Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
A major strike by workers at Verizon offers a teachable moment: Why do people join unions? Why do they strike? And why are they now striking Verizon?
The demand for reparations surfaced during the 2016 presidential election, creating a teachable moment on this long-debated issue. In this activity, students learn some background on the demand for reparations and join in the ongoing discussion about it.
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz's plans to speak at a Bronx high school were scrapped after students there wrote a letter to their principal describing how Cruz's views were "actively working to harm us, our community, and the people we love." In this brief activity, students learn about this...
We use plastics all the time. So often, in fact, that they’re practically invisible to us. In this lesson, students keep a log of their plastic use, take action to decrease it, and explore systemic approaches (like bag bans and bag taxes) to minimize use of plastics.
Students learn about and discuss the massive revelations included in the Panama Papers, the impact of tax avoidance on this scale, and how the story relates to the gap between rich and poor.
What is fracking and what is its impact? Students explore the issue and the political landscape around it, including efforts by activists to ban the practice.
In some states, voters have stood in line for hours to cast their ballot. Why? In this short Teachable Instant activity, students explore the controversy over voter suppression in the 2016 election.
These guidelines, which we developed following last year's Paris attacks, may be helpful in the wake of the recent violence in Brussels.
What are the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, and what progress has it made in bringing social change? Students explore these questions with readings and discussion.
Do superdelegates subvert democracy? This brief activity includes quizzes, background and discussion on the controversy over superdelegates in the 2016 presidential election.