How can current events and edtech help make lessons relevant?

Current Events

Exposing students to current events is one way to make lessons relevant and encourage global literacy.  The strategy to help learners connect with a real-world example or something in their experience is not new. The Edutopia article Science Shows Making Lessons Relevant Really Matters (2010) discusses how “relevant, meaningful activities that both engage students emotionally and connect with what they already know are what help build neural connections and long-term memory storage (not to mention compelling classrooms).”  In working with a number of MASH staff so far this school year, it seems like many of us are integrating current events into our lessons in various ways. I’d love to hear about more ways that our staff “sprinkles” in opportunities to bring the world into their classroom.

My AP Human Geography students and I are currently learning about ethnic conflict around the world.  Our specific focus these next few days is to explore where, why and how conflicts arise among ethnic groups.  The depth and scope for this topic is immense (I think anything we all teach can be like this). When I first taught this topic a number of years ago, I lectured on the topic. It was the fastest way for me to deliver dozens of infamous ethnic conflicts around the world such as the Rwandan Genocide and the “ethnic cleansing” that occurred in Yugoslavia.  Although efficient for me, I noticed from their discussions and writings that they lacked the depth I was looking for.  My approach then shifted to assigning each student an ethnic conflict and then assigning them a CommonCraft stylevideo production task.  I decided to try this task out after seeing it done at one of our district Technology Integration Committee (TIC) meetings. Here are some of the final products that I placed on a YouTube channel for the students to investigate a few days after the due date.  Do you recognize any of the students? They are now seniors here at MASH.

The task allowed students to have more depth and it was also a more engaging way for them to learn, but they did not gain as much scope. I had students choose any other three ethnic conflict videos and discuss similarities and differences.

This year, I assigned a similar student generated video production project so they see the relevance of at least one ethnic conflict and I replaced a few less engaging activities with a few days of “case studies.”  I was inspired by the work of our teacher presenters from our Sept. 22 #MASHteach tech day as well as one of my Social Studies colleagues, Mark McManus, who use Google Classroom to assign MUST reads/activities and CHOICE reads/activities.  The MUST reads/activities included three ethnic conflicts including the issues in Myanmar regarding the Rohingya.

One day in class was devoted to the MUST reads followed by a debrief. I illustrated a large iceberg on the whiteboard and wrote “Ethnic Conflict” at the tip. We discussed the information from the articles that seemed to be below the surface of ethnic conflict. The second day in class will be the CHOICE activities and we will also have some sort of discussion debrief (e.g. Socratic Seminar).  After the students read their current events, I had them complete a survey question from https://www.mentimeter.com/.  Anne Reardon used this resource back in the fall at one of our TIC meetings. Check out the results from my period 2 class.   Students were able to read their class responses, find trends and lead rich discussion about where, why and how conflicts arise among ethnic groups.

I do see the use of current events and edtech as two possible approaches to make lessons relevant for our students. I’m looking forward to learning different engagement techniques from our MASH staff.