It may seem that the world pays more attention to the negative than the positive, but this is a chance for educators to change that narrative.

Additional Resources

  • Current Events Lesson Plans & Activities : Share My Lesson provides an abundance of current events lesson plans and activities for elementary, middle, and high school students. Various resources of different topics are available, including activities, assessments, presentations, videos, and worksheets. 
  • Twenty-Five Great Ideas for Teaching Current Events : Education World offers twenty-five great ideas for teaching current events in the classroom. For educators looking for general ideas to start with, this resource does a good job of providing unique activities and outlining the activity’s directions. Take a look!
  • Engaging Ways to Relate to Current Events – News, Historians and Zombies : Resilient Educator presents four ways for educators to connect current events to social studies, including the PBS NewsHour Extra , a DIY NewsHour, Reading Like a Historian (which asks students to examine primary source documents as if they were historians), and Zombie-Based Learning (which was created by a social studies educator who used zombies to teach his students about geography, economics, and the patterns of human behavior). 

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K-12 students learned a lot last year, but they're still missing too much school

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Cory Turner

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Sequoia Carrillo

current event assignment for government class

From 2022-2023, chronic absenteeism declined in 33 of the 39 states AEI looked at. But it was still a persistent problem: In a handful of places, including Nevada, Washington, D.C., Michigan, New Mexico and Oregon, roughly 1 in 3 students – or more – were chronically absent. LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

From 2022-2023, chronic absenteeism declined in 33 of the 39 states AEI looked at. But it was still a persistent problem: In a handful of places, including Nevada, Washington, D.C., Michigan, New Mexico and Oregon, roughly 1 in 3 students – or more – were chronically absent.

It's going to take aggressive interventions to repair the pandemic's destructive impact on kids' schooling.

That's the takeaway of two big new studies that look at how America's K-12 students are doing. There's some good news in this new research, to be sure – but there's still a lot of work to do on both student achievement and absenteeism. Here's what to know:

1. Students are starting to make up for missed learning

From spring 2022 to spring 2023, students made important learning gains, making up for about one-third of the learning they had missed in math and a quarter of the learning they had missed in reading during the pandemic.

That's according to the newly updated Education Recovery Scorecard , a co-production of Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research and The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University.

6 things we've learned about how the pandemic disrupted learning

6 things we've learned about how the pandemic disrupted learning

The report says, "Students learned 117 percent in math and 108 percent in reading of what they would typically have learned in a pre-pandemic school year."

In an interview with NPR's All Things Considered , Stanford professor Sean Reardon said that's surprisingly good news: "A third or a quarter might not sound like a lot, but you have to realize the losses from 2019 to 2022 were historically large."

When the same team of researchers did a similar review last year, they found that, by spring of 2022, the average third- through eighth-grader had missed half a grade level in math and a third of a grade level in reading. So, the fact that students are now making up ground is a good sign.

These results do come with a few caveats, including that the researchers were only able to review data and draw their conclusions from 30 states this year.

2. Despite that progress, very few states are back to pre-pandemic learning levels

The Harvard and Stanford study of student learning includes one sobering sentence: "Alabama is the only state where average student achievement exceeds pre-pandemic levels in math." And average achievement in reading has surpassed pre-pandemic levels in just three of the states they studied: Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi. Every other state for which they had data has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels in math and reading.

"Many schools made strong gains last year, but most districts are still working hard just to reach pre-pandemic achievement levels," said Harvard's Thomas Kane, one of the learning study's co-authors.

3. Chronic absenteeism also improved in many places ... slightly

The rate of chronic absenteeism – the percentage of students who miss 10% or more of a school year – declined from 2022 to 2023. That's according to research by Nat Malkus at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He found chronic absenteeism declined in 33 of the 39 states he studied.

Yes, "the differences were relatively small," Malkus writes, but it's improvement nonetheless: "the average chronic absenteeism rate across these states in 2023 was 26 percent, down from 28 percent for the same 39 states in 2022."

Glass half-full: Things aren't getting worse.

4. But, again, chronic absenteeism is still high

Malkus found chronic absenteeism was at 26% in 2023. Before the pandemic, in 2019, those same states reported a rate of 15%. That adds some painful context to the "good news" two-point decline in absenteeism from 2022 to 2023. Sure, it's down, but it's still so much higher than it was and should be.

Think of it this way: In 2023, roughly 1 student out of 4 was still chronically absent across the school year.

In a handful of places, including Nevada, Washington, D.C., Michigan, New Mexico and Oregon, roughly 1 in 3 students – or more – were chronically absent. That's a crisis.

Research shows a strong connection between absenteeism and all kinds of negative consequences for students, including an increased likelihood of dropping out of school.

Chronic absenteeism also hurts the students who don't miss school. That's because, as the learning study's authors point out, when absent students return, they require extra attention and "make it hard for teachers to keep the whole class moving."

5. Poverty matters (as always)

Both the learning and the chronic absenteeism studies capture the headwinds that constantly buffet children in poverty.

"No one wants poor children to foot the bill for the pandemic," said Harvard's Kane, "but that is the path that most states are on."

On learning: Reardon told NPR "the pandemic really exacerbated inequality between students in high-poverty and low-poverty districts and students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds."

In 2023, students' academic recovery was relatively strong across groups, which is good – but it means "the inequality that was widened during the pandemic hasn't gotten smaller, and in some places it's actually gotten larger," Reardon told NPR.

In fact, the report says, "in most states, achievement gaps between rich and poor districts are even wider now than they were before the pandemic." The learning study singles out Massachusetts and Michigan as the states where those gaps in math and reading achievement widened the most between poor and non-poor students.

Similarly, Malkus, at AEI, found that, between 2019 and 2022, rates of chronic absenteeism rose much more in high-poverty districts (up from 20% to 37%) than in low-poverty districts (up from 12% to 23%).

"Chronic absenteeism has increased the most for disadvantaged students," Malkus writes, "those who also experienced the greatest learning losses during the pandemic and can least afford the harms that come with chronic absenteeism."

6. Families must play an important role in learning recovery

Both studies acknowledge that families must play an important role in helping students – and schools – find a healthy, post-pandemic normal. The problem is, surveys show parents and guardians often underestimate the pandemic's toll on their children's learning . "Parents cannot advocate effectively for their children's future if they are misinformed," says the learning study.

To combat this, the learning researchers propose that districts be required to inform parents if their child is below grade-level in math or English. Those parents could then enroll their students in summer learning, tutoring and after-school programs, all of which have benefitted from federal COVID relief dollars. That funding is set to expire this fall, and some of these learning recovery opportunities may dry up, so the clock is ticking.

7. There's a "culture problem" around chronic absenteeism

Reducing chronic absenteeism, Malkus says, will also depend on families.

"This is a culture problem," Malkus tells NPR. "And in schools and in communities, culture eats policy for breakfast every day."

By "culture problem," Malkus is talking about how families perceive the importance of daily attendance relative to other challenges in their lives. He says some parents seem more inclined now to let their students miss school for various reasons, perhaps not realizing the links between absenteeism and negative, downstream consequences.

"Look, the patterns and routines of going to school were disrupted and to some degree eroded during the pandemic," Malkus says. "And I don't think we've had a decisive turn back that we need to have, to turn this kind of behavior around, and it's going to stay with students until that culture changes."

How do you do that? Malkus points to some low-cost options — like texting or email campaigns to increase parental involvement and encourage kids to get back in school – but says these, alone, aren't "up to the scale of what we're facing now."

Higher-cost options for schools to consider could include door-knocking campaigns, sending staff on student home-visits and requiring that families of chronically absent students meet in-person with school staff.

The learning study goes one step further: "Elected officials, employers, and community leaders should launch public awareness campaigns and other initiatives to lower student absenteeism." Because, after all, students can't make up for the learning they missed during the pandemic if they don't consistently attend school now.

What both of these studies make clear is there is no one solution that will solve these problems, and success will require further investment, aggressive intervention and patience.

Malkus says, even the high-cost, high-return options will likely only drive down chronic absenteeism by about four percentage points. A big win, he says, "but four percentage points against 26% isn't going to get us where we need to go."

Edited by: Nicole Cohen Visual design and development by: LA Johnson and Aly Hurt

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  1. U.S. Government

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    Current Event Assignment Government and politics are not static subjects- players, policies and procedures change over time. As students of government, it is important to stay abreast of news that relates to our fields of study and could help us to become participative citizens.

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    Current Events Assignment Instructions. Current Events Assignments due weekly 15 points each assignment. Objective: Students will apply concepts learned in class by identifying the concept in a real life situation. By including current events in government class students will see the relevancy of what topics we cover throughout the school year.

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    To help you start thinking politically, I am giving you an assignment this summer. Starting with week we get out of school and continuing through the week of our return (May 28-August 8), your assignment is to keep up with current events, particularly as it may relate to our government and how it operates by citing and summarizing 10 news ...

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  16. The Best Way to Teach Current Events? Let Students Lead

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  18. CURRENT EVENTS WORKSHEET Flashcards

    Name: Sarah Cornett. CURRENT EVENTS WORKSHEET Week of (3/23 - 3/27). Directions. Find 2 articles either in the newspaper or online from a newspaper source, Time.com, USA Today, The New York Times, etc., or any other reputable national or local source. Read the article and fill out the statements or answer the questions below.

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    Families will play an essential role in getting students back on track, researchers say. But it's going to take a "culture" shift around the importance of being in school.