Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
In this brief lesson, students learn about and discuss the controversy over Hillary Clinton's private email system as U.S. Secretary of State.
Students learn about the debate in Europe over how to handle the current influx of refugees, consider the difference between refugees and migrants, and reflect on a poem by one former refugee.
Our age-appropriate classroom lessons and activities for grades K-12 aim to deepen your students' understanding of September 11 and develop their critical thinking skills. The guide, written by Morningside Center executive director Tom Roderick, also includes recommended books and other teaching...
In this brief activity, students consider how the storm, and the rebuilding of New Orleans, affected people differently, depending on their income and race.
Students learn some background about the surge of refugees pressing into Europe, view a 4-minute video about a group of refugees stranded in Hungary, consider how refugees may be feeling, and share their wishes for the refugees.
This brief activity gets your class talking about the "money primary" and the 2016 presidential election.
Two readings and discussion questions help students weigh arguments for and against marijuana legalization and consider whether marijuana laws are enforced in a racially discriminatory way.
This classroom activity helps build community in your classroom at the start of the school year, and encourages students to reflect on some of the big issues in the news over the summer. It can be a stand-alone circle, or it can be used to jumpstart a longer term project in advisory, social studies...
On June 17, 2015, a white man shot and killed nine black churchgoers at a Charleston, South Carolina Bible study class. On June 26, President Obama delivered the eulogy for Clementa Pinckney, one of those murdered. His eulogy connected the killings to pressing issues related to racial injustice in...
General guidelines for talking sensitively with students who may be upset about recent acts of violence in the news.