How to Incorporate Current Events Into Your Social Studies Class

September 5, 2023

Using current events in your class is great way to make your class relevant and engaging!! Especially since students these days have a lot of access to social media and the internet through their phones. As a social studies teacher, you have an awesome opportunity to include current events into your class!

An image of a person using a smart phone with text that says, "Current events are a great way to make your class engaging and relevant! Especially since students these days have a lot of access to social media and the internet through their phones." — Smart phones give students a lot of access to news articles.

I remember the days when I would drive to work and listen to NPR on the radio. As I listened to the news reports and stories I would think to myself, “wow, this would be a good current event to include in my class!” But I didn’t know how to incorporate it and I would eventually forget about the news reports and stories all together.

You might be wondering the same thing. How can I use current events in my social studies class?

I’ll walk you through how you can incorporate current events into your own class!

(I’ve also created an editable Current Events Template and Assignment that you can purchase and use in your class right away. Rubrics and assignment requirements are included in this Current Events Template and Assignment. Click here, if you’re interested!)

Current Events in Teaching

In my class, the purpose of current events was for students to make connections with the topics they’ve learned in class. By making connections between the past and present, students will see how previous events never truly ended but extend into the issues that affect the world today.

An image of a pencil and a light bulb with text that says, "In my class, the purpose of current events is for students to make connections with topics they've learned in class." — With this assignment, students make connections between what is happening now and topics they’ve learned in class.

For instance, California and many states on the West Coast deal with wildfires. These wildfires are caused by hot and dry weather driven by global warming. In the past, colonists also affected the natural environment when they cleared entire forests for settlements.

After explaining the purpose of current events to your class you can assign your students a current events summary. For the summary, students have to research and then summarize a current event by answering the following questions:

Who was involved?
What happened
When did it happen?
Where did it happen?
Why is this event significant?

In addition to answering the above questions in their summary, students must also explain HOW the current event is related to what they’ve learned during class.

The great news is that this assignment can fit ANY topic you are teaching. You can have students write summaries every week, every other week, or at the end of a unit of study. It’s really up to you!

You can also have your students present their summaries or choose a few student volunteers each week to share their assignment with the whole class.

The Benefits

Besides making teaching more relevant, here are a few other benefits for using current events in your class:

Students will remember history more because students will be applying historical topics to events they are familiar with.
It helps students with research.
Current events gives students the opportunity to practice critical thinking and analysis.
Students will be able to practice public speaking when they present their events to the peers/class.