April 28th, 2009
Kelly Gallagher, author of Readicide and the upcoming DVD Article of the Week, and Sarah Cooper, author of Making History Mine, use some similar strategies in their classrooms to make sure that their students are knowledgeable about current events in the world.
Kelly’s Article of the Week activity puts students in touch with real world writings from news stories, essays, editorials, blogs, and speeches. Reading and interacting with these articles each week ensures that students graduate with a better chance of comprehending the world around them.
In Sarah’s middle-school history classroom she encourages her students to think about why it’s important to know about current affairs and she challenges them to realize that what happens in the world does have an impact on their lives. Each week, on Current Event Fridays, two or three students pick a local, national, or world news story and present it to their classmates, followed by a discussion.
During this VoiceThread conversation, Kelly and Sarah will talk more about the genesis and goals of these classroom activities, and they invite you to share your strategies for teaching current events to your students. They have already started the conversation, so it’s your turn to join them. Just click on “comment” on the bottom of the VoiceThread window.
Sarah and Kelly will select the most interesting contributions to the conversation and the winners will receive a copy of both Kelly’s DVD and Sarah’s book.
For a quick tutorial on how to use VoiceThread, click here. No special equipment needed – just a phone and a computer! The introduction will begin after you start VoiceThread and the slides will advance on their own. Kelly and Sarah’s comments start on the third slide.
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