Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
President Obama's inauguration address offered a continuing teachable moment for examining key issues facing the nation. A student reading including speech excerpts is followed by questions for discussion and inquiry.
In this classroom lesson, students consider President Obama's inaugural address as a speech and in the context of past inaugural addresses.
A student dialogue and two readings examine the declining readership of newspapers, especially among young people.
A student reading offers conflicting views on gay marriage, which became an inauguration issue when Barack Obama selected Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation. A second reading discusses some major practical differences between civil union and marriage.
This 20-page PDF booklet includes lively classroom activities to get students thinking, learning and talking. Grades K-1, grades 2-5, grades 4-8, and grades 6-12.
Two student readings summarize the condition of the country as Roosevelt was inaugurated and highlight the New Deal. A third reading summarizes the situation in the U.S. today and Obama's economic recovery plan. Discussion questions and suggestions for further exploration follow.
Student readings and discussion questions address some basic questions about the attackand describe the interconnected problems in South Asia that will confront President Obama, including the conflict over Kashmir and the war against the Taliban.
Has the Bush administration flouted the rule of law through such actions as torture and unlawful detention of suspects? If so, what will the new president and Congress do about it? Three student readings and activities explore the issue.
Student readings examining this crisis and President-elect Obama's plans to combat it are followed by discussion questions, subjects for inquiry, citizenship activities, and ideas for student follow-up after Obama is inaugurated.
An opening exercise is followed by student readings on Afghanistan's "downward spiral" and Pakistan's involvement; limitations of an American military solution; and elements of a regional approach.